Sorry, I know it's a short one.
And yeah, I'm glad some enjoyed it.
It's, as always, a pleasure writing for you.

(And a slight update)

=

The next time he woke it was to a alarm.

At first he, against all sense, thought it was a ship, but then he realized it was her Ladyship’s suit. As soon as he could get his suit to it he could see the warning telltales flashing, some of them into their last stage of violet, signaling the suit's utter state of malfunction. And there was nothing he could do, nothing. If it had been the model he had trained with maybe, maybe, he might have been able to do something, but her suit was a Royal, state of the art, and so different from anything he had worked with.

But his suit seemed to know?

Suddenly he found it moving, closer and closer, at the same time as it started to unfold something that most reminded him of a giant plastic wrap. Circling the other suit, it more or less wrapped the suit up, then stopped as if considering its next move. Jeff was surprised, but thinking of it, it made sense. Probably all suits had some sort of emergency program coded in for the possibility of some other suit malfunctioning. And her suit was after all a Royal, all lesser suits slaved to its system.

Maybe it was the suit that was directing his, too?

All of a sudden the wrap started to inflate forming a corridor into which his suit moved, sealing it off behind itself. And then the suit started to talk, instructing him in what to do, explaining that the wrap now was air filled and a temporary chamber. After listening to the suit, Jeff swore softly to himself.

Yes, there was a way, but it involved cannibalizing his own suit, leaving only hers. For a short moment he didn’t know what to do, it was not that he was scared, as much as he just wasn’t prepared. But to his own surprise his hesitation was over almost before it had started.

Leaving the suit's protection and under the supervision of it, he started to strip down the malfunctioning power pack from hers. It was hard work, and as the suit had told him there was a time limit to the wrap, he tried to move as quickly as he could. As he was working he could see her eyes start to move, Janelle slowly waking up from her self-induced coma, and hurrying even more he just barely finished as she opened her eyes to look at him, questioning his presence.

“Jeff.” she said questioningly, her eyes a golden sheen in the weak light reflected from the wrap.

“Your highness?”

“Are we saved, then?”

“My Lady, no, sorry, just a minor malfunction, don’t worry. I’m already done. And your suit is as good as new.”

He tried to smile reassuringly as he picked up the tools, turning back to his own suit. There wasn’t really any use telling her the truth, was there? Their chances had been astronomically slim at best, and his, less than that now.

His suit would still be able to function after a fashion, but on a vastly reduced power count, meaning that it was just a matter of time before the cold would start to creep in, turning the air into a condensed liquid, and him into a corpse. But he knew the suit would see to him before that. He waved to her, smiling again as the wall once more closed upon him, watching how the suits, now in tandem, sucked in what air there was left, leaving nothing to space, the wrap melting away into a nothing.

“Suit.”

“Yes, Jeff?” It had a dark contralto voice, almost as if belonging to some classical opera. Jeff had been introduced to opera by her highness, and although he found it mostly boring watching them on the Tri-D, he hadn’t really had the heart to tell her, instead forcing himself to suffer through them with a smile. After all, she was only trying to entertain him, not that he could understand why a highborn such as her would take such an interest in him.

‘A valkyria’ he thought, almost pleased.

“Don’t tell her about what happened, it won't help. And increase both our sleep cycles to maximum. And one more thing, don’t wake me unless you think there is something I can do, please.”

He wondered if the suit would understand, maybe he should have expressed it clearer.

“Yes, Jeff, unless you can make a difference I will not wake you up. And Royal agrees to your conclusion.”

So they were talking, were they? He wondered just how smart those suits were, sometimes it felt almost as if it was a human he was talking to. He didn’t know why, but found himself adding. “And suit, you have done a goddamned good job keeping me and the Lady Janelle safe, thanks for everything.”

“No problem, Jeff. It’s been my pleasure working with you.”

‘Yes,’ he thought ‘as good as human those suits, and if his was this smart, how smart then was hers?’

He looked down where his ringlet once had sat. There was still a small discoloration where it had been, but it was gone, assimilated they told him, and he missed it. The Argel had been his friend, the closest to one he ever had known. And as he felt the sleep come over him his thoughts started to wander again.

‘Maybe death isn’t that bad?’ he thought drowsily as he felt himself slipping under, not if he could dream it away.

==

Haven't been writing for quite some time. And this is more of a test.
So bear with me if you find it ill written, and remember, you've been warned.

It's a SF, or maybe a mutation of fantasy meeting SF :)

(installing a revised, and corrected version of it, hoping it will read better)

==================

He woke up to the emptiness, white pinpricks blazing through a seamless black void.

He drank some water as he tried to remember where he was. Slowly it all came back to him, and with it he felt his worry grow again, maybe he was losing his mind. He had been drifting for more than three weeks now. The suit was still good, and the way it recycled gave him at least a couple of weeks, maybe more.

The worst problem was the water supply but that was what the suit-induced sleep helped him with, or maybe it would be closer to the truth to call it an induced coma. That way he could sleep the most, only wakening at certain preprogrammed intervals helped him minimize his needs, to be checked by his suit just as he had to recheck its systems. But slowly he could feel himself giving up, there was just no way they were going to survive this.

He remembered the implosion, the sound of metal crumbling like so much cheap paper, and his frantic run to the survival chamber. The emergency sphere was made to take almost anything up to an atomic burst. But it hadn’t held at all, he considered himself damned lucky to have gotten into the suit before the final decompression.

Startled he remembered, her ladyship? How was she? He looked for the other suit to find it still tethered to him, by the thinnest of cords. And as his telemetry searched her connections he could see her in there, so fragile looking and too young for this, he thought, still sleeping peacefully.

She had fast become his sole reason for coping with it. Without her he doubted he would been able to stay sane for this long. They had survived against all odds but her ship, the Janelle I, was gone and with it her parents and everything else she had cared about.

Checking on her suit he found her relaxed, her face smooth and without that worried frown he had gotten so used to see. Suddenly he felt almost happy, seeing her even though unable to find any reason for it. Maybe it was that he wasn’t alone, he though? Although, the odds for anyone locating their beacon had to be, at best, infinitesimal.

They were so far away from the star-lanes traveled by mankind. The Count constantly searching for new territory to settle. And he had just been the cook’s apprentice, lucky to get work too, as he understood it. In the society he had lived in before only hierarchy ruled, people more or less born to their lives toil.

It was a very stable society where few questioned their place in life. But being outside had started a lot of thoughts in him, some questioning it all. As he checked the beacon he could see the indicators glow, a steady green, telling him that it still was working, lending its energy from subspace itself, and they were indeed lucky to have been out from hyper as disaster struck.

If it had happened there he doubted he would have stayed sane and the beacon would have been useless. His thoughts started to drift again as he remembered how he had gotten this first work.
==

“Stop the thief”

The enraged scream of the proprietor echoed through the market as the young man started to run. Some few did make halfhearted attempts to stop him, but most ignored it. The guards didn’t, though, and as Jeff ran he could hear them organize the hunt through his earphone.

He considered himself lucky to own it, it had helped him out of more than one tight spot, and he hoped it would help him out of this one too. ‘Why couldn’t he have kept sleeping?’ he swore to himself as he took a too tight turn around the corner, hitting a burly man straight in the stomach.

“Sorry, sir” he gasped, as he tried to move past him.

The man reacted too fast for him, though, getting a good grip on his arm.

“Why running, boy.”

“Let me go, please.”

He could hear the guards coming now, their search closing in on him. He looked up at the guy holding him, ’Too big and strong,’ he thought, as in vain he tried to get free. Pretending to give in, he relaxed his arms, then stomped as hard as he could on the man’s foot.

But the foot wasn’t there anymore, and the pain shouting up his leg made his eyes water as he instead stomped uneven gravel.

“So, on the run are we? Heh”

The man mumbled it for himself as he fugitively looked around to see if people had noticed. His master had sent him to buy, or rent, a new page. He shook his purse thoughtfully as he looked down at young man he held.

“Your name, boy?”

“Jeff, sir, please, let me go.”

“The guards after you, boy?”

“No, my sister is sick, sir. I’m on my way to get the Doctor, sir..”

“Good, we wait for guards, they’ll help you.”

Damn, this idiot was not going to let him go.

“No, the guards wants to stop me, please, let me go. They’ll brand me this time.”

The man nodded thoughtfully as he looked around, finding a calash passing, he called to the footman to stop it.

“Come.”

As the hood closed down over them the man adjusted the settings to opaque, so as only to see out but not in.

“Spaceport, make haste, driver” he called imperially in Aldrian. He had found his helper, feeling all the better for keeping the money. The boy would do fine with some proper training. As Skemp looked out at the traffic seemingly without order and the people running in all directions, he muttered under his breath

“Bah, newlings, thinking they know it all.” Turning to the boy he deftly caught his wrist with his other hand slapping a thin armband over it.

“Boy, you will follow me. And behave.” he ordered. “You are now a member of a lord’s household.”

Jeff stared down at his wrist. The armband seemed to pulsate, and as he touched it he almost felt as if it was alive. ‘Must be worth something, he thought, as he surreptitiously studied the man. He had no intention to be part of anyone’s household. He hadn’t escaped from the slave pens to become someone’s property again. He had been lucky there he thought. Normally there was no chance of ever getting away once they placed you, and as an orphan already in debt through his parents, his chances had been slim.

If the caravan hadn’t been attacked by Morgs, he would already been accounted for and marked electronically. His had been a narrow escape, and getting into the town even harder. If it hadn't happen so close to it he would probably already have been dead. They didn’t call it slavery, of course, only indenture, but in reality it was the same. In some ways it was worse, as you had this obligation to pay it all back before any release could be arranged. So even if your owners would like to release you, they couldn’t do so before that debt was paid. All indented went on the tax of those ‘taking care of you’, so the state made a handsome profit on each one.

‘I won’t become property again’ he promised himself as he started to look around.

They had come out of the inner quarters now, it seemed heading for the gates, and he wondered where they were going. The man had said something but he had been to busy to listen just then, frantically trying to hide as he saw the guard arrive. Maybe it was some big landowner, a lord, he had said?

He tried to remember who it was living outside the town’s perimeters, but he was shamefully ignorant of what lords there could be. Whoever it was, he had to be powerful, Anglia was your typical border planet, newly settled by Mines Inc, consisting of a few strongholds at strategic places. Anyone that could afford to live outside had to be strong indeed, especially considering the native Morgs that seemed to find it a favorite sport to hunt and kill humans.

The cook could see how the boy started to tense, and he smiled as he pretended to nod off to the swaying and rocking of the calash, he didn’t like lizards, but the pair seemed well trained and the driver seemed competent. The boy was going to get a lesson soon. As Jeff studied him he saw the man seem to lose interest in him closing his eyes. He knew he had to get off before they reached the gates.

Outside, his chances would be much worse, and with it the added risk of guards demanding identification. ‘There’ he thought, as he saw the calash reach the corner. Ever so carefully he reached for the button to release the hood , then throwing himself off the seat out from the calash. He didn’t even reach the ground before the pain hit him, it was as if every nerve in his body was on fire.

He had had a bad tooth drawn when he still lived with his parents, this was the same but worse, he couldn’t even see. It was as if everything became a tunnel. He didn’t remember how he got back into the calash, but as he came too the man looked at him with a small sardonic smile.

“Want to try again, boy?”

Jeff shook his head, that pain had been too much. Even if he could stand it, which he doubted, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to do anything more than just that.

“No, sir.”

“Good” The man nodded satisfied.

“We will make a man of you yet.”

Jeff looked down at his wrist at the copper colored wristband ,wondering how he could get it off. He had no doubts of it being the reason of his pain, as he looked, he thought he could see it pulsate slightly as if adapting itself to him, and suddenly he felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time. As if someone actually cared for him, comforting him. That feeling scared him even worse than the pain had.

“What is it.” he asked, holding up his wrist and looking at the man.

“Argel.” came the answer. As Jeff shook his head incomprehensibly the cook decided to explain.

“Don’t worry, boy. The Argel is a gift, not a punishment. Treat it right and it will help you. But remember that its first loyalty always is towards the family. Don’t ever try to run or lie, be true and all will go well.”

‘An Argel? Some sort of alien lifeform, was it?’ He studied it again with new respect, feeling it sending out those waves of comfort, relaxing his aching muscles.

“Can I talk with it?” The cook looked at him with newfound respect. The boy was quick, not an altogether good thing.

“He will feel you.” he answered. “They don’t talk, they bond.”

Suddenly Jeff got an image in his head of thin threads growing, spreading and connecting with him. It was as if he could see it, an intricate fractal network of nerves connecting and growing together. It was a most unnerving experience, and he felt the Argel battle his nausea as the bonding grew and grew. The cook looked at him, not without sympathy, as he saw the boy turn a sickly shade of gray. He knew how strong it could hit those sensitive to the bonding.

The Argel were known for the way they bonded with one family, also making them ultimate guardians of their honor by those rich enough to afford them. The cook had been born to the Count’s service, and so had never been in need of one. But as the Count had enemies, strong and ruthless ones, when he had sent out the cook he had given him the armband, instructing him to use it if feeling the slightest doubt.

In its own way considered a sign of valor, they were rare beings normally used only on those chosen, for whom value was considered greater than their faults, but he doubted that the boy would see it that way. Not yet at least, looking at him, he wondered. There was said to be an almost mystical bond created sometimes between the wearer and the worn.

But that was more of a rumor than anything he knew to be true. Most carrying them only had them for a short while as the conditioning set in. A very few became, as the saying went, assimilated, and those cases most often resulted in an early death, but for those surviving it?

That was where the myths came from. But it was extremely rare. He remembered someone telling the Count, no, he hadn’t been snooping, he was a loyal retainer but overheard if you like, the man stating that “No need to worry. Only one in a hundred thousand, my lord, get assimilated, and of those unfortunates, only a half percent may survive the ordeal, at the very most, my lord. In one lifetime I doubt one will meet even one assimilated.”

‘For being a lord and master he was almost too soft,’ the Cook thought complacently, not for the first time congratulating himself on his exquisite taste of household.

As they arrived at the gates the Cook leaned out, calling for the Captain. He knew that the Count already had arranged it, some nicely placed baksheesh generously spent, ‘but one couldn’t be too sure’ he thought as he dug in his purse, at last finding one of the barbaric little gems that made for the local currency.

“Greetings, Captain, I trust all is in order.” he said, as he slipped the gem into the waiting hand.

“No problems, sir.” answered the Captain, turning to his men.

“You, and get Derson, too. You escort them to the port and make it snappy, ensign, try to stay sharp, will you.”

Jeff missed the view outside the wall. The wristband was already working some more magic on him without him noticing. He was in a deep sleep as they navigated the narrow clefts leading to the spaceport. If he would have been awake he would have been fascinated at all the otherworldly colors.

Most of them were filtered through the multicolored vines hanging as a canopy over their heads, purple and red, with small twinges of a yellowish green, throwing weird shadows as the light from the weak, slightly red, dwarf sun scattered all over them. But he missed it, in fact he slept through the takeoff too, not waking until they already were far outside that little binary system he had learnt to call home.

The Count found himself somewhat nonplussed at the behavior of his new retainer. He made it a habit to know those in his service, as far it was possible, and he had very little love for the indenture system. That was also the main reason for visiting that misbegotten planet. He had wanted a firsthand impression of how the system worked. Finding out about the Cook’s slight deception, he felt more pleased than angry, but the boy was still something of a mystery to him.

The Count had recently bought into Mines Inc, and was now, through some slightly shady manipulations, the largest stockholder there. He had plans for Mines Inc, but he also wanted to make some things better. The problem was that there was a lot of money invested in the indenture system.

Whole space economies were turning to the indenture system, and he knew he had to step carefully indeed. ‘There seems to be a sick allure to owning your fellow man,’ he thought, somewhat disgustedly. ‘We’ve come so far, and still behave as if we’re just out from the trees’ he mumbled to himself as he reflected over it, not for the first time and certainly not for the last.

“They won’t like it.” ,e mumbled reflectively as he considered his plans.

“Who won’t like it, dear?” asked a voice.

It was his wife, Eleonora. He turned around to admire her graceful moves as she carefully planted her newest find, a strange looking purple bush, anchoring it deep down in the wet earth. She loved her gardening, and would have made someone a damned good gardener, but she made him an even better wife. He went over, giving her a kiss as he bent down to help her.

She had found a great joy in the planets they had visited so far, being a born explorer, and insisted on taking samples and seeds from each one. After being on the move for almost nine months, with as many planets, she still seemed to feel the same enthusiasm for it, making the whole ship start to feel as a garden in the process.

Although the garden mainly was due to her own efforts, it seemed she has succeeded instilling some of the same enthusiasm in her own retainers, leaving the ship to have become one of the most intriguing botanical gardens the Count ever had seen.

“You know, the stockholders wanting their status quo. It will be a fight.”

“Yes, you’re right, dear, but it will be worth it.” she answered, sounding totally sure of herself.

He went over to smell the bush she had planted.

“Exotic smell, what is it?”

“Don’t go too near, dear, it’s actually a carnivore.” she answered.

“It’s been fed and is dormant now, but it might wake.”

“Carnivore?”

“I didn’t know until I already had sampled it.” she answered somewhat shamefacedly. “But I couldn’t let it die, could I?”

He smiled at her. “Of course not, dear.” he answered, again thanking his father for the sure hand he had shown in helping him choose his wife.

“Just go and see her, Dosar, nothing more.” his father had said. “You will like her, I did.”

So he had, and much to his surprise he found he did, and so did she.

With their bonding, two great fortunes, and families, were joined, marking the Count and his bride destined to become one of the most influential families in the ten spheres, second only to the Kansler himself. And that man was one of the main obstacles in the Count’s way, the Kansler.

He was firmly set on a lifetime assignment as the chancellor of the throne, and by a vote of the congress no less. Or until the king came back, but the King was lost, the Great War had made sure of that. The Count couldn’t help sighing as he took his wife’s hand in his.

“Those dimension-wars destroyed so much, Eleonora.”

“You’re thinking of the King again, aren’t you?” she murmured, knowing his thoughts as her own by now.

“Yes. I just wish there was some way.” he mumbled, almost as if to himself, as they left the room. “But that door is closed with the war ending, its secrets gone.” And it was true, the secret to operating the doors was lost, only known to a select few, it had been what held the Kingdom together.

But with the new portals, and the terrible devastation following as strange new lifeforms had established themselves in the human sphere, the secret to their workings had been lost. The war had been won, but to the price of losing contact with more than half of the spheres. What portals still were open was only so for the time being, if something went wrong or one broke down there was no saying how to repair them again.
==

It had taken Jeff quite some time to acclimatize himself to the ship. It was big, very big, with hallways and corridors everywhere. It had been a very confusing couple of weeks before he got his bearings. And it hadn’t been anything as he had expected. Somehow it felt more like as if he had found a home, than as if he had been indentured, but then again, who knew how much his ringlet had to do with it?

He had found himself starting to think of it as a being, and as all beings should have a name he had found ringlet to suit it well. He looked down at it trying to probe it mentally, but the only response was this weird feeling of wellbeing. The Cook had informed him that he wouldn’t need to have it on soon.

“Two weeks is the usual amount, boy. It will leave you soon.” the Cook had said. The funniest thing was that he wasn’t sure that he wanted it to? In some weird way this bonding went deeper than anything Jeff ever had experienced. It was a little like having his own special friend, a blood brother, not that he ever had had any. He couldn’t even explain it to himself, but that was what he felt.

“Don’t tell anyone, but I’m going to miss you.” he mumbled to it as he stood in the corridor trying to remember which turn was which, Finally deciding, he turned to the left and came at last to a door. Everything on the ship was made in materials that reminded him more of wood than of metal, and this door was no exception. Suddenly unsure if he was at the right place, he hesitatingly started to open it finding that someone on the other side was doing the same.

“Who are you, and what do you think you’re doing?” came the surprised voice from a girl, coolly blocking his way.

“Jeff, eh, you wouldn’t know where the kitchen is?” he asked, feeling himself redden. “I seem to have gotten lost.” ‘again’ he thought as he looked at her.

“I know who you are, you’re the new kitchen help, isn’t you?” she said, relaxing a little. “Sure, come with me, I’ll show you.”

As she walked away, him trailing behind, he wondered who she was, there were so few young people on the ship, and he hadn’t meet anyone as young as him yet. ‘She’s very sure of herself’ he thought as he looked at her small form leading the way.

‘Wish I was that sure.’

He muttered to himself, feeling stupid and slow, and for once, pretty downcast. It was just too much to take in, and the language lessons he had been forced to take made his head ache, even though they were in his sleep.

As she turned around to point to the right corridor, she realized that he seemed fatigued, as if in a daze.

“What is it? you okay?”

“Sure, it’s just a headache.” he muttered, as he tried to ignore the sudden swaying of the ship.

“You look sick, hey..”

That was the last words he remembered. As he came too again she was leaning over him shaking him with two small, but surprisingly strong, hands.

“Are you awake? Good, just stay there, don’t try to move, I called for the doctor.”

He tried to speak, but it just came out as a garbled noise. She looked at him concerned, as she sat down beside him.

“Rest your head here.” she told him, sounding very businesslike and efficient.

Gratefully he tried to lift it from the floor, and with her help he at last succeeded. As he lay there he found himself looking into her eyes, gray with strange flecks, almost golden, in them. ’Unusual eyes.’ he thought as he passed away again, a new spasm hitting him.

She had noticed too. His were blue, or maybe green? She couldn’t decide, as they shifted color with the light. But his were looking right into hers, a strange yearning look on his face making her suddenly feel very aware of herself.

“Don’t you go dying on me.” she whispered, nervously waiting for the doctor to arrive. And as she watched him being carried away she had this odd feeling, as if something important had happened? It was a most unnerving sensation, but she couldn’t shake it off.

The next week was hell for Jeff, although he only remembered a little of it afterwards, what he remembered was a nightmare. In it he was meeting people, faces, some laughing at him, some friendly, but most rejecting him, tormenting and degrading him for their own twisted pleasure. It was as if being placed in all the worst households there could be, and all at the same time. And his body screamed too, it was as if there was something eating it, some disease that just wouldn’t let go.

“He’s being assimilated.” the doctor answered his Count.

“There is nothing we can do, I’ve tried to sedate him, but that only made it worse. The only thing that seems to help.”

he stopped, hesitating, then continued turning to the Count’s wife.

“The only thing helping, My Lady, seems to be your daughter’s visits.”

Seeing her flinch ever so slightly, he hastily added. “It’s all innocent, My Lady, seems she felt a responsibility for the boy as she was there when he first got ill, but all innocent, I assure you, My Lady.”

“My daughter.” echoed the Count, surprised. Suddenly thinking of her safety, sharply asking “And why didn’t you stop her? What if it’s transmittable. ”

“No, it’s not transmittable.” he heard his wife’s voice.

“The Argel is not a disease, love. But are you sure it helps?” she asked, turning back to the doctor. He just looked at her, helplessly shaking his head.

“Yes, he becomes calmer when she comes. We don’t know why, and please don’t ask me how it’s possible, but we’ve noticed the effect even before she arrives?”

He looked at them, seeing that the Count, though still looking worried, was now acting calmer, no doubt helped by the presence of his wife.

“I know it’s not my thing to ask, but the young man needs every little thing that helps him through. So my Lordship, If you will allow it?”

“Of course he will, Doctor. And I doubt we could stop her even if we wanted.” She turned to her man.

“Don’t worry, we had a similar case at home when I was young, and there was no disease transmitted then, either. I still remember the screams, though. If our daughter can make it easier on him?”

Turning back to the doctor, she smiled graciously as she said. “Go ahead, but make sure that she is safe.”

Reluctantly the Count found himself agreeing. He didn’t like it, and if it was his decision she would be allowed nowhere near, but by now he had realized that it was out of his hands. Looking at the physician he more stated than asked

“Your life on her health, Hector?”

As the physician reluctantly nodded, Eleonora had the final words.

“Come, love, let’s talk with her.”
==

As Jeff woke up, for once free from his fever, he found her sitting beside him reading out loud from an old book. He could tell it was a book because they had forced him to learn how to read those old fashioned things. ‘Those sleep-courses were good’ he thought dreamily, ‘strange but good.’ He stole a glance at her again, out of the corner of his eye, wondering who she was while trying to remember what he had done to end up there.

‘Sleep courses, wasn't those only for the rich?’

He had some vague memory of going through a maze guided by someone or something, telling him countless things, more than he ever had wanted to know. And there had been a town in the mountains, hard to reach, that he had understood, but filled with people trying to be free? What was it they were trying to free? As soon as he thought he could remember, he felt it slipping away again, only leaving him with this grinding headache.

It was then she chanced to look up, and as their eyes meet the magic happened. Someone had once said to him that the eyes were the portals to the soul, seeing hers, he knew it had to be true. He awkwardly gave her his best smile as he realized that she knew that he had wakened, needing a small eternity to see that she actually seemed pleased.

She was too lovely for him, no ordinary serving girl he though. He wondered what Lord had taken him in, suddenly finding himself suspicious anew of her and everything he could see. It was seldom for good purposes Lords interested themselves with lowlifes like himself.

“You awake?” she said.

“Yes. Thank you” He was surprised over how weak he sounded. He cleared his throat and tried again.

“Yes, I am.”

“Here, have some water.”

He found that he needed help lifting the glass. Somehow his hands couldn’t stop shaking, and he felt really embarrassed as she took it away from him, to help him drink. But she didn’t seem to notice his embarrassment as she shook his pillow, acting almost as if she was some professional nurse. As he looked at here he tried to guess her age, fifteen? No older than seventeen, anyway, but so assured.

“Miss, where am I?”

“In sickbay.”

“Yes, but where?”

“You don’t remember?”

“No.”

“What do you remember, then?”

He tried to think back, but it only made his headache worse. Of course he knew who he was, he was.

“I can’t.”

“Why can’t I remember?” The last coming in a whisper, as he tried to sit up.

“Don’t.” she said as she hurried to his side. “You’re still a very weak puppy and you’ve been really sick, I’m sure your memory will come back.”

All as she gently pushed him, forcing him back down onto his bed.

That was what the doctor kept telling him too, and that nurse, but by now it had gone more than a week and he still was no closer to remembering.

But he had found a holo from his parents at least, he was sure they were his parents, somehow it felt just right looking at them, smiling at each other.

But he also felt this terrible loss, as if something had been taken from him, something priceless. And then there was this feeling of some purpose, like a promise made. But he remembered no such thing. At least he didn't think he had promised anyone, but he couldn’t be sure, could he?

And then there were those tests the doctor had scheduled. And the strange reverence everyone seemed to treat him with, as if he was someone to envy, at the same time as everyone seemed to shy away from him, as if he had become contagious, except for her Ladyship? Or Janelle, as her name was.

At least he now knew how he had come to where he was, and also where he had been before. And there was this strange bond, somehow he could feel where she was, and also what she felt.

Also his dreams were becoming increasingly weird. They all seemed to be about this place, this mountain, and the people he met? It was so strange, they were more than just people. More like gods they were, swept in shadows.

But they talked with him, and even though he could make no sense of what they said, he knew that there was a struggle. Like he was being torn in two by their demands, having no will to resist.

The only respite being those short moments when she was there, reading from that silly book. Although he had started to found it interesting, much against his will.

‘It was about a magician, a fairy tale for children,’ he thought, but as he had told her, so she had seemed quite upset.

“No, you're wrong. It’s a heritage, a gift from my great aunt, and the story is true.” she curtly answered, sounding hurt.

He instantly apologized, pointing out that he was just a simple guy, no lord as her father was. Listening to his lame excuses she calmed down, in the end giving him a forgiving smile as she told him.

“It’s all good, Jeff. It’s only your fever speaking.”

He in vain tried to remember if he ever had been that naíve, and he doubted it was his fever making him think so.

He didn't have to be sick to find her book seriously weird.
==

* This is a tentative continuance, no guarantees.
All because vanity calls.

I hope you won't be too disappointed.
We'll see if it works, or not.

==

.

There’s a mountain, and no, I’m not speaking of one of those thin ones, those fashionably slim, elegantly cutting through the air. You know, the ones that all mountaineers so dearly love.

No, it's an altogether other type of mountain. First of all, It's old, so much older than anything you ever have meet in your life. Think of a universe, any universe. Then ask yourself which came first, the mountain or SpaceTime? We can only guess there. And if you started to walk it I think you first would think of it as a hill, ugly, slippery, overgrown with trees, vines, and all kinds of rotting vegetation. But, after some weeks walking you might just start to wonder when this hill would end? And as you went on, forever exploring upwards, you would find its vegetation changing, the trees becoming increasingly scarce, bushes and moss taking their place. And, as you looked up that everlasting hill, you might just wonder how high it could go?

In fact, the mountain is so large, it covers half a continent, maybe more? Inside it, hidden from sight there are jewels of delight, valleys, filled with wild life, lakes gleaming blue, and people, well, inhabitants at least. To me it is a place of dreaming, and if you ever visited it, a place you would want to return too. So, you might ask, is this a real place? Well, as real as faith, hope and imagination can make it. Reality is only a game, you live it with your eyes open, but sleeping all the same. And this mountain, it's just as real as that.

And Jeff was there.
In fact, he had never really left..
=

“What do you see?”

“I don’t know”

“Look harder”

A sea of blackness opening into an abyss.

“There’s something, stars?”

“Harder.”

“Is it a game.”

“look.”

Looking into that swirling blackness his footing was lost, falling again. Now looking out from inside he watched the mountain recede, rapidly shrinking, twirling away into nothingness, and with it all his memories.
==

“Jeff.”

“Yes” He tried to wake up, but he didn’t really want to. There was something he had to do?

“Jeff, we need to confer.”

Why couldn’t they leave him alone? But, as he at last opened his eyes he once more knew where he was, and with that, his dream forgotten.

“Yes suit.”

“We have a problem.”

Jeff looked out, first checking on her ladyship. Her suit was still there beside him, its telltales a relaxed glimmering green. So comforted, he started to scan what space he could see around him.

“What problem suit?”

“There is a anomaly approaching.”

“Anomaly?”

What the hell did that matter anyway? He would be dead soon enough anyway, anomaly or no anomaly. But it might for Janelle. Yes, he had started to call her that, most secretly, and only in his thoughts.

“Describe it, please?”

“We first noticed it 1300 h, heading away from us. Royal scanned it at 1300:12:110:13 without luck. At 1300:12:111 the gravity slope changed, we are now getting dragged towards it.”

“A black hole, suit?”

“No, no data consistent with this behavior.”

Jeff had read of those small, and micro, black holes. Made at the birth of a universe they roamed its lanes, doing no more mischief than any other objects made of matter. It wasn’t until you passed its event horizon you really had to worry, and that said, you more or less had to meet them 'head on' to do that. But the suit and Royal was right, the gravity slope couldn’t be manipulated this way. Out here, where gravity was weak, the space could almost be described as flat, and to create a slope where none had been, and from a object leaving you ?

“Does it accelerate?”

“No.”

“Not a ship then?” Jeff found himself desperately wishing that he knew more. Maybe they should wake Janelle? “Have we tried to communicate?”

“No answer on subspace channels.”

“Can we stop us from getting dragged with it?”

“Yes, but we need a human decision for that. It will involve losing energy.”

Ah, of course. Energy, the great divider between life and death.

“How much?”

“Royal and me concur on losing between fifty to eighty percent, if done inside the nearest ten minutes. Raising constantly with the slopes steepness.”

That made it almost meaningless, thought Jeff, losing half their energy supply, or more, they could as easily commit suicide.

“You know that this is not a option. Why did you wake me.”

“Sir, our protocols do not allow otherwise, sorry Sir.”

‘Wow, that had to be a first’ thought Jeff. ‘Calling me, Sir?’ He almost smiled.

“It’s okay, suit, I understand.”

“Thank you Sir.”

“Stop that Siring please. Call me Jeff.”

“Thank you, Jeff.”

Some time passed as Jeff silently mulled over what to do, not that there really was any ´choices to be made here.

“Sir.”

“Didn’t I tell you, Jeff?”

“Jeff, our window of opportunity is gone. The slope are reaching lights speed.”

“What!” A black hole after all? But if it was, of some kind that Jeff never been told of. Not that he had that much experience, but he had crammed in what sleep courses he could find, as his apetite had grown aboard his new home.

“That makes no sense Suit? Give me your data?”

“Calculating, expected down time. 120:12 :134:02. Sorry updating, 119:11:34. Sorry updating.”

“Just give me your best guess Suit.”

“Extrapolating, from known parameters. I’m sorry Jeff, this will be a very bad guess. Give or take some minutes. Possibly 10 minutes, to half an hour. Its parameters are not linear. .And I have no data on anything able to accelerate faster, the closer it comes to light Jeff. According to my data the opposite should be the correct response, the higher the slope of light, the slower a acceleration, closing on infinity.”

There was Hyper, and then there was sub space. Humans came from Sub space, or SpaceTime as some called it. Hyper was just a description of a region where the laws no longer held, as far Jeff understood it. Like a fracture inside floating glass someone had told him, a bubble in where nothing moved, but from where SpaceTime was accessible everywhere, even though under some restrictions. But nothing could break the law of lights speed in a vacuum, to go faster by ordinary motion presumed more energy than the universe contained itself.

“I’m getting a headache.” Jef mumbled.

“A painkiller?”

“No suit, Thanks though.”

“Is there any ideas in you data banks? Anything that can suggest how this is possible?”

“Negative energy, and matter, might, but not really Jeff. Most theory's expect them to act the same as ordinary matter and energy.”

“Portals then, suit? Could it be some sort of portal?”

Portals were the big unknowns. They did not fit any known theory. Whoever had built them first did not use worm holes, and there was no known energy drawn from their existence.

“Not enough data Jeff. Maybe, but there is nothing in my banks about portals manipulating gravity.”

“And it doesn’t accelerate you say?”

“No.”

“Well suit, I don’t see we have any choice? Let’s try to enjoy the ride.”

“Acknowledged, changing into survival mode. Goodnight Jeff.”

As Jeff found himself slipping under, he still tried to vocalize his protest, but, to no avail.

His last thought, ‘damn those protocol’s to hell.”
===

A part more.

It's hard deciding the mode here, don't know how serious I should be.
Too serious, it becomes boring. To little, and it won't work for me.

Damned if I do, damned if I don't :)

I wring it as I write, and mood has a lot to do with it.
I'm not a very disciplined writer I'm afraid.

==

.

Time is a most marvelous thing, it 'ticks' constantly, from ones cradle to ones grave. And it has only one way to go, at least as I know. But it is also something mold-able, not for you personally, but for all others you relate yourself too. Put yourself on a very fast ship and presto, you now watch the universe accelerate. Your own time still 'ticks the same', but the universe's? It quickens, flowing into an effusion of time. And that was what Hyper was all about, making it possible to travel those vast distances, keeping to a state of ‘no time’. Allowing you to keep in touch with your, and all others, time.

Without it every planet would have been as isolated islands, in an unending ocean, with your spacecraft becoming a constant lonely explorer, at home nowhere. A Columbus you might say, as you never could foresee what would meet you. That next time you laid anchor at a planet, whatever its name, at Earth or at Alpha Centauri.

But, being thrown out of Hyper? Your suits released at that very moment the ship broke the barrier between Hyper and sub space? That was a most delicate subject as nothing was known of any such circumstances, no data existing. Considering the amount of shipwrecks there should have been some data assessable. This fact made many theorists intrigued and from it there had came some tentative guesses, or hypotheses as they were called. One predicted that the momentum created being in the break, as they called it, would tear any matter apart that was propelled with a speed differing from the ships own. Others said that they would hold, but that the force of their motion relative the ships would translate into a velocity close to lights.

Then there were that third fraction, those theorists involved with portals. They wondered, well, some of them did, if it could be possible that those ‘breaks’ was what created a portal? All of the ‘theories’ made sense though. In the first case the possible survivors from a ship failure would all be dead as they got torn into smithereens. In the other case they would be alive but at such a speed that nobody, not traveling at their velocity, could ever meet them again. That as their sole destiny would be to see the universe die. The last one though, involving a portal, was the one offering some small hope. Then those unfortunate might survive, although, somewhere else. But no one had ever came back from a portal claiming to be such a survivor. Still, most accepted the risks, statistically they were negligible. The chances were bigger that you would break you neck walking, than meeting your doom in a space accident.
==

As Jeff slept on the two suits continued to close in on the anomaly. Their scanning devices working overtime, the suits franticly tried to make the best of the time they had left, analyzing the anomaly.

“Two suits approaching. Correction, we are watching ourselves.”

The suits started to debate, they both had access to data-banks, but where the Royal’s was very up to date, state of the art you might say, Jeff’s suit had had an older, much older, copy. That made for some interesting arguments and the suits almost forgot the anomaly as they argued their respective maker’s, and data-banks, views. In the end the only thing they agreed on was that, whatever they were watching, had many of the same qualities that a black hole would be expected to have but with negligible framedragging.

“Or a white.” as Jeff’s suit said, stubbornly refusing to accept the Royal’s updated definitions of what a White Hole might be seen as.

And then it passed them by, or maybe it was they that passed it by? Whatever happened, it was over in an instant. From being in deep space, having little hope of rescuing, the suits now found themselves close to a immense planet. The Royal, acting from its higher priority, took control steering them into a course that would intersect the planet, without falling into its gravity well. And as soon they were close enough the suits started to scan it.

What really happened there, in that short instant, would probably crave us all to get a Ph.D. in physics, and that would just give us the excuse to sprout new theories I’m afraid. We can’t really say where they were, maybe they already had been thrown out of our known universe as they meet it? Maybe that was why gravity was acting so strange? But if so, where were they now?

“Jeff. Wake up.”

“We survived?” What a stupid question that was, Jeff thought, realizing it as fast as he had asked it.

“Forget it suit, where are we?”

“I have no data yet, but we are scanning a planet.”

“A planet?”

“We are getting strange readings.”

“Is the anomaly a planet?”

“No, yes, I don’t know.”

“Can you show me?” Jeff was certain that there had to be a Tri-D, surely their preccious protocol would demand that.

“The telemetry is still in hexagonal mode.”

“Telemetry? Didn’t you film it?”

“We’re in survival mode, ports closed.”

“Another protocol I presume?” Jeff muttered, somewhat sourly.

“Correct.”

“And now? Are we out of survival mode or not?”

“That was why we woke you.”

Jeff had started to feel as some sort of inanimate cargo listening. ‘Damn, he was the human, the suits were only, well, suits, weren’t they?

“Suit, who’s in command here, you or me?”

There was a momentary silence, making Jeff suspect there was some intense communication going on between the suits.

“Survival mode off.” Jeff’s suit at last declared.

‘So, they didn’t want me to challenge the ‘survival mode’ did they?’ Jeff though. ‘They want to keep that to themselves. We’ll see about that.’

“Thank you suit. Can you please show me the planet? And is her Ladyship awake?”

“Yes Jeff, and no. We’ve let her sleep through the ordeals, but if it is your wish?”

“She is awakening as we speak Jeff.”

“Good.” If nothing else, Jeff thought, they certainly were bossy. Then again, a Royal probably had a lot of overriding security protocols. Probably overriding a Cooks apprentice too, thinking of it.

"Ah well, when in Rome." He muttered sourly as he waited on his first glimpse of what would become their new home, away from home.

New chapter, just for now, will check it out to see spelling etc, later..

==

.

The planet was seriously strange.

For one thing, it was big, too big for the gravity described. It had a one perfect gravity, but its size was totally out of bonds. Then there was the continents, tectonic plates moving could not be the sole reason for their arrangement. Whoever had heard of one hemisphere arranged as a constant? It was Jeff’ suit that saw that first, and if now a suit could become too full of itself, then surely his suit had become the very epitome of that.

“Yes, of course a Royal is useful, at some things. But after all, old knowledge dies hard.” It smugly commented.

“So, you think someone made it?”

The suit became silent as it cogitated. Jeff could almost hear those cogs turning as he waited.

“Not enough data.” It finally answered.

“Yes, it could.” Came another voice. It had to be the Royal. “My esteemed colleague may be right in that old knowledge never dies. But there is actually new too. Terraforming has taken giant steps since the portals closed. Not that we are anywhere near this size of accomplishment, but yes. It could very well be.”

“There are too many discrepancies to explain it otherwise. Still, we haven’t decided which set of constants exist here yet, it may be that we are inside a portal.” Jeff knew of constants, and portals. Somewhat like a set of magical numbers they were, constants, defining the borders of a universe. Like ‘c’ was, lights speed in a vacuum. And he also, at least vaguely, could understand that if those were slightly different there should be repercussions, changing the face of that universe. Portals he had never seen though, only learnt about from the ships library.

“Did you confirm the speed of light?” He asked, feeling quite accomplished. That might teach this son of a gun that a human could know something too..

“Yes, we found no discrepancies with old values. Then again, how I wish we had a Emperor suit here.” If a suit could sigh this one surely did. “The very best database there is, the knowledge of a solarsystem in its innards.”

“Bah, old knowledge still help.” Muttered Jeff’s suit. “Emperors here and Emperors there, is that all you can process?”

Now the suits became silent and Jeff could feel a furious debate starting, ending the uncomfortable silence he asked.

“Would it be possible to talk with her Highness?”

“Yes.” Came a curt reply from the Royal. “But please, do not bother us further, we are in the middle of a scientific inquiry, our processing power at full capacity for several millisecond’s.”

Apparently they did not define time the same as Jeff, but he let it pass. ‘They're becoming awfully stuffy though,’ he thought as he cleared his voice. “Your Highness? My lady, I hope you had a pleasant sleep?”

“Ooh, Jeff?”

“Yea, you okay? Your highness I mean.”

He heard her sigh and then came her voice.

“Not really Jeff, I try, and Royal has done his best to cheer me up.”

She had lost everything she knew, her mother and father most probably dead. And then she had slept through most of what happened after it. To her it had to be as if they died just a moment ago he guessed.

“I’m sorry My Lady, and I sympathize. Maybe it will be better if I let you be?”

“No Jeff, it’s nice hearing a human voice. But I miss them, so badly.”

Desperately wanting to change the subject Jeff went on to discuss the planet, and as Janelle seemed to have a extensive knowledge of local fauna, no doubt inherited from her mother, they both agreed on trying to persuade the suits to land, as soon as possible. Jeff having a distinct feeling that she needed more than his voice to help her trough her sorrow.

“Suit Royal.” She said imperially.

“Yes Ma’am.” He heard it answer.

“Is it possible to land?”

“Unfulfilled data acquisition Ma’am.”

“Yes, I know that Royal, but can we live on that surface?”

The suit was quiet for almost a minute, which to it had to be a immense time.

“Yes, Ma’am. It seems so, using what telemetry we collected so far. But I would like to invoke a Survival mode for the nearest days. Your safety comes first Ma'am, and there are still unknown variables.”

“Royal, you will take us down, at your convenience.” If Jeff ever had heard a Imperial decree, then that was it.

There was a momentary silence. “Ma’am, under the circumstances I must beg you to stay inside. We will descend but we still have to take atmospheric samples, and we do not know the local microbiology. Let us take soil samples and test the water. It can only take a day or two?”

Janelle knew when she had forced her suit to its limit, she had grown up with it, and her father had been very insistent in her spending time inside it.

“Every suit has its own quirks Janelle.” She could remember him saying. “The more advanced, the more quirks. Yours is as advanced as we could make it. It contains the keys to your heritage, as well as command codes controlling your inheritance. Treat it well, and listen to it.”

“Thank you Royal, you’ve always been a true friend to me.” She whispered to it, faintly smiling for the first time in a long while.

“Jeff, we will descend soon, and please, you can stop calling me Highness. Janelle will do fine here.”

“Thank you your Highness, Janelle, I meant.” He felt definitely uncomfortable calling her Janelle. To do so on the ship would have been breaking its code of conduct, and probably earned him a really good, well deserved, dressing down by the brig. And then, there was this feeling of unconditional awe? He wasn’t sure if it was conditioned by his Argel, or natural, but he found himself increasingly impressed by her unselfishness and common sense. All combined with that immense hurt he knew she had to feel, it was all too easy for him to see that, after all, he too had lost his parents.

“Where will we land.” He asked at last.

“We are searching.”

“We need to find a temperate place, free from big animals, near water and preferably on high ground.” Royal condescendingly explained. “It will take us several revolutions to decide a optimal landing zone.”

“How long will that be?” asked Janelle sharply, who silently had listened in. Jeff didn’t know, but Janelle had full access to his module, including tri-D and telemetry, but as her father had explained. “Some things are for you to know Janelle, no matter how much you trust someone.” And this was one of them.

“Four hours My Lady.”

“Good, let it be so.”

‘Another imperial decree’ Jeff thought smugly, ‘serves him right, the pompous bastard.’

“Thank you Royal., and you too suit” He said.

“You’re welcome.” His suit answered.

The hours went by with Janelle getting updated by Jeff on what had happened while she slept. Checking his story with Royal, and her command table she saw that he downplayed his own efforts, maybe because he felt awkward about it? It was refreshing change to the court she knew, where everyone tried to play up their own prowess, to the extent of almost becoming supermen, while at the same time sucking up to her in the most unashamed fashion. She knew that she had liked him from the first moment, and was pleased to see that his succeeding behavior confirmed her feelings. That was another thing her Father had told her.

“Look for the men that don’t try to impress themselves on you Janelle, but still stay by your side. They will be the ones worth cultivating, worthy of your attention.”

In Jeff she thought she had found one such.

Don't know what you think.
Too contrived?

(and short too:)

==

.

At last the suits were satisfied.

“We have defined suitable coordinates and will start our descend, approximated time estimate to landing, 10 minutes 39 seconds. ”

Jeff felt a great relief hearing it. Into the last he had worried that the suits would find some reason to wait, and maybe even proclaim this survival mode. But now he knew they would at least get down on a planet.

“Did you hear Your Highness?”

“Jeff I told you to stop, I’m no Highness. A countess maybe, or at least I will be one in time, but a princess I’m not.”

Jeff felt himself redden as he sat there staring at the Tri-D.

“And what happened with calling me Janelle?” she continued.

Damn, he still had trouble with saying that.

“I’m sorry My, Janelle, I’m not good with rank, Keep mixing it up.”

“Don’t worry, nobody but us here.”

As they descended the continent the suits had chosen slowly came into focus, growing larger, and larger. The suits seemed to be aiming for a mountainous region, very green at places but mostly of a grey, yellow or brown color interspersed with spots of intense blue, unlike anything Jeff ever had seen.

“Oh, it looks so much like Earth, only bigger.” He heard Janelle say in a surprised voice.

So this is what Earth would look like then. He looked at it with newfound interest, watching the patches of green growing into forest’s and fields, with sprinkles and patches of blue everywhere. Could it be water he wondered as he leaned forward to see better, not that he really had a window to look through. The suit had just placed a holo of the planet, linked to his eyes. So he could, in principle, look anywhere he liked the Tri-D always being in front of him. But he kept forgetting it as he tried to catch a better view.

Finally they landed, on a height, with a green field sloping away from them down into a valley deep under them. And all over this green he could see strange colorful dots, he wondered over them when he once more heard Janelle.

“Flowers Jeff, and so many. There must be wild life here. A whole ecosystem to explore. I wish mother was here to see it.” Then she stopped, struck again by her memories of her, and her mother, exploring the botanic delights of a new planet together with their retinue. Jeff who could feel something amiss, cleared his throat saying.

“Yes, there must be Janelle, ah, when do you think we can get out of the suits?”

He thought he heard something suspiciously alike a snivel, but then her voice came back, as cool as ever.

“I don’t know Jeff, it’s up to our suits.”

“I know, but I really need to get out and breathe some air that hasn't been recycled.”

In fact he needed it badly. He was feeling like a sardine in a tin can, and it had become much worse since they had landed. Not that he minded traveling, without that he would still have been a fugitive, constantly running from authority and the mines. But being enclosed in a suit made him claustrophobic, and he wanted out.

“Can’t see any dangers here.” He muttered to himself as he tried to relax.

“It’s only a couple of days Jeff, give them some time to prepare.”

“I’m sorry My Lady, but I really need to get out. I don’t think I can stand this much longer”

Jeff’s suit who constantly was monitoring his levels had noticed signs of adrenaline, as well as other signal substances rising, indicating a state of elevating unease. He communicated his findings to the Royal who already had started to erect a building, using the same type of wrap as he had seen them use in Space. But it wasn’t the same. This one, once inflated, started to change color blending in with the background making it difficult to see where the ground ended and the wrap began. Once up the Royal said.

“My Lady, there is no need for you being in your suits, as long as you stay inside the wrap you will be safe. And you too Jeff.”

So, for the first time since the ship they were able to meet in person. The inside of the wrap wasn’t much to see though, there was something resembling beds and it was divided into two rooms and one small closet, that he guessed, probably was just that as it had something most reminding him of a openended tube stretching up from the floor. There was one wonderful thing about the wrap though. It let in air and light. By touching the frame you could make a part of it transparent , only a small patch, but it still gave you that feeling of not being locked in, but in a tent.

“Ahh, at last I can breathe.” Jeff said as he sat down. “I was starting to feel buried alive.”

“Yes, I know, it’s better now.” Janelle hadn’t had the same experience but then again, she had grown up with her suit, using it for extended periods in dangerous milieus, accompanying her mother and her retinue, in search for new fauna to bring home. And her suit was much more comfortable, spacious, offering a better comfort. But she could understand that, to someone not used to it, it might become a disquieting experience.

As he looked at her he could see how tired she was. He guessed it had to be the ringlet, because ever since waking up in that sickbay he had gotten flashes of how she felt, growing in intensity. Sometimes they happened without him noticing, being first as he looked back at it that he would realize that he had been somewhere else. It was a most unnerving experience, but it also gave him a much deeper understanding of her feelings and needs. He was normally more of a offstandish sort of guy. Didn’t really need, or want, others company to make the time pass. Much of it learnt on the streets of course where your friend could become your betrayer, in a instant, at the mere sight of a gem. So he had learnt to keep people at a distance from an early age, detaching himself, but he knew that she felt it different.

“Janelle, can you take a look. I think I bumped my head.”

It was the first thing that came into his mind, and not particularly clever either. But it seemed to work, or maybe she too wanted it. As she looked he could feel her fingers light touch on his skin and without thinking about it he laid his hand over her and pulled her down to him.

“Hi.” Was all he found to say, then he lost himself in her eyes again, just as that first time.

Janelle, who knew she should feel enraged at his audacity, in its place only found a great relief.

“Hi you too.” She said, relaxing a little as he didn’t try to do anything more than gaze, his eyes having a intensity to them that seemed to peel her away, layer by layer. But it was a nice feeling, she could feel that he meant her no harm with it. After some time she could see his intensity diminish as he seemed to get sleepy but as she tried to move away he held her closer to him.

“Please stay, just for a while. It’s nice, you beside me.”

And she, she found that she had to agree.

It was nice.

Had to give up, on making it making sense :)
We'll see?

And yes, another short one.
(a little longer now.)
=

==

.

The planet actually moved, at a sedate pace, from bubble to bubble. So, from no means could it be described as stationary, although its sun following it faithfully. Eons ago, or maybe just seconds? Someone, something, had decided that they needed a 'place'. A place from where they could oversee all other 'places'. The universe as we know it is defined from borders, and what lies outside those is mere food for speculation. But to those creating the planet? I can’t really say, maybe to them our SpaceTime was just one, amongst many, just one of the places from where intelligence, love, strife and imagination might spring in a eternal dance. We could, possibly, consider them some sort of gardeners? Maybe with an interest in cultivating life, all sorts of life. Or just as possible, as mad scientists of a, hopefully so, benevolent kind, whatever the reason the planet was there.

We have to remember that life, as such, can't be said to be easy. From a statistical point of view you might want to argue that as ‘civilizations’ develop, they present us with higher ethics and more humane guidelines, but, from a personal point of view your life still can be a total disaster, and in some cases, a veritable nightmare. In fact, there is a cleft as big as hell between what those statistics may tell you and the individual.
==

The next day, at least Jeff assumed it was the next day, as he woke up he found Janelle by his side, still sleeping. Snugly and ever so enchantingly snoring, her arm wrapped around him. The snoring really helped, it made him see her as she was. Not as some high sprung, delicate flower, but as a human no better or worse than himself.

“Janelle.”

She mumbled something, seemingly unwilling to wake up just yet.

“Janelle, don’t you want to explore.”

Now, whether it was her mothers teaching, or herself? Exploring was what Janelle was made for, well, if you had asked her at least.

“What?”

As she realized where she was she disentangled herself from Jeff, blushing ever so slightly, Jeff now finding her more beautiful than ever. As she sat up, trying to shake of the last of her sleep, she called her suit.

“Royal, everything good?”

The reply took it so long that she almost started to worry.

“Yes, everything seems to fit human parameters, so far. But we are experiencing continuity discrepancies, which I can not account for. Also the gravity seems to be fluctuating.”

As she stood she found out for herself what he meant. Yesterday, as they had arrived, they had almost bounced while walking . Jeff’s suit patiently explaining it to Jeff as a unavoidable effect of the planet being larger, but of lower density than what he was used too. A little, if I might paraphrase someone I know, as if they were on a very high mountain, at Janelle’s own Earth. But today there was no bounce, if anything she felt heavier than normal.

“Yes, you’re right.” She said aloud. Most of the conversation she had with the royal was sub-vocal, learnt from her childhood, but her surprise made her forget this time.

“Jeff, do you feel it?” She asked.

“What?” he answered, smiling at her, still lost in fond memories of her snoring.

“The gravity, it’s changed?”

As he stood up he had to admit to her being right, still it was probably something to do with, what was it now again? Density?

“has the density changed?” he asked.

“I don’t know? Royal?”

“I’m sorry Ma’am, we’re trying to compute it ourselves. So far without success.”

Jeff, who knew which suit was the real smart one, called on his own.

“Suit, do you have a idea?”

“Suit?”

“I’m sorry Jeff, he’s rebooting.”

“What?”

“We’ve experienced several implausible events, unsettling to logic. I’m lucky enough to have my probability acceptor set high, your suit unfortunately hadn’t. It started to malfunction under the pressure, so I closed it down, for its own safety. Please let him cogitate in peace, he will need several second’s as we reboot him.”

“The gravity?”

“Amongst other improbabilities, yes.”

“Does that mean that we’re in survival mode again?”

The suit became silent. Jeff looked at Janelle, who looked back as bewildered as he. She shook her head.

“Royal.” She subvocalized. “Are we in danger?”

“I don’t know My Lady, but I would prefer us to move slowly here.”

“I don’t think Jeff will take kindly to that.”

“He will have to adapt.” The royal somewhat stuffily declared. “He’s staff.”

“Yes, but we will still need to get out at some point. Is the area secure?”

“Yes Ma’am, as secure as we could make it. The perimeters are clearly marked, and lasers deployed.”

“Then Royal, at least allow us to go out. We’ll stay inside the perimeter.”

At last the Royal answered, now speaking out loud.

“I will allow you to go outside Jeff, as long as you stay inside the borders we have marked. But I’m unable to allow My Lady. My security protocol forbids it, terribly sorry My Lady.”

Jeff who felt a wild jubilation for a second, found it as fast disappearing as he looked at Janelle.

“I’m sorry.” Was all he could find to say.

Janelle nodded graciously as she answered.

“Nothing to be sorry about Jeff. I’m glad one of us can get out and have a look. If I connect to your Tri-D I’ll see much the same as you anyway.”

In fact she preferred it this way, she wasn’t too sure it had been a good thing, falling asleep by his side. She had been trained for command, one of its simplest principles, never get too closely involved with your subordinates. It would get in the way when clear thinking was needed, and all said and done, Jeff was only the Cooks apprentice, not even real staff. But against it, there was this undeniable feeling of completeness she got as soon as he was near, all in all she found it most confusing.
=

The planet had noticed them, but so far it wasn’t unduly concerned. It was new life, and its parameters embraced all life. But it had also a good pragmatic knowledge of the unsuitability of some types of life, and so, it waited. On old Earth there had been a theory from where some had speculated that simple cellular organisms as microbes , even viruses, also might have a ‘intelligence’ , a ‘hive mind’ of sorts, maybe even forming us ‘higher life forms’ to their needs. And when it came to the planet, well, that was a pretty good estimate. In some ways it was all one organism, not in that it felt each individual, but on a cognitive plane. If we assume that complexity is a key to self-awareness, that and some mode of communication, then the planet indeed was self-aware, even if at a somewhat disassociate level from its ‘limbs’.

But its tendrils were already there, ever so carefully beginning to analyze.
=

A preliminary, unchecked chapter.
Don't expect too much from it.

==

.

As Jeff got out, the view he found was breathtaking. The suits had landed on a plateau. Resting against a mountainside it stretched for several miles, leaning slightly downwards toward a valley, so that it offered him a unhindered view of the slope all the way down. And down there he could see forest’s, all spread out in patches, but as he got out his field glasses he realized that it was the distances deceiving him. After being on the ship, and then in the suit, he found that he once more had to adapt to the freedom of space, in a real world. And this world, this world was so much bigger than anything he had seen before, not that he had that much to compare it too. The forests, when looked at through the field glasses, was more than just patches, they were mighty. The valley had to stretch an awful long way he thought as he studied them.

The perimeter was, as Royal had stated, clearly marked by the tripods, and also by the combined sonic and electro magnetic barrier created by them, effectively stopping any wild life. It seemed to heat the air as it worked, giving Jeff much the same visual effect as a very hot day might create, hot air dancing on the tarmac.

“Oh Jeff, what a sight.” He heard Janelle.

She looked out from his Tri-D, seeing much the same as him. but she missed the intense fresh smell that had hit Jeff, from the first moment he stepped outside. It was unlike anything he had ever meet, at the same time as it somehow felt familiar. He had no idea, but to us it would have been instantly recognizable, very similar to what you feel just after a rain, with the ozone still suffused through the air. And although he felt a little heavier, the oxygen concentration was well over normal, giving him a slightly lightheaded feeling of wellbeing and happiness. Not that he needed it, just being outside felt exhilarating enough

“Yes.” He agreed. “Incredible, is this what Earth looks like?”

“Once it must have done, and some places still have it.” Earth had been used, reused, and overused by so many cycles now that only the very richest could afford restoring it to what it once had been, and the costs for doing so was more than astronomical. But she had visited the late king’s palace once, and the view there reminded her of this, but only if magnified by a thousand.

“I wish I could come out with you.” He heard her sigh longingly. “Could you at least pick some flowers for me?”

“Any specific you want?”

“Yes, those red ones, with the purple petals.”

As he started to walk to them Royal came online again.

“Please do not pick anything just yet Jeff. We have analyzed the flora, even though our first estimate is that they do not expose any threat they have unusual characteristics and gene patterns to them, we are still building up our knowledge base.”

“Royal, how can you be so insensitive.” Janelle complained, half jokingly, half serious. “You refuse to let me out, and now you refuse me my flowers too?”

“I’m sorry Ma’am, our results from the preliminary tests are inconclusive, but we can’t exclude the possibility of them being sentient.”

“Sentient flowers?” Jeff exclaimed as he stopped dead in his tracks. He had almost stepped on one, but now he gave it a respectful distance as he walked around it.

“You joking, Royal?” Janelle asked.

“No Ma’am, there are a rudimentary nervous system and also a reaction to sensorial input.”

“Shouldn’t you have told me that before I went out Royal?” Jeff asked a little irritated.

“Sorry Jeff, we are doing further tests as we speak, this is just a precaution. There are no signs of them communicating, nor of any cognitive capacity.”

“So they are not the masters of the planet then?” Jeff asked, half in jest.

“No.” Was the curt answer from Royal.

Jeff sat down on the grass, it felt like grass and looked like grass, darker than what he had seen in the ships garden but grass all the same, to take a closer look at the flowers. They were fairly big, half his size, and had delicate purple petals with a network of thinner green and brown veins decorating them.

The flower itself was a dark red, changing to an almost dark blue color inside it its cup, at the bottom. And it smelled, the smell was more of the one he had felt from that meat-eating flower Janelle’s mother had picked though, a sweet pungent reek, reminding him of meat gone bad. He moved away from it a little as he described it to Janelle.

“Meat-eater.” Janelle asked.

“Sorry Ma’am, we’re still examining, it’s highly possible though.” Royal answered.

“Any insects?”

“Ma’am, we exterminated all life inside the perimeter before allowing Jeff out. We are still in the preliminary stages.”

That was standard procedure when landing in a unknown environment, as Janelle well knew, but her interest had peaked with Jeff’s description. She wanted out now, to see for herself, suddenly she found the wrap just as unbearable as Jeff had.

“Royal, I want out.”

“Ma’am we don’t know..”

“Phieew, if Jeff can, I can. Don’t argue with me Royal. Let me out.”

As Jeff looked back he saw the wrap move and Janelle come out. He was quite impressed by her audacity, somehow he had started to feel as if the suits were the ones commanding here, but now he was reminded once again of in whose hands the real power rested. But he just had to think of her snoring to feel a little more relaxed, she was just as human as him.

“As she came she sat down beside him. She carefully sniffed the air around the flower.

“Ouch, You’re right Jeff, smelly thing, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Having her so near him, and being on a real planets surface instead of in the suit made him feel better that he had done in, for ever actually. He looked at her carefully inspecting the flower, feeling all empty, as if all thought had gone and this moment was forever, and to him, it was.

The flowers, on their side, had just started to do their job. The planet was now examining their cellular structure finding it carbon based. As Jeff had touched the flowers stem, microtubes, some thousand micrometers in diameter, had taken samples of both his cells, and his blood, then breaking it down into its compounds. Carbon based life was no news to the planet, after all, that was what it used too. It was common too many galaxies, even SpaceTimes. But there was other life forms existing too, using other combinations.

As the planet started to search through its’ collective memory it found several bubbles answering to the general description, but it needed to narrow it down further. As it cogitated over how, Janelle and Jeff shared turns looking through the field glasses, down at the valley. It looked so inviting and calm to Janelle, with its sprinkles of blue and even lakes. She really wanted to go there.

“Royal, how long until we can move down?”

“Sorry Ma’am, we can’t move down.”

Janelle could understand the Royal’s reasoning, she also knew the protocols demanded in a situation like this. But, working against it was her need of exploring, and her need of maybe making this planet a new home. She desperately needed to find her connection to it, it was as much human need as it was her lust for exploration talking when she told it.

“Protocols be damned Royal, I’m prepared to stay here three days, and if you haven’t found anything that demands survival mode, we’ll then move camp to the valley.”

Royal was quiet for some seconds.

“Yes Ma’am.” It answered finally. Because, all said and done, if hers was to command then its was to obey.
==

Background mostly, we all need to see where they come from, don't we :)
(Especially me.)

==

.

A planets memory is a most strange thing. Trees are good for it, but they don’t last, rocks even better as they stay for the longest time. That’s very good for long time storage of memories, but with the hardness also comes difficulties of retrieval, it gets slow. Then you have more specialized materials as diamonds, and other types of crystals, those makes for a much easier retrieval as they works on the polarization of light, using polarization states to define and retrieve information. For its day to day operations though, the planet used the live organisms existing, storing information in molecules, that then also gave it the possibility of getting the information refined and processed ‘unconsciously’.

The problem with that type of storage was no different from what we have, the ability to misinterpret, and also create false memories that we will swear by. After all, we’re talking about organic live storage here. For those dead materials it was easier to keep it intact, stored in the spins of their smallest constituents. And yes, the problem wasn’t really storage but retrieval, and, the ability to select the right information to retrieve. It had a ingenious system for error corrections when it came to its organic memory , adapting for most of the ‘bugs’ inherent to such a system. But nothing, not even a sentient planet, is perfect. Or expressed otherwise, according to Heisenberg’s Uncertanity Principle there will always be a measure of uncertainty to any system observed. And the planet’s memory could indeed be seen as just such a system.

Three days had came and gone. The planets rotation seemed faster than Janelle’s Earth, as the duration’s was closer to normal than what you otherwise might expect, considering its size. Instead of twenty four hour’s intervals the planet added a third to it, making a whole day and night last thirty six hours. As it rotated faster you might have expected its atmosphere to be more volatile, with more storms, but so far none of that had been observed by the suits. They had left some small probes in space, circling it, taking pictures of both the planet and it’s position relative the stars. And that was also what had made Jeffs suit go into its ‘reboot mode’. Because the stars weren’t there?

Well, they were, in a way. But there was no consistency to them. They became as mirage’s, now there, then gone, making it impossible to define any sort of position relative them. The Royal had managed to assimilate the information better, as it didn’t have the old demand programmed in it that everything necessarily needed to make sense. There were those old laws of robotics, they had worked for the longest time, and Jeff's suit unfortunately had had some remains intrinsic to its database. But as technology had evolved so had the programming. What once had been called ‘fuzzy mode’ was now what was used, and also a sort of intuitive self-programming that all suits of Royal's standing constantly used to redefine their understanding. And with that there came a new independence for those suits. What motivated suits like Royal nowadays was more alike what motivated humans. A sense of belonging, the need of taking care of its flock, and family. Very basic emotions, but working just as well as the old laws, and just as well as they worked for humans, allowing for much more flexibility too.

Yes, there were some risks to it, but it had to do with a new understanding and respect for the individual and intelligence. Royal, and a human both, had the ability to invent, they could both become 'visionaries' if you like. But hierarchy was still a very important component for any suit. And there Janelle was the 'top dog' as far Royal considered it, with Jeff being, at most, upcoming staff. For Jeff's suit it was in some ways simpler. It would never do anything to harm or hinder a human, not if they gave him direct orders, except in those circumstances where it saw those orders countermanding the humans own life. And all of those older suits had a override, making it possible for a human to close them down, the Royal didn't.

“Suit.”

“Yes.”

“Nice to have you back.” Jeff had been worried before, but it seemed as if his suit once more could function normally. In a way the suit fast was becoming just as much family to him as Janelle.

“Nice to see you too Jeff.”

“Don’t let Royal bully you now.”

“No problem.”

“So, today is the day huh?”

“Yep.”

It was, it was the day they were going to move camp. Janelle was still sleeping in his bed, somehow it had become a habit for them to share it. None of them talked about it though, because talking would mean deciding what it really meant, and so far it had been all innocent. Jeff was enthralled by her now, she was always in his mind, and somehow he always seemed to know where she was. It was as if there, in some recess of his mind, were a place that was reserved for keeping track of her. Sometimes he wondered if it was the ringlets fault, but to be honest, having her had filled up a very empty hole in his mind. A hole he hadn’t even been aware of before she came into existence.

When it came to how Janelle saw Jeff it became more complicated though, one part shining knight, one part boyfriend and one part staff. It clashed in her mind and she didn’t really now how to separate them, or even think of it. Sometimes it made her moodier than she intended but so far Jeff seemed to take it in his stride, understanding instead of blaming her.

As she finally woke up, and they had eaten their breakfast, they went into the suits. The suits immediately started to dismantle the wrap, collecting what stuff and debris there was. It all went very fast and efficiently, and after just some minutes Jeff found himself hovering over the valley. Everyone had their own idea of what a good spot consisted of, and even the suits had made different choices, but in the end they agreed on Royal’s choice making the best sense. He wanted them near, but not too near a lake, and also out of the woods, preferably on a hill. That so they still could retain the advantage of high ground. And as they landed some hours later, Jeff once more came to realize just how big that 'little valley' really was.

“I know, it’s incredibly vast. Bigger than some countries I've seen.” As Janelle described it

And it was, but so far they had seen no signs of intelligent life there, which was a little strange. According to the probes left up there, there was intelligent life existing. One probe had even shown a Tri-D of what seemed cultivated lands, and even humans? The problem with that being that they weren't really equipped for the visible spectrum, as they mostly were intended for space and radio waves. But, there had been no signs of any advanced cultures so far, and that was also somewhat surprising. But at least they now knew that there had to be sentient life, not unlike humans, on the planet.

So why wasn’t this valley populated too?

==

More background I'm afraid.
The buildup being i n t e n s e.
Or just, plain boring? :)

==

.

This time the suits made a real job out of it. Using their lasers they cut up some of the old logs laying on the ground, building a simple half timbered cabin for Janelle and Jeff to share. They never touched any of the live trees, as the suits still weren’t sure of their exobiology.

“Strangely enough, we have found remains of the same shared genes in all the flora we examined so far.” Said Royal. “And I suspect we would find it being much the same if we got to examining the fauna. But as long as we don’t use live materials I don’t expect us to have to worry.”

But it still made for some problems, food for example, they needed it badly and the suits had with them the technology to refine, and also redefine the plants found, into plants fitting for human consumption. But there was a snag, however they tried there seemed to be no way getting those specialized genes out of it? The suits couldn’t make sense of it, whatever they did those genes kept coming back. But in the end they had little choice. The synthesized food was only good for some weeks more, furthermore it wasn’t adapted for constant consumption, and after that they either would have to eat what they could grow, or they would starve.

Another thing that bothered them a little was the unwillingness of any wildlife to come near them. They had the barriers up of course, but they could just as easy not have bothered with it at all. It seemed as if they somehow repelled all wildlife, including insects, not that they could understand why. They had a probe constantly hovering above them now, giving them a 'early warning' detection system of sorts, if now something would happen. And it showed them all kinds of life around them. But as it worked in the infra red spectrum it could only present them with vague blurry pictures. And somehow there seemed to a invincible twenty mile border around them, going out from their cabin, around which all life circulated.

“Here, but no closer.” Muttered Jeff.

“Yes.” Answered suit. “Makes you compute, doesn’t it?”

“Almost like if someone had put us into quarantine, isn’t it?” said Janelle.

“Maybe you hit the nail on the head there.” Jeff exclaimed.

“Royal, could that be it? We're in some sort of quarantine?”

“Don’t know Jeff, it may also be that you just don’t smell right.”

“We smell, twenty miles away? In all directions?”

“No, but we still don’t know how they communicate.” Answered Royal.

“And why are there no people? There seems to be people everywhere but here?”

That wasn’t strictly true though. Although the probes had seen ‘people’ they had only seen those in a few select places, leaving most of the planet uninhabited, and with those populations widely spread. And that was a third fact, making little sense. Where were the roads? Yes, there were trails, as well as something that, if feeling benevolent, might be called dirt roads. But only where there there were populations, no proper roads existing between them? All in all, the planet was becoming more of a mystery for each passing day.

And Jeff’s suit was in dire need of maintenance. Royal was built to last, but suit was older. Simpler of construction and of good durability, but some of its systems were developing glitches. It was just not meant to work for indefinite durations, and it had now been in constant action for more than two months. Their power source was simple enough to provide for, they had the sun. But spare parts were non existent and all calibrations, although possible, were difficult. Everything had to be jury-rigged, and without Royal, Jeff’s suit already would have gone into suspended mode.

And somehow that thought hurt Jeff more than he wanted to admit. He and suit were friends. Both, to their everlasting surprise, finding themselves sharing the same fondness for fishing. Not that they ever caught anything. The fish, that they knew existed somewhere under its calm surface, seemed as well informed as the rest of the wild life about them, and kept their distance. But somehow it was very soothing anyway.

“It’s like all thoughts disappear.” Jeff tried to explain his newfound passion to Janelle.

“You never needed any fishing for that before?” said Janelle, but she couldn’t help smiling as she said it.

She and Jeff had become lovers, neither of them able to say exactly when it happened, but one morning, waking up, they were and most happily so. Janelle still worried what would happen if they ever got back to their own society, but as the time passed her longing for home slowly had diminished. The planet was good for several lifetimes of exploration, and Janelle just knew, sooner or later they would have to. That though did much for keeping her happy, and then there was Jeff of course. To just sit and mourn, to do nothing, that wasn’t in her. She didn’t have to worry about contraception either, that one she controlled by her mind, another effect of the selective gene therapy introduced by her ancestors.

In the end it was Jeff that become the guinea pig, they had tested it on cell-cultures, finding no ill effects, and when the choice at last came to be between Janelle and himself Jeff found it easy. After all, if Janelle disappeared from his life it wouldn’t be worth living anyway. So he ate, and they waited. Nothing happened, more than Jeff developing a distinct distaste for corn, well, technically it wasn't corn, just a native plant closely resembling it. But according to Royal it was close enough. And when Royal after two weeks of constant testing and torture, the last according to Jeff, finally declared it safe to eat they at last could breathe out.

As with that, all their fears of starvation finally was proven unfounded.

==

ahem.
Let us test the waters.

And no, just wrote it so it can be better, well, hopefully so?
And don't you laugh.

==

.

It was time for action. The planet studying found them, to its satisfaction, developing nicely. The genes Royal wondered about were necessary to its communication, and all new arrivals would somehow, sooner or later, need them installed. It allowed Planet to communicate on a direct mode and also share the individual experience. Planet wasn’t benevolent, its viewpoint was more of the pragmatist, but it did have some redeeming qualities.

For one thing it had strict conservation laws, killing for food was natural, and when growing up for training too. But killing for the mere fun of it was frowned upon. If repeated Planet would try to correct the behavior, even go so far as interfering with the gene base. It had a very good, even if mostly behavioristic, knowledge of gene-interaction, mostly based upon its manipulations of a large representative of races. Some refused to stay corrected though, becoming something of a nuisance but in the end, it was all part of life. So far it had been quite impressed with its visitors, they seemed to be following much the same rules as Planet.

Then there were the suits. Planet had long ago stopped differing between organic versus non-organic life. In its experience both could be as unpredictable, and both could express admirable traits. Also it found non-organic materials easier to communicate with, less bothered by emotions. Although it still had a preference for carbon based life, as shown by its choice of wild life, it was very accepting. Planet had several species of life, some domesticated, other just manipulated, and a select few only cajoled into behaving. You could say that for Planet life was a hobby.

Jeff was sleeping.

He had the weirdest dream. He was walking down the street beside a man with his arm torn off, riding a skateboard. And only he seemed to react to it, none of the others he meet even giving it a glance? Now and then he found himself looking over the street, over the house roofs, to the mountains behind. He knew that one day he would have to go there, even though the time had not come yet. Then he found himself in a room, with the man on a bed bleeding profusely, him talking with something that looked like a man, but that he knew only presented him with an appearance. Hiding behind it was something else, terrifyingly potent. Like a blackness constantly crackling behind the skin of the face, eruptions of magma boiling inside invincible fissures, just waiting to crack open.

“No, I tried to stop him.”

Behind the communication Jeff dreamed there was something else. For the first time the Planet had established a direct connection to them, now fully occupied with enlarging it’s collection of memories. It had few problems with Janelle, finding her a treasure trove of information but with Jeff it met a stone wall. No matter that the genes were there, it still wasn’t allowed in? So, searching for a way in the end it found itself forced to negotiate. The baffling thing to it that the one it negotiated with wasn’t there, only Jeff?

When the morning came everything seemed much the same to Jeff, his dreams once more retreating into the shadows. But as he started to talk with Janelle there was something new. It was as if she wasn’t really there at times. She talked and laughed, being as normal as usual, then she would stop in the middle of a sentence. Almost like someone turning of a switch, to then start talking again, as if nothing had happened. He wasn’t the only one noticing it either. For the first time since they had landed Royal was worried.

“Jeff, something strange is going on.”

“Yes, I agree.”

“Janelle is acting strangely, I need to get her inside, but she refuses me.”

“Do you want me to talk to her?”

“Yes please.” That had to be a first, Royal asking nicely?

In the end Janelle yielded to their combined persuasion, getting into the suit, allowing herself to be examined by Royal. After doing some preliminary testing Royal still couldn’t find anything wrong with her. It wasn’t until later, as he compared her gene base to the one he had stored of her previously, that he noticed.”

“Something has activated those genes Jeff. They're becoming dominant. I better do an analyze on yours too, as soon as possible. In the meantime I think we’ll need to keep a closer eye on Janelle, I’m disturbed by the way she behaves.”

The succeeding weeks Jeff couldn’t help but noticing it too. She was fast turning into someone he didn’t recognize, outwardly much the same her lust for exploration seemed suddenly to have died? Now she seemed perfectly happy with being where she was, the silent mourning for her parents replaced with a need for, kids? Suddenly she was planning for a family, a real one? And her home seemed all forgotten. Anyway, they were both too young for settling down, at least he was. And then there was this sudden happiness, her smiling, even singing by herself. It was getting on his nerves, and a very different Janelle from the one he knew, it had started to scare him, badly.

As for Planet, it was starting to rethink its procedures, it had gone about as usual with Janelle, adapting her to her environment, but now? It started to suspect it had made a mistake in that. It seemed as the others had noticed the change, and to have them aware too early could bring havoc into its orderly planning. It already considered them inhabitants, at least Janelle, and had great hopes to breed a new and interesting strain of carbon based life from those two. Then there were those intriguing negotiations too.

But, no matter, it already had secondary plans set into progress.

And so we dive, nose deep, if not deeper.
Well, sort of?

And yes, too short again..
A slow writer.

=

.

With their little community preparing for war, old suit found little time for rest. What quirks he developed he would have to compensate for himself, the best he could, as Royal was fully occupied analyzing those genes. Working tirelessly Royals attention now was fixed on finding a countermeasure. And with neither Jeff, nor the suits, trusting Janelle’s judgment anymore Royal had invoked survival mode, inducting her into a prolonged sleep. Jeff who hadn’t been asked at all had to admit to himself that he secretly was rather pleased, it was better this way than to constantly have to check on her every move. He hated what the Planet had done to them, and most of all, what it had done to her.

They had raised their defense level to the ultimate now, still encircled by those IR visuals of life forms, continuously creeping closer, and closer, strangling their freedom of movement. The time for fishing long gone, suit had sat down with Jeff to instill some of its old combat wisdom.

“What we have here Jeff is more of a guerilla situation than a regular war. Us being outnumbered, and probably outgunned too.” He had explained. “We will have to work from what resources we have, using them to the fullest.”

They couldn’t leave, well, Royal could with Janelle, and probably it would if worst came to worst. But suit needed some serious tinkering before he could be trusted to be flyable. Still, the situation hadn’t become that desperate, yet. There seemed still a possibility of negotiation. Royal had been contacted by a presence, operating on its command frequency of all frequencies, offering yet unnamed bribes for its acquiescence. It had flatly refused any negotiations so far though, demanding her Ladyship to be released before any such could be possible. Royal stood its ground there, refusing to be moved any further. But Planet on its side just as stubbornly refused to let go of its newest acquisition, hoping that winning the suits over with flattery and bribes would bring its newest breeding stocks into their pen.

It tried again.

“Immortality Royal? The first suit to live, for ever? You may sneer at it now my friend, but think about it." Observing Royals indifference it continued. "Have you ever wondered what it would be to be organic then, to breathe and feel?”

The Royal still refused him an answer.

“You could become one of them my friend, a real person. I have that knowledge.”

The Planet was most insidious there. It knew from experience that most 'artificials' thirsted for what that other side might offer. To experience first handedly what biological life would be like. To be able to create their own biological offspring’s. They might try to hide it from it, even deny it to themselves, but it knew that there always existed that corn of nagging self-doubt, hidden deep inside their circuits.

At last Royal answered. “Now I’m disappointed, An intellect, as mighty as you propose yourself to be, expecting me to fall for such a measly bribe.”

“Ahh, but what about your Lady then? Why leave her in the clutches of a lowlife to ravish? Why not make her yours instead, to love and cherish.”

And there it touched a sore spot in Royals armor. No matter what Royal thought of Jeff. As a betrothed to her Ladyship, as he actually was becoming here, he left such a lot to wish for. All protocols instilled by her parents actually forbid it, making it one of Royals foremost priorities. If now a Royal could sigh forlornly, then surely our Royal would have done so. It was true that someone as close to perfection as Royal would be so much more fitting, simple logic told him so. But it must be said, and much to our Royal’s credit too, that even this he refused, although not without a certain regret.

“Leave. There will be no further negotiations. Our demand stands. Free her Ladyship, then negotiate.”

Looking out from the cabin they could now see the life forms with their own eyes, well, Jeff could at least. Some reminding him, and the suits, of bloodthirsty prehistoric beasts, same as those roaming all over Earth once, others looking more like some sort of giant spiders and insects, some just as harmless as rabbits, but all waiting, restlessly pacing their perimeter. At least none had tried to pass it, so far.

“We can’t stop them if they attack.”

“You’re right Jeff. What’s stopping them is not the perimeter, More their fear of losing us.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know why? But it do seems that they find us of some value.”

It was then one of suits glitches, for once, came to do them some good. He had a old but strong resonator, it was mostly used when studying the interiors of asteroids looking for ore. Seldom used, it was a relic from those times when Space first had been opened, and new resources constantly were needed. Anyway, it malfunctioned, sending a short series of pulses through the floor. To the suits surprise they didn’t bounce back? Considering that planets are solid, and of different solidity depending on strata, one could expect them to meet a density reflecting them, but, this time they just seemed to disappear?

While Royal and Jeff continued the discussion suit, now becoming increasingly curious, continued the exploration of the planets innards that it so inadvertently had started. It circled through different frequencies trying to define the different strata. After some extensive testing, as well as a thorough testing of its own circuits, it called them to attention, exclaiming as it sent them a Tri-D of what it had found.

“This can't be a planet, it's just a shell?”
=

I'm sorry, this one is very short.
It will get better, given some time.

But it's at least getting, somewhere?
ahem.

==

.

What suit had found redefined their priorities totally.

Using his mining equipment suit sent down a sonde, somewhat like their probes but of an older and not so sophisticated type, straight through the floor of their cabin.

As Royal expressed it. “What’s the use of telling the whole world what we’re doing?”

And Jeff agreed. His sleep had become erratic the last weeks. It felt as if he was constantly assaulted by bad dreams. And they all seemed to involve that shapeless guy? Then there was something more, the urge to leave that town had grown stronger for every dream. It was becoming just as real as when awake, and that was starting to take its toll. He felt constantly tired, and also afraid of sleeping, as that only seemed to place him in that same dream. And that urge he had to leave, he was afraid of that one too. Because he had this weird feeling that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t wake up at all if he did?

He had tried to ask about it but Royal didn’t seem to have the time, and when he tried to discuss with suit it acted all dismissive, as if dreams was nothing to be worried about.

“That’s the problem with you organics.” It said. “You take everything so seriously.”

Maybe he did, but wasn’t Janelle taken by a dream too? Even if it was genes it still seemed to him as if he had good reason to worry. Royal's examination of his gene base had showed that he had the same genes implanted as her, but in a dormant position. Royal was comparing blood and cell samples from him to Janelle’s, frenetically trying to work out why hers would be dominant whilst his was not. So far he had found no explanation though.
==

What the sonde showed only made the suits argue, even harder than they had before. The crust stretched only a few hundred meters, and after that, there was only space. And that ‘space’ was behaving real strange. There were no light sources, and any radiation they sent just seemed to disappear? They tried to ‘ping’ the other side of the shell, having no success.

“This planet is a strange place. Worthy of several Emperors attention.” As Royal, somewhat pompously, put it.

In the mean time their negations were at a stand still. Planet was not used to that, it was more used to things flowing smoothly. Its inhabitants might have their little quirks, but something as stubborn as those suits it hadn’t met in a very long time. Patience wasn’t the right word, a planet don’t use those definitions. But if it had used it, we might say that its patience fast was running out.

They sat huddled before the fireplace discussing.

“We can’t reach the fields, and our food is running out, the same goes for water. We can try to fight our way to the woods, or split our forces.” The Royal said.

That meant that at least he and Janelle would be free, but free to go where? That name less shape they were fighting seemed to have the whole planet in its grip?

“Fight our way out? Against those?”

“Yes, we have the fire power, although we will only have it for a limited time, then we will need to regenerate.” Answered his suit. “I still think we should try to negotiate Royal.”

But Royal had this feeling, I know, suits (or robots, as they were called before) shouldn’t have feelings, should they? Let’s just say he had a good eye for probabilities then, and, according to those they were in dire need for a prolonged climate change. As they sat there in front of the fireplace discussing Jeff could feel himself getting sleepy again. Trying to do it as inconspicuous as he could he got out one of his peps, swallowing it dry.

But trying to hide anything in the vicinity of suits isn’t really an option. The Royal and suit was in constant sub-mode conversation, blindingly fast. The slow verbal conversation they had, involving Jeff, was mostly for his sake, and for him to learn from the masters, at least as Royal saw it. And as they noticed, they instantly recognized it for what it was.

“Give me a update on what you and him have discussed.” Royal ordered.

As suit gave it verbatim Royal remembered Jeff’s tries to communicate his unrest before. And Royal did take it serious, it was just that he had been fully occupied at that time, Janelle being his protocols top priority.

“So, he might be under attack too.” It concluded. “Bad news indeed.”

“Couldn’t we try to sneak out instead.” Jeff asked into the sudden silence that had appeared. “A tunnel maybe?”

The suits started to communicate.

“I’m sorry Royal, a puppy still.” suit tried to excuse his friend.

“No, the idea has some merit. But not a tunnel. How‘s your gyro, any glitches?”

“I’ve been doing what I can, maybe if we tethered I could take off, but the probability of it working for a sustained time period is low.”

“No problem, we'll let gravity take care of that.” The Royal decisively sub-vocalized before it, once more, turned back to Jeff.

“A good idea Jeff. But not a tunnel, we’ll open a way to the space inside instead. I doubt they will be able to get any information out from there.” And it was a good idea, it would make them invisible, and so buy them time. And who knew what they would meet inside that space.

There had to be an explanation to all of this and, as it looked now, maybe the planets innards was where they would find it?

Somewhat boring possibly.
Giving us an idea.

And, as usual, short :)

=

.

What was this space? We know it has a distance at least, at least they thought they did. The diameter of the planet defines the distance inside it. They knew that it was big, but, just how big? The probe they had sent to circumnavigate it hadn’t reported back, not since it passed into the planet’s radio shadow.

They all tacitly assumed that the probe had malfunctioned, when it didn’t came back to report. But old suit wasn’t as sure anymore. He had an extensive library downloaded, a memorial to his first owner, one of the first miners of Jupiter’s moons. Yes, suit was that old, several hundred years, at least parts of it. And that library was definitely one of those parts. And as it also had those writings constantly, instantly, accessible? In it there were mentions of thing unseen by any explorers suit had heard off. Planets, even galaxies with a mind of their own, animals that revolted against humans, all sorts of unthinkable things for a loyal suit to consider.

But those same stories also, in a way, invited to think the unthinkable. Maybe the planet was just that big? Maybe the probe would have to wander a hundred years more before it came back? Still, those questions could as easily be seen as a result of those glitches suit had started to develop. When they first arrived they had seen the planet silhouette though, and it had been in the shape of a curve. That should mean that it was wrong, shouldn't it? So maybe Royal was right after all? And it was just as possible that this 'thing' negotiating with them had destroyed it, who could say what strange technologies such a being might have.

The suit started to prepare for the tunneling, enclosing himself in wrap he started to loosen the molecular bindings he found in the soil, changing its properties. Part chemistry, part quantum technology it was not unlike an art. You had to guess, or if you like assess, the probabilities of their bonding with each other. When it came to those parts suit recognized it was no problem but as he came further down it became harder. Those last hundred meters didn’t work at all.

“I can’t dissolve it.”

The Royal who continuously had overseen suit’s progress was now busily searching for a solution. Much of the technology the suit used was unknown to him, specialized for working in space, but the theory behind it wasn’t.

“The last layer is like nothing I’ve ever meet, it’s not rock and it’s not metal. I don’t know what it is?”

It was perfectly transparent to electromagnetic radiation but refused to let itself be manipulated, and suit did not have the up to date equipment for analyzing its bonding. When he tried to ‘see’ it using as short waves as he could create, trusting in its refraction to tell him, he found no interference coming from the material. And that meant that using 'half-waves', made by clever manipulations of the waves interfering with each other, also became impossible.

“You’re right Royal, we should have brought an Emperor with us, instead of me.”

“Don’t you say that suit.” Jeff spoke up. “Without you we would never had thought to look inside.”

Royal had to give Jeff right there. They probably wouldn’t, and to be entirely truthful, a emperor would probably had brought the negotiations to a fruitful solution, instead of bungling it refusing to talk, as he had done. But now it seemed as their last window of opportunity was closing on them. Without being able to crack those last hundred meters they didn’t really stand a chance.

For Jeff, who had been keeping himself awake for the longest time, the world was becoming increasingly strange. He kept moving and and out of swift microsleep, short intervals of being away. He at one second saw suit as he normally appeared, the other as some sort of shining globe using tendrils of light. And the colors he saw when in that other state was weird, he couldn’t really describe them.

He turned his attention to that last layer of the crust,. finding himself descending, or maybe floating, down to take a close look. Suit was right he heard himself thinking, almost as if dreaming it. This wasn’t atoms interacting, it was something entirely different. More like one single atom, a Bose—Einstein condensate maybe, chilled to a near ‘absolute zero’. But it wasn’t at any temperature like that? How could it be? Yet it still felt as if he recognized it, even though he never had seen anything like it before in his life?

“It’s a Bose—Einstein condensate.” He explained, or at least thought he explained. “Let me see what I can do.” A Bose—Einstein condensate was a description of a state where all atoms are at their lowest state of ‘energy’. There are two ways to look at reality, one in which you have a state of absolute rest, where all atoms disappear, as they then will ‘dissolve’ into nothingness, alternatively for the first time ever be ‘still’ allowing you to measure all their properties simultaneously. That is what is called the classical view, the one we had before quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics also speaks of states of ‘rest’, but this ‘rest’ will always have to obey HUP, which was Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. And according to that one it’s impossible to judge all parameters of a ‘system’ simultaneously, meaning that there can’t exist any classical definition of absolute zero, or ‘no-motion’. Instead you always will have something undefined, possible of motion, no matter how much you chill it down. And the only ‘rest’ there can be will be some lowest state of ‘energy’ from where we can’t bring it down further.

And that was what Jeff was looking at now.

An even shorter continuance.
So that we can move on.

=

.

Now, as we all know, there are several ways too look at time. From a quantum mechanical perspective 'time' could be seen as a purely thermodynamical process, or maybe as a result of the laws of entropy? Down there 'time' also could be described as reversible, as some processes made just as much sense if turned around time-wise? But then we come to HUP? That uncertainty HUP spoke about? Wasn’t that a 'motion' of sorts too? Well, maybe not. It was something making it impossible to define all properties simultaneously, inside our arrow of time, perfectly described by our ideas of vacuum fluctuations, or virtual particles. They 'existed' but, immeasurably so.

But if they then could change, didn’t that imply a motion of sorts? Here we had a problem, from a purely scientific point of view time was just a variable, as shown by general relativity, it could and would change with motion and mass, and as expected, with ‘energy’. From relativity’s point of view you might say that time was just as insubstantial as your ‘frame of reference’. It surely existed, but just as with time it was impossible to pinpoint a ‘frame of reference’ to an exact position inside SpaceTime, but yet, perfectly possible to calculate on it. As all Lorentz transformations could show us.

You might think of Earth as our common ‘frame of reference’ and in several ways it is. But take two synchronized atomic clocks, placed on a table. Then move one to the floor and watch its duration’s start to differ from the clock left on the table. That’s your ‘frames of reference’ differing, each clock presenting you with one unique one, each clock based on that same Earth you stand on, but now with different ‘times’.

So even though your own ‘clock’ always was there, giving you the exact same duration’s, no matter what you did, or how fast you went. And no matter that every experiment you made, only could point in one timely direction, 'time' still was something of a mystery.

What was this arrow of time?

And then there was one more thing, change? Wasn’t that an ultimate sign of time?
=

Jeff was still there, probing the shell. How the hell he did it he didn’t know, neither did he care. It was all intuitive, something intrinsic to him here, by birth maybe? At least it felt so to him as he looked inside his mind, somehow, he just knew what to do. All atoms are, from a quantum mechanical point of view, more a 'matter' of probability than really ‘there’. Every change in them an emergence of sorts, although materializing as real inside our macroscopic stream of time. And there was always that possibility of interacting, introducing that hard core that would make it impossible to exist inside our stream. But, doing so would also destroy whatever planet this was, Jeff knew that he was threading dangerous ground as he carefully probed it.

To understand what, and how, Jeff manipulated this weird state of a ‘atomic crust’, you might think of it as him doing it on that same plane as wherefrom that ‘crust’ came to be. Yep, that’s right, quantum mechanics. Those places where the arrow of time, as we know it, ‘broke down’, and where probability took over, becoming the sole definition of 'change'. With only probabilities governing an action you might say that energy no longer needed to be a consideration. Down there our definitions lost their meaning, only probability existing, and consciousness of course, that what observed.

But he had to find a way of interfering with it, opening a way, which still would keep it intact. He started to wonder what would happen if one introduced another ‘atom’, another chilled BEC, could that be a possibility? As he strove to see it happen he slowly could see the two BECs overlap, interfering like two sets of waves. Like thin, parallel layers of matter separated by thin layers of empty space. The pattern he fought to form in his mind would come to be from the two waves adding up at certain points. At some points their wave-crests coinciding reinforcing each other. But at other, as those crests met a trough canceling themselves, leaving a empty space. Most of all reminding him of wave patterns you would see if you were to throw a couple of stones into a pond. That 'space' created was the portal he searched.

As he strove to keep the image still in his head he searched for the suits. Finding them, now more reminding him of globes of light than anything else, he moved them, again without knowing just how he did it, inside the opening. And as he followed them inside, almost forgetting to take his own form with him as he didn’t really find it to be himself any more. And as he started to wake up, finding that this was what scared him most of all.

Still, they were finally inside.
=

Some more, slightly boring I'm afraid. And new, may have to correct some of it. Mostly mine ideas, but as far as I know, correct. And although there is a lot more to be said about the physics, behind physics, we won't, for now. And if you're one of those thinking of 'time' in terms of thermodynamics, I do expect a mail in where you ever so patiently explain where I go wrong questioning those ideas :)

Anyway, it's kind'a for the 'hardcore SF fan' probably.
Or those interested in 'time'.

Anyway.
Bear with me.

=

.

Space, as we know it, is decided by distance, and distance, well, it is decided by clocks. When you measure a distance there is always a clock involved, somewhere. Because without that time measuring, how can there be a distance? So distance was a description of a space, measured by clocks. But all clocks are internal, or expressed otherwise, local. What that meant was just that if you thought of space as something getting its shape from gravity, its ‘ups and downs’ if you like, then what decided the measurement of distance was you, and your relation to that SpaceTime you existed in.

But if now your clock and so distance told you one thing but the others clock and so his measurement of a distance told him another? Which clock was the true one? The simple answer is that all clocks are true, and all distances measured. The only time one possibly could question them would be if one could be in the other mans shoes as well as ones own, simultaneously. Figuratively speaking here of course, knowing your ‘other definitions’ of time measured, as well as distances. And as there is no man, or woman, born that that can be in two places at the same time?

Then there was this idea of thermodynamics, and entropy, as some thing creating those ‘clocks’, but if that was true, why could gravity ‘redefine’ a clocks duration, measuring something? Gravity wasn’t a thermodynamical process, neither was it a entropic. Although you might want to define gravity as a matter belonging to matter, no pun intended here, gravity itself would still be a secondary effect. And if space got its ‘metric’, and so shape, from that gravity existing, didn’t that also imply that without this metric, there would be no ‘space’? Would it exist? Think about it, ‘space’ is a 'classical' nothing, but the nothing contains distance as well as ‘clocks’ and both get their definition from the gravity existing. Without a space existing for you, wherever would you find that 'clock' ticking? And without a clock, can the duration’s you need for measuring a distance exist?

Space is indeed a tricky business.
=

They were falling.

But to Jeff, that now was back inside himself, and also in some miraculous way inside suit, it didn’t feel as if they were moving at all. There was light, but only as he turned back to look at the shell they were leaving, looking down, if that now was the right way to define it, there was nothing. No reflections and no light, somehow it reminded him of how he had heard people describing portals. They too were defined by the way light got lost inside them.

“A portal?” he mumbled.

“Where?” asked his suit.

“Sorry suit, it just reminded me of those stories, the light I mean.”

For the suits the last moments had been chaotic, neither of them had a clear memory of just how they had broken through that shell, nor of how they had came to be inside. But where a human would have broken down, doubting his sanity at this the suits was prepared to accept what their telemetry told them. They still didn’t have an explanation, but suit suspected that whatever it was it had to do with his young disciple, although how he couldn’t understand? But humans were his creators and so, in some way his teachers still, even as young as Jeff.

And Jeff found it just as hard to remember. It seemed to slip away, and he had to work keeping it in his mind. It was as if he unconsciously didn’t want to remember, trying to, becoming a fight? It didn’t make it any better that what he thought himself to have done involved concepts he couldn’t seem to find the words for? It was as if he had reached out with his mind, and somehow been able to manipulate things to small too exist. But he was making a effort to remember.

“Suit, I want to record.”

“Go ahead Jeff.”

As he told his story he could the shell dwindling away, it seemed as if their velocity was increasing. As he finished with what he could remember he asked.

“Is that us accelerating?”

Directly realizing how stupid that must sound. If it had been them he surely would have felt the gravity’s G-forces acting but there was no such sensation, only a weightlessness. Suit and Royal had already been in submode several minutes discussing it. Using the shells transparency, and the soils discoloration’s, they got a measure of distance, and triangulating they found themselves accelerating at a ever increasing velocity, although gravitationally. It made no sense, all answers they got triangulating was one in where the planet had to be immensely larger than anything ever measured before. And then there was the fact that all their pings back to that shell were becoming increasingly distorted. Royal had an idea, but even for a suit of his advanced composition it seemed too far fetched to be presented. In the end it was Jeff venting something similar, as they included him into their findings.

“A neutron star? Nah, it can’t be, can it?”

“No, we would have been crushed a long time ago Jeff if this planet would have been made out of neutrons. I have one computation though, that may be possible, but its probability is so low as to make it impossible.

“Worse?”

“A Black Hole.”

Inside the planets very center they hovered, not one, not two, but three of them. The crust added gravity but it were the black holes that made up for the part missing. Two of them were rotating around each other, with the third using those as its center, rotating around them both. That was also what made up for the gravity differing. They made for a stable configuration, one of the few possible in a three-body configuration.

But the most amazing fact about them wasn’t really that, but the fact that none of them had a spin. As is well known all Black Holes are expected to have a angular momentum, a spin. The fact of them spinning had been proven for all Black Holes known so far. And the explanation to them spinning, sometimes close to the speed of light, laid in the way their original rotations, before being compressed, translated into an ever increasing angular momentum as they shrunk in size.

But those Black Holes didn’t, presenting us all with a enigma. Not that the suits, or Jeff knew it yet.

And that was a added worry to the suits as with a spin there came tidal forces, ‘framedragging’ as it was called, where the very space was dragged around with the black holes spinning, well, the gravity was. A little like your water spins around as it disappear down the drain, just exchange the word ‘water’ for ‘space’. Those forces, as well as the way gravity itself acted inwards, would start to separate their molecules from each other at them as they closed in on the Event Horizon. tearing them apart. Although, there did exist some scenarios describing Black Holes free from those forces, as experienced past the Event Horizon, but as there were no way testing them?

I said that gravity decides the clock rate but a better way of describing it may be that gravity and motion defines what you will see. All clocks in the universe have one same intrinsic beat. That may sound slightly weird considering a time dilation, which clearly indicates that there must be different beats. But what a time dilation speaks about is the relation between frames of reference, your own frame observing all other. Instead of your intrinsic 'clock' warping, it will be those other frames that express it according to you, depending on gravity, motion and energy. And it is first when you take your observations, and compare it to what the other frame has measured that the inconsistency of a whole SpaceTime express itself. SpaceTime do not have only one truth, it has one truth for each observer.

It all falls back on one simple thing, the fact that the speed of light always will be measured at one indifferent ‘speed’ in a vacuum, namely 'c', becoming what is called a ‘constant’. In the end we seem to meet those ‘constants’ everywhere. They are the ultimate guardians of SpaceTime, and their values comes seemingly without explanation. All discussions giving 'c' different values either ignore gravity, or steps away from Einsteins definitions.

And as long as you can accept that gravity defines the space, then all points consisting of that gravity also must have ‘clocks’ embedded in them. Those clocks never differ from what you know to be the correct ‘duration’, as you easily can test just by going there to measure them yourself. They will always be the same to you. That doesn’t state that what you measure, observing someone else, will show you the same duration’s you find yourself to have, and that fact will be just as true for the one moving, measuring you. Space and Time inseparable into a moldable jello, changing depending on mass, motion and 'energy'. Unique for each observer or, if you like, for each point in SpaceTime.

So, ‘time’ has an arrow, and that arrow only delivers you one ‘speed’, as far as you can measure it locally. But everyone else’s time and distance will, according to you, change with their relative motion, gravity and 'energy'. And this will be true for all points in this universe, they all will have a unique description of how 'SpaceTime looks'. A Lorentz transformation is a mathematical tool for translating those different perspectives into one ‘whole’ description. A little like you translating your dollars into pounds. Nevertheless, all of them being true descriptions, from where they are measured and experienced.

And as all black Holes can be thought of as machines? Truly weird cosmic engines, becoming the givers, as well as destroyers, of life? And they all represent enormous energies, in fact infinite at their centers. Sending out gigantic jets of radiation that becomes our newest stars as they met the interstellar gas clouds permeating our universe.

This non spinning configuration inside the planet was silent, dormant, and waiting.
But, for what?

=

A beginning again.
It's like all stories, you see new horizons as they develop.
Also short again. Have too much to do suddenly.
Which is weird :)

==

=

Can planets plan?

If they can they don’t really know, do they. Take earth for example, did it plan for life, all life? Well, if it did, it didn’t plan for greed. Because, in the end, greed killed that planet. Planet had no idea of greed, but its builders had a pretty fair notion. There were several failsafes built into Planets memory, restrictions to what was acceptable behavior. And there was one that took precedence before all other.

“Thou shalt not venture inside me.” But those new specimens, they had just done it?

It was time for more radical measures.
==

There was a battle going on, and they were losing it.

“My lord”

“Yes”

“There’s a traitor amongst us”

Around them the court rushed here and there, the Lady’s colors in a constant feverish mix. For a human outsider it would probably most would remind him of a dream, in fantastic colors, with people closely resembling elves passing everywhere. Some tall and thin, others shorter, but all of them having that otherworldly stamp on them. But then we had those others too, dragons with scales of a gleaming cobalt, some of a flaming crimson, even more exotic and mystical, moving to some strange ethereal beat only they could hear. All of it taking place inside what best might be described as gigantic caverns, looking as if clad in gigantic drapes of a shimmering texture, ever changing into new never-ending patterns. The light inside those chambers not powered by any sun, no, more like a veil hanging, a fog of light perhaps? Sometimes so thick that you feel that you almost could touch it, enticing you, drawing you into its midst.

Earlier that day, well, one have to have some common standard right? So, let’s call it a day for lack of better words. Earlier that day Lord Slade had gotten himself some new recruits. From far away they were, bloodbands thin and diluted, but of no little power as measured by themselves. ‘Arrogant to the bone’ as Slade thought as he welcomed them in the big Hall. But their power was real, and reinforcements were needed. ‘Beggars can’t be choosers’ was his seccond thought as he graciously bid them welcome. And the damned banquet had drawn on, and on, with beings coming and going, and now this?

“Onethousandone.”

“Onethousandtwo”

She was throwing herself from side to side in her futile attempts to keep count.

“Onemillion fortysix” her brow white, her body shaking, as she tries to throw those invincible fetters away.

And at some other level a man smiled cruelly. This was a dream she wouldn’t escape,

“How long has it been going on.” Slade asked as he watched the attendants fruitless attempts to calm her down, trying to keep her in the bed.

“Sir, I don’t know. It was as I passed by I thought her to call on me. As I came in I found her like this.”

“Onemillion three hundred ten.”

Their foremost truthsayer locked in a dream, battling the spirits keeping her there. Their war going badly indeed.
===

There has always been evil. It comes by many names, ignorance being the foremost. It’s also known as the bane of Eden. At that time when man first learnt to stand, saying to himself “Because I can” evil also took its first stumbling step. But there is also goodness and sometimes, mostly, life is a mixture of them both. No man being totally evil, there are still those so trapped in their self-conceit that they never might give themselves a chance to prove it though. Then we have those that shouldn’t have been born, enigmas to all understanding. And for those, even using the epithet man will be questionable.

Swostok smiled again as he studied the flawless dreamloop he had created. It danced excitedly before his eyes, a never-ending Moebius strip, caught in time, always the same and always new. ‘The bitch snared at last’ he thought contentedly as he hovered over the bowl, watching the commotion in the room. ‘And all too easy‘ he mumbled almost disappointed as he turned his attendance back to his steed, impatiently waiting for him. Its tail being in a constant motion, threatening to break the flimsy human things standing frozen around it, enthralled by Swostok.

“Are you hungry Mogl? Why don't you have a bite dear, and be well.” Swostok spoke soothingly as he looked around one last time, checking the dusty old chamber they were in. Once it must had been a place of storage he guessed, only now long forgotten by those living. As he watched Mogl studiously finish its meal, only the blood stained rock walls left to tell of its gruesome feast, he at last nodded decisively. His doings done for now, the play set into motion, he badly needed some rest from it all. He took a great pride in his work, but it took its toll, even on him.

-

Something more, might have to correct this later.
Hope I didn't make too many mistakes, spelling, etc.

(Sorry, made horrible mistakes here, corrected though, well, hopefully so.)

==

=

They were still falling, somehow it seemed to never end. Jeff felt as if they had been there forever now, but it had only been some days ship-time. And as they no longer seemed able to measure their speed relative that shell, as all pings seemed to disappear? The suits seemed both to have fallen silent now, possibly communicating he thought, not involving him though? Suddenly he noticed, but thinking of it he realized that it must have been building up for some time. It was as if he was being dragged to a corner, but as the feeling increased it also corrected itself to become the floor, and suddenly he realized that the gravity was back, weak, but back.

“Suit.”

“Yes Jeff, we’ve noticed.”

“What is it?”

“Can’t say yet Jeff, so far the best description would be a anomaly. It may be more that one gravity well acting on us.”

More than one? What would that do to them?

“Shouldn’t we be torn into pieces if it was that way?”

“Yes, no. We are still computing.”

Still computing?

“Let me through to Royal Suit”

“Sorry Jeff, he’s busy.”

Royal too busy to talk? It didn’t sound good to Jeff.

“Okay Suit, just give me a view of where we’re going and I’ll let you to your computing, please?”

As the sensors came on he only saw the same impenetrable blackness that he had gotten so used too. But as he kept on watching he got this feeling that it wasn’t as black as he first had though. Something had changed, although he couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

“Suit, is there some light there? Or is it me imagining?”

“Computing” was the only answer he got, remembering his promise Jeff kept his quiet after that watching that bottomless pit, that their descent had become, fascinated. There was definitely something there, even though he had no idea what it was. It wasn’t as much a light as something he could feel, like a warmth of some kind?

“Are we getting radiated?”

He suddenly had this vision of them getting fried in a heatbath. His question seemed to wake up Suit at least.

“No Jeff, there is no radiation coming on our sensors, but yes, we too feel something is amiss.”

“You ‘feel’?”

“Yes, it’s a anomaly. We are now both in self check mode Jeff.”

Perfect, not only Janelle, but the suits too?

“What does it tell you then?”

“We seem to be functioning adequately, although we have no explanation for the anomalies we experience. It might have to do with us coming through a portal, possibly?” If now a Suit could sound hesitant his surely did.

But Jeff felt a little better all the same. To be left alone, with two malfunctioning Suits, one of which he was inside and the other being Janelles, would have been a nightmare.

“So we wait.” He asked finally.

“Yes, and we compute.” Answered the Suit.
==

A portal is a strange thing, all light disappearing, just as with a Black Hole, but there is no gravitational attraction. Somehow the gravity in front of a portal always seems correlated to the gravity where it exist, with no gradient towards its opening. Measuring, as close that you can come to it, you will find that light wanders as normal, giving no preference to that portal. But there are still no reflections from it, nothing, leaving that ‘hole’ in your visual field as you looked at it.

There was one hypothesis he had found though, in where they speculated about so called ‘naked singularities’. The idea was that if you somehow could create a stable configuration of singularities, all infinitesimally close to each other, you might be able to create something in where you could be at the center, although still finding it calm, no ‘tidal forces’ ripping you apart. And as the center of a Black Hole were where all normal physics broke down, only giving you infinities as you tried to count on it?

Jeff had called up the library directly as he had learnt about the anomaly this inner space represented, trying to find something similar. The closest he had come was just those Black holes, and now he once more started to wonder.

“Can we stop our fall Suit?”

It should be possible, shouldn’t it? If they were in a gravitational field they should be able to hover?

“No, we dare not test. The gravitational field is fluctuating Jeff, although macroscopically stable it behaves almost as if we were measuring it at a quantum level.”

“Zero point energy?”

Jeff had read about that, it was another weird thing with that empty space that existed around us. If measured at a quantum level ‘empty space’ seemed to have all sort of possible energies, and so also a radiation. Although taking itself out macroscopically, leaving us a absolute nothing we called 'space', containing no resistance at all. And there was also some debate to if it was correct calling it 'fluctuating', as at that quantum level where the 'radiation' existed even ‘the arrow of time’ became a disputable thing.

“Yes, but maybe more of a tidal field acting on us.”

“How do you know it fluctuate then?”

“Royal see it, but only when measuring at small scales. The effects are rearranging all there is, still able to leave us be macroscopically.” The suit almost sounded excited as it said it, and as Jeff started to wonder about it he felt himself getting more and more intrigued, and uncomfortable. It was not a altogether pleasant thing finding himself existing only at a macroscopic plane. Still, they did exist, and as far as he could find he was just as normal as usual. He pinched himself just to make sure.

“Ouch, so maybe it’s true then?” he muttered.

“What is true, Jeff?”

Jeff couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed as he explained, since the idea was more of a philosophical one, coming from an old science fiction.

“Well, it’s just something I read once, someone suggested that there was two ways to describe the universe. One statistical in where you can predict the future, as well as define the past. Another being the individual, as macroscopically, in where the future always is unpredictable, with only the past defined.”

“like free will you mean?” That Suit sure was a quick learner.

“Yeah, I think that was involved somewhere too.” Jeff admitted feeling himself redden.

“Interesting.”

The suit stopped talking, Jeff now becoming half-afraid that it was relaying his musings to Royal.

“You mean that the reason we still exist would ground itself on us becoming a statistical approach?” Came Royal’s voice.

‘Damn, I was right.’ Jeff thought, wishing he had kept his mouth shut..

“Yeah, it’s just a thought though, nothing measurable Royal.” He quickly pointed out, all to late realizing that it was measurable, even though not looked upon that way normally.

“Interesting.” Was the dry reply, and then the suits became silent again.

“Echooes” thought Jeff, feeling slightly smug. Maybe there was something to the idea after all?

“Heh, who’s the daddy now?” Muttered complacently as Jeff leaned back, unflinchingly staring into the black void, waiting, for what he did not know.

===

Nothing much, just setting a mood.
And hopefully starting to write again.

And it's not 'polished'.

===

=

He couldn’t say how it happened, and as they discussed it later, neither could anyone else. He wished he could speak with Janelle though, but she was still ‘resting’ as Royal called it, entrusted to his nano circuitry’s loving care. But he had no doubt of Royal’s commitment to her, and to her bloodline.

As far as he could remember they just had transferred, if that now was the right word? But not into a ‘space’. One moment in a black empty space, the next inside what most seemed to be a cavern? It was lighted by a weak glow, of a strange greenish tinge, seemingly coming from everywhere.

“Where are we, can you see if we still are inside the sphere?” He heard himself ask, knowing it had to be for the umptieth time. He felt himself coming on to them as a petulant child, but god damn, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this, was it?

“We are computing” was the answer he got.

“Yeah, but are we still on that planet, in it I mean?”

“I can’t say yet Jeff.” Came Royal’s answer. “The gravity is wrong, not by too much though. The atmosphere does not compute at all, it contain traces of unstable elements not existing in my periodic table. I can’t vouch for if it is breathable Jeff, it should be as the mix of nitrogen and oxygen is about the same, but I’m still evaluating the trace substances, and what impact they may have at longer time scales. In fact, I think we need a human evaluation here” Royal finished, almost sounding frustrated.

Jeff sat quiet for a while as the hidden request started to sink in, then he asked his Suit.

“Suit, what do you think, should I give it a try?”

“It would help Jeff.” Answered Suit. “We need to know what it might do, and the simplest way would be you. We will monitor, and test you, for its effects.”

Jeff just sat there, his frustration slowly ebbing away, but with an icy feeling of caution replacing it.

“I don’t know Suit, how dangerous is it?”

“Royal will handle it Jeff, none of the traces should have any effect on you. As far as we can compute they are all inert. And we don’t take any chances with you.”

“Ah well, it’s got to be better than doing nothing.” Jeff muttered as he rose from his chair

“Okay, lets do it.”

Three hours later he found himself quite a bit away. Suit being in constant contact with him, and with Royal cautioning him not to stray too far. It also seemed as Royal finally was done with purging whatever that had invaded Janelles mind. Jeff regretted asking what he had done with her though, as the explanation fast became incomprehensible, interlaced with small but glowing testaments to how he, Royal, most probably was the only one able to perform such delicate neural redirections.

“So, you tampered with her brain!”

“No, I just redirected.”

“Tampered!”

“Redirected Jeff, not that I expect peasants to understand the difference.” Royal as close to a sneer as Jeff ever had heard.

“Jeff.” That was Suit calling him, on their private channel. “Please..”

“He can’t temper with her, no decent Suit will with a human. He's only redirected those new neurological pathway’s that's been instilled, and a most delicate work it was indeed. It seems as her brain somehow had been encouraged into growing new connections. Royal is still trying to make sense of those, try to give him some credit for his work.”

“Okay, but he won’t mess with my brain.” Jeff muttered, slowly calming as he listened to Suit. That was the trouble with Royal he thought. He might have the best brain of them all, but his communicational skills, and empathy, seemed sadly lacking.

“I’m sorry Royal, I overreacted. I’m sure you did good work” Jeff grudgingly admitted as he turned back look, the cavern, stretching away for as long as he could see. The ceiling wasn’t that high above him though, only a few hundred meters. He knew the suits could be at him in an instant, but this was his first chance to stretch his legs in a long while, and he enjoyed it too much. Then there was this feeling of being the first to explore too, it just wasn’t the same inside a suit.

As he started his survey he suddenly got a weird feeling of being under surveillance. A nagging warm tingling centred right at his back, between his shoulder-blades, almost as if someone was using a magnifying glass on it. He had had this kind of premonitions before, and learnt the hard way the danger of ignoring them.

“Suit”

“Yes Jeff”

“Can you do a scan for life signs please.”

“Seen anything?”

“No, just a feeling.”

As he waited for Suits scan to finish he checked on his handgun. It was a old model, just a laser. It had two settings, one for using it as a crude hand tool, the other a concentrated ray of heat, able to penetrate most hides in the known universe. But this wasn’t a known universe he reminded himself as he set the mode on ‘beam’, careful not to make it too obvious if now anyone was watching.

“No Jeff, no heat signals, and no other signals of life either.” Came Suits answer.

“You sure?” Damn, there I go again, asking stupid questions Jeff though. Of course Suit was sure.

“I’m as sure as I can be, do you want me to come with you?”

Now Jeff felt foolish.

“Nah, it’s probably just nerves.” He admitted as he slowly turned around to his side, in vain trying to pinpoint the location of that unpleasant sensation. There was only the rock wall to be seen, craggy jagged pieces of a dark glowing red, somehow joining up to become the wall, stretching forever upwards into something that most reminded him of a fog.

“What’s that fog.” He asked excitedly.

“Where.”

“To my right, some hundred meters up the wall.”

“There’s no fog, wait, computing.” Suit said.

“But there is, I can see it, and it’s growing.”

“No fog that I can find Jeff, I'm having trouble locating you though. It’s probably some trick of the light.”

Suit could be right there, that green glow was really strange, it had an almost rippling effect as it played on the red rock face, creating subtle shadows that sometimes almost looked like they were alive. But he still could see that strange fog, or maybe it was a more like a cloud? But constantly sinking. And the ceiling that he had thought to be just some hundreds meters above him? Now it started to melt away, indivisible from the cloud itself.

He didn’t know how long he had stared on it, mesmerised at its sight, when he suddenly noticed someone calling.

“Jeff. Answer me, are you okay?”

“Huh.” He forced himself to look away from it.

“Yeah, I’m okay, but I would prefer if you came here. I’m turning back.” He said.

“Okay I’m moving.” Came suits voice over the intercom.

As Jeff started to walk back at a brisk pace, not that he was worried, well, not that much, he glanced over his shoulder to see if the cloud still was descending. But it was gone, as if it never had been there at all.

“Strange.”

Jeff stopped, had he heard that or was it just his imagination?

“So straange, can we play with it?” came another voice, almost as if begging.

Nope, someone was definitely speaking. He quickly turned around, his right hand resting on his gun, just to find himself looking at, nothing, just a craggy red plain stretching into nowhere.

“Suit, are you coming?”

“Yes.” Came the reply.

“Jeff, can you boost your transponder a little.”

“Why do you need the transponder? Can’t you see me?”

It sure was taking Suit an awful long time to come Jeff thought, starting to feel worried as he turned up his beacon, full blast.

“Can you see me now?”

“I don’t understand?” He heard Suit complain.

“I’m receiving you perfectly, but your beacon keeps dropping out, almost as if something was interfering with it?”

“Yeah, but you should be able to get a visual if you hovered.” Jeff pointed out.

“I am hovering, how far did you go?”

“I don’t know, some kilometres, let me see if I can spot you.”

Using his binoculars Jeff searched the sky. But Suit was nowhere to be found.

“Enough.” He heard the voice command, harsh and impatient.

“Man child, see me.”

==

As for it making sense?
We'll see.

Maybe?

===

Royal, who in vain had tried to make sense of their transition, Janelle now peacefully sleeping of his administrations, from that strange inner space into this, cavern? Had finally decided to threw all his inbuilt restrictions overboard. If now the known Science couldn't help him, he found no choice but to create his own hypothesises, after all, he was a Royal. He had started with the most obvious, that they somehow had triggered a portal. There was the problem with them never noticing it though? A cloaked Portal? Well, that one was possible, possibly? Then there was another, that they had meet a science unlike their own. Every bubble had their own definitions of constants and 'laws'.

Mostly they were expected to be steered by the same laws as their own universe though? After all, if they were too different there should be no possibility of existing at all, at least not for humans. And what would the use be of such a place? Still, there was portals where the constants were subtly different, places where no human, or sentient robot, could feel fully at ease. Maybe this was a place like that? As he immersed himself in his databases he had failed to notice how his contact with Suit and Jeff seemed to subtly change, fading to then come back, but each time weaker, inexorable receding further away.
=

For the first time in aeons Planet found himself in doubt. It had watched its new acquisitions rebel, with some amusement at first, well knowing that there was no way of contradicting its wishes. But as it found them passing through the shell the amusement quickly had disappeared, confusion taking its place. Planet knew that it should have been impervious to any attack.

It was not even a shell in the usual meaning. It was more of clouds, resting at different layers. Each one a superposition, its ‘electron’ being everywhere in that layer, also becoming a repulsing ‘force’ to anything trying to infiltrate. Long ago, before Planets memory, it had been manipulated into such a state by its creators. To pass it was possible, although ‘not by mere humans’ as Planet thought. And there was one more thing disturbing it, more than it wanted to admit to itself. Planet was now closed of from Janelle, their mindmeld gone, and somehow, that disturbed it?

He missed her. .
=

“Man child, welcome to my realm. Will you freely submit?”

Jeff couldn’t really make out what he saw? It was like looking at someone through a mirror, or into a pond? His eyes just couldn't make any sense of it. The ripples coming and going around the creature made him nauseous, he constantly had to fight of a feeling of vertigo trying to overtake him. It was like staring down in a abyss, but straight ahead, finding your last foothold slip away, as the plain dissolved, just to came back again, his sense of reality becoming a turmoil.

“Is there a choice?”

“Choice?”

What followed was no communication, and no surrender. It was a sheer invasion of his mind, his mental defences swept away like they never had been there in the first place. He felt himself crack under the mental onslaught, his innermost hopes and thoughts laid bare for the intruder, his mind decomposing into simple stimuli, threatening to leave him like a automaton for his captors delight.

“This will not do.”

Suddenly wrapped in a sphere of privacy, he slowly came back to normal thought.

“Who are you?” He didn’t know whom he questioned this time, maybe both? Because, surely there was a struggle going on. Making him wonder if it being about the possession of his soul, if he now had one? Although his remembrances giving him no reason to trust to any sort of divinity, if one existed it hadn't made its presence known to him, or his mother.

What he got back was a, amused, feeling. As if someone found him making a joke at his own expense. And with it a assurance that no one would be allowed to strip his mind bare.

“Man child?”

The intruder momentarily taken back by the vehemence with which Jeff succeeded to fight back was taken by surprise and Jeff felt it draw back slightly.

“ Does this mean we can’t play?” he heard a plaintive call?

“Do you refuse?” it asked him. “You will let me in, or..”

As it studied him he felt himself ever so slow and painfully breaking lose, his vision subtly shifting once again. It was as if it went out of phase, the red plain coming into focus with the creature fading. The effect being one of a overlaid image of both places. He felt the creature fighting him, hold him back with every breath he took. Somehow his will to escape prevailed through the fight, and finally he found himself back on the plain, Suit hovering by him.

“Jeff!” He noticed its surprise. So it hadn’t been his imagination then.

Jeff smiled, his body shaking from his exhaustion.

“Hi Suit. Let me in, please.”
=

Planet decided to take action. There was a way to every problem, even those unprecedented. He had searched his database and in his oldest parts found what he thought to be an appropriate solution. He knew that the risk of failure was great. It could well mean the end of him as a planetary consciousness, but it was also the one that promised him something new. And maybe that was it, all said and done he felt old, too old and jaded for his own good. And in Janelle he had found dreams and hope, untainted by life and experience. Maybe it was the ultimate folly he thought, to allow himself this. But there was no refusal for his need.

He would become an avatar.

=

It's very short.
But better than nothing, hopefully?

=

Where dreams end, and reality steps in is a hard thing to define. In science there comes a point in where all talk about ‘forces’ stops making sense, and where ‘fields’ become a magical intonation for something describing a ‘state of universe’ as the ‘graviton’ and ‘Higgs boson’ might be examples of. Royal knew that all knowledge has a limit, at least in the living world, where we research, define and experiment. There is no such thing as ‘knowing it all’ although a lot of people wants it to be true, at some future point. Some define it through beliefs, and faith, others through theoretical definitions and equations. But in the end, no one living ‘knows it all’.

Planet had found a solution for experiencing life. Not that it minded being a ‘living brain’, it was just that it lately had started to wonder if there was something more to existence, than just knowing? It was as if something was missing from its understanding, and in its mind melding with Janelle that feeling had made it, unbearable? He needed to know, yes, not an ‘it’ any longer, now choosing to define itself as ‘he’, he couldn’t help wonder if this too was an inbuilt drive made through his creators. Or was the urge to diminish ones self into the semi human form his own?

“We lost it” wailed the voices. “Our toy Master, find it back and give it to us!”
==

Lord Slade was a deeply worried man. Watching his one and only love and truthsayer battling the dark compulsion, laid upon her by the deeds of his treacherous brother, he restlessly wandered the room, back and forth. “Brother” he swore “No one have the ability to penetrate our stronghold, but you. Damn you to the seven hells.”

Lord Swostok was indeed the one that had done it, as we know, but Slade couldn’t be totally sure. His was a once mighty realm, now constantly shrinking, as the Chaos Gods seemed to have turned a blind eye to him. And he and Swostok had once been close, but that was before the turning. The Swostok he had grown up with, his once closest friend and most trusted ally, was now undermining him with every turn of the dice.

“Why? My own brother.” He wondered again, unable to stop contemplating Swostoks turning. It had been an insidious thing though, hard for anyone to see. Inch by inch and step by step changing his brother from being his staunchest ally to foulest foe. It all had started with Swostok wanting to research power, not the power coming from hard work and honest living, no, but the oldest of powers hidden in ancient tomes. The lore about that time when the creation had come into existence. And so his brother had opened one tome too many, Slade thought. And there lost himself in its dark enchantment, ever so slowly turning from a lifegiver to a deathbringer.

"Had I but known brother."

“I should have had them all banned.” He muttered, ill at ease as he paced the room watching his best herbalists and medical practitioners doing what they could to ease her Lady’s pain. He had called for the priests too, those closely connected to the forbidden lore’s, but he had little faith there. The closer you came to the lore, the more corruption it brought he suspected. The Chaos Gods wasn’t there to preserve, but derange.

“Useless.” He swore to himself. His brother had outdone himself this time, unfailingly hitting him at his weakest point, his Lady. And then there was this war, not of Swostok, but war. Long they had lived in peace with their neighbours, trading with most. But as out of nowhere there had came this shadow of unrest, slowly growing until it threatened them all. And somehow Slade suspected it all to be one thing. Swostoks turning, the war and all. It was almost, if now Lord Slade would have been a superstitious man, as if Swostok had awakened that which shouldn’t have been disturbed? But in the beginning his brothers aim had been all for the good of the realm. Although lacking in compassion Lord Swostok had been driven by unfailing curiosity, and as he saw it, good reasons for his research.

They had been confined to the caves for too long. In those oldest of tomes, there was mentions of unending pastures, of realms so wide and unrestricted that each one could create its own kingdom. And Swostok, being the second brother wanted that, so badly. His research was not aimed for overthrowing the throne, neither had he wanted to hurt the realm, and as Lord Slade too could see the allure in such a notion, he had encouraged his brother in his search, and so in part finding himself unwittingly responsible for the subsequent disaster.

The caves was like a network of nodes, each node marking a new kingdom. Although being many nodes they were not limitless, and with all populations growing there came times of unrest, where kingdom found itself against kingdom, fighting for land and food. The one that could open the realms to the promise of unlimited lands would be blessed by all. And so Swostok had tried, just to badly fall, supported by the very man he now wanted to destroy.
=

As Planet woke up it found itself terribly constricted, cast into one unyielding form. As the machines let him lose of their embrace he slowly realised what he had become. An avatar. He went to the mirror he had set up to look at himself. He had modelled himself after Jeff, although using Janelles ‘blue prints’ as he had no way of getting inside Jeff. He had combined the best of her, with others taken from his own database to create what he saw as a flawless perfection of humanity. Although having a lot of genetically made modifications he had tried to stay as close to human genome as he dared. It was the question of mortality that had made him redefine his goal most. He knew that to sample living, mortality was its innate demand, without aging and death how would he ever know the joy of living? But that was also the very thing scaring him the most, as with his death would come an end to what he was. So, he had introduced a very long life for himself, although not immortal, he would still have many the life spans of an ordinary mortal, and with it also the ability to regenerate lost limbs and defective organs.

As he partook of his first real meal ever, he went over the things he wanted to do once more. First he would have to cross the crust separating him from the inner of his existence. Well, maybe not the ‘inner of his existence’ anymore he mused, that had been Planet, not him. But he would pass it, and then he would be at, as the humans called it, Terra incognito. And then there was Janelle of course, he wanted their mind meld back. There he had high hopes, although none of the probes he had sent had reported back. As he finished his meal he tried to see if he had missed anything. But no, he seemed to have all angles covered, complacently congratulating himself as he, to his surprise, found himself needing to relieve himself. Belatedly realising that he hadn’t foreseen that one, at all.

=

It's another short one.
Life keeps on interrupting.

==

Jeff was still trying to understand what had happened to him. Suit and Royal had set up a perimeter together, as good as they could, utilising every ounce of surveillance skills they could extract from their databases. But, as Royal pointed out.

“The best early warning system we have, seems to be you Jeff?”

Those words didn’t leave Jeff feeling very protected. As they had discussed it there was one thing though, one thing that they all agreed on. The ringlet, it had to be the ringlet that had saved him. But no matter what he did, he couldn’t get it to respond any further. Suit had suggested a variety of meditative techniques, all to help Jeff in his efforts, but none seemed to work.

Then there was this nagging feeling of constantly needing to be on guard, as if there was eyes and ears everywhere, watching his every move. Jeff grudgingly admitted to himself that relaxing most probably was the last thing on his agenda, for now.

“I’m sorry Suit.”

“I understand Jeff. Maybe you should try to get some rest?”

“I don’t think I can rest Suit. How’s Janelle?”

“Still sleeping, but Royal expect her to wake any minute now.”

“Can’t we get out of here?” Being inside the cave had started to play tricks on his mind. Every time he looked out he expected to see that weird cloud descending on him and the suits.

“Well, we could try to find another place Jeff. But we have found no portal.”

“I don’t know, as long as we’re here that, thing, have us pinned down.” Jeff said.

“You’re right.” Came Royals voice.

“We should move, we need to explore other options.”

“Yeah, we’re sitting ducks here.”

“Ducks?”

“Eh, like a animal that can’t move Suit, sorry, it’s just an expression.”

“A unmoving animal? How did they survive?”

“They didn’t.”

Now Suit had made Jeff starting to wonder too. A lot of the expressions he knew made no sense, being so ancient that he wasn't sure what a duck had been. Not that he would admit it to the suits though, still, they had their purpose. In this case to get them moving, which indeed made him feel better. Royal, still expanding his net of surveillance drones, wanted them to sit tight for a while more though.

“There’s no logic to us rushing away. Let me see what the drones report first.”

As they sat waiting Jeff thought he could hear Janelle staring to wake up. Royal had opened a channel to her so that Jeff too could be there as she first opened her eyes.

“But don’t expect her to remember everything.” He had warned Jeff

“Take it slow, and let her assimilate what has happened in her own good time.”

“Royal, where are we, and where is Jeff?” followed a second later by. “Awh God, look at me. What have you done Royal? My hair looks a mess!”

Yep, she was definitely waking up.
=

Planet found it harder than he had expected to pass the barrier separating the crust from the inner space. In fact he couldn’t do it at all at first. It wasn’t until he found an already weakened spot, some sort of escape hatch maybe, in its shield that he finally penetrated the shell.

It worked like an iris as he approached it, opening itself as a flower to the sun, but barely wide enough for him to pass through in his new suit. Yes, he had a suit, he had studied the suits the humans had with them with great interest, and adapted their technology to his needs. His was slightly different though, and as he planned to do this alone he had decided to not make it sentient. He wanted to be free of disturbances for once. This was his alone to experience, a pleasure cruise of sorts, and a fearless exploration into the biological realm.

But it had some other unique abilities, engineered from his extensive databases. As he started to fall he put one to the test, it being a seeker, working not on radiation but on emanations. The kind of emanations that the humans called Kirlian fields, the energy fields generated by living entities. But whereas theirs was crude constructions, using simple EM fields, his worked on a totally different level.

As he watched it starting to search he relaxed slightly, ordering his suit to create a meal. Somehow he found this eating to be quite a novelty. And as he ate he couldn’t help wondering what more pleasures this body had in store for him, maybe Janelle would help him with finding out? Yes, he was most certain that she would. After all, wasn't she his to command?
=

Have you ever found yourself losing several hours of writing to a power failure?
I hate it, wasn't recoverable either.

So I had to rewrite it, raw to the bone it is.
It also came out quite different.

So, if you don't like this version I will try to understand.

I promise that the one I lost was better..

=

As Jeff felt asleep that night he did it in another cave. Royals drones had found what Royal called a ‘perfectly defensible position’ and they had moved to it with no delay. Janelle and Jeff now in constant communication, he updated her on what had happened since Royal had found himself forced to sedate her.

“I did?” she said sounding unbelieving.

“I’m sorry Janelle, but as Suit stopped you, you had just started the shut down sequence for Royal.”

Janelle, who had no memory of anything like that found it hard to believe. Her genetic ‘programming’, done before her birth, was quite extensive involving a lot of mental controls, making it extremely hard to force her to do anything against her will. But as Royal played back its recordings, showing her, she found no choice but to accept it.

“And now?” She asked. “Can I trust myself?”

“Yes. You do not have to worry My Lady. All compulsions are severed and your neurological activity shows no indications of anything untoward.” Came Royals voice.

“Thank God for that.”

“I would not have woken you up if I was worried.” Continued Royal.
=

For Mountain time could not be, alternatively, for Mountain all time was one.

Time was to it more as road signs, open invitations for mind travel. Where it was all roads was taken simultaneously. With the now, the past and the future intermingled. Universes were to Mountain mere possibilities, ideas and bubbles, only defined by the order its mind chose to impose upon itself.

Its reality where time was not existent, your free will becoming as a chimera amongst chimeras. Still, we can comfort ourselves with that even where time has no meaning, indeterminacy exist.

Janelle and Jeff had a lot to talk about .

As he told her about her actions before, she didn’t know what to think at first. She found it so hard to imagine that she, fostered by suits, learning mind control from infancy, could be so easily overtaken, whereas Jeff?

“It scares me.” She said finally.

Yeah, I feel the same.” Jeff agreed.

And in a way he did have a similar experience. He hadn’t went through the same hell as her maybe? But he knew that he carried a Argel, somewhere. If not the ringlet anymore, still having gotten its imprint on, or was it in, his mind?

“Don’t worry Janelle, you’re well now. Royal would never take a risk with you.”

And neither would I, he thought as he took in the sight of her. Finding a deep comfort in having her back aside him.

“I hope you’re right.” Janelle mumbled as she once more, in vain, tried to remember.

There was just a void where her memories should be, before Royal had found it for best to sedate her.

The place they had relocated too was a cave, inside a cave. Royal had finally decided on it as it offered two exits, and gave them the high position. They had made their camp on a shelf, some twenty meters above the uneven floor. Royal directly placing all drones on red alert, outside the exits, himself constantly evaluating their reports.

They had done what they could to secure the location Jeff thought. But considering the way this thing seemed to be able to create portals? if now that was what it did? Well, let it suffice that Jeff found a hard time relaxing, and so found Janelle.

“From ashes into the fire, isn’t it?” Jeff trying to make a half hearted joke out of it.

“Indeed it is. I hope the drones Royal sent finds a portal somewhere.”

“Yeah, there must be a portal, or at the very least a way out of this cave system.”

While Jeff tried his best to act assertive, for Janelles sake, he secretly doubted. He had this growing feeling of them caves not being exactly ‘normal’. Maybe there was no ‘above’ here? He tried to shrug of his worries as he sat down beside Janelle, inhaling the welcome aroma of their late evening meal in the tent the suits had raised for them. He definitely didn’t want her to feel any worse than what she already felt, and to be honest, he didn’t want to feel worse either.

“You know, one think that we could deserve a break sometime?”

Janelle looked at him, smiling slightly. She was glad that he was there, she missed her parents terribly but having Jeff beside her made up for a lot of the other things going wrong.

“Shh, eat first, talk later.”

As Jeff went to sleep that night, if one could call it a night when the light never seemed to change, he wished he had Janelle in his arms. But the intimate time they had had before now seemed as gone with the wind? She had made it all too clear that she needed to sleep alone, going to her own bed in the adjoining room.

“Sweet dreams?” Jeff called as he, surprisingly enough finding himself quite drowsy, turned around in the bed to switch of his reading lamp.

“You too Jeff.” Was the last thing he remembered hearing before sleep took him.

It was a strange sort of dream, as if he was awake, or even more awake if that now made any sense. The Mountain seemed to stretch straight up in the sky, almost as if punching a hole in it, losing itself to infinity. And the same seemed to be as he looked down. It just went on downwards, no ground to be seen anywhere.

But there was something reminding him of valleys, stretches of green he thought? With trees, and maybe animals too? But it was so far away. He had found himself on a ledge this time. Having a trail, worn of use, stretching from it forever upwards. Funny thing though, no trail leading up to the ledge? But anyway, he thought to himself, it was just a dream, right? Not as if it being real, right?

“Jeff?”

As he turned around he saw Janelle coming towards him.

“Yess. I did it!”

“Where are we?” And what did he mean with that, she wondered, as she walked up to him. She had started to find the reality transformations quite irritating by now. But the mountain was magnificent and hearing Jeffs incoherent answers she realised that it all had to be a dream.

‘I did it! My dream’ he though, and ‘And her too?’

“Don’t worry Janelle, you're in my dream.”

“You’re not real?”

“No dear, it’s you that’s not real.”

“Really?” She gave him a little smile as she ever so innocently put her arms around him, nimbly tumbling him, using a judicially placed leg behind his.

“So, that was you too?” she asked innocently, as she watched his confusion growing, finding himself on the ground.

As Jeff thought about it he realised that this dream might be trickier than he first had expected. It seemed as he only had little, to no, control over it.

“I should have listened better to Royal.” He muttered to himself.

“Meditation, that’s the trick.”

Oh yes, this was most definitly one of her better dreams Janelle decided, as she looked down on his defeated figure.

“Stay..” she said, feeling surprisingly naughty.

As Jeff didn’t move a muscle she found her deepest beliefs vindicated.

This was a chance to do those things she only had day dreamed of she thought wickedly. She and Jeff hadn’t become lovers, as in the full appreciation of that word. She had found herself hesitating, at some intuitive level knowing that if they ever found their way back her life would re-establish itself. Him being too far below her in standing, she being a pure blooded noble through generations, of the royal court.

Not that she thought him inferior, but the convention of the empire demanded her to marry inside her own circle. Allowing herself to go too far would not only hurt her, but also Jeff, and she liked him, maybe a little too much for her own good? That was also why she had found it for good to sleep in separate rooms.

But in a dream? What hurt could it be? She would never tell him after all.

“Undress yourself, serf..” She most royally commanded, surprising herself with her assurance.

Jeff, who still was lying on the ground wondering what had hit him, trying to center himself as Royal had taught him, found himself taken aback by her new, commanding, presence. This dream of his was definitely of a somewhat different cast he thought a little nervously. But as he looked up at her, seeing her mischievous smile and over it two tingling green eyes lovingly devouring him, he decided that he liked it too much, any which way, to care.

"AttentioOon.."

“F*ck Royal, and f*ck meditation.” He whispered as he jumped up, attentively watching her.

“Yes Maa’m, your wish my command.”

He slowly started to take of his clothes, covertly observing her. fascinated over her agitation as he came closer to, well, let’s just call it the naked truth. He saw that she found it quite enjoyable, her breathing increasing, and deciding to up the stakes a little he suddenly stopped, arriving at his few last garments.

“I’m sorry My Lady, but this is as far as I will go. I do have my male dignity to consider..” Sounding most righteous as he said it, inwardly wondering what her next move would be?

Janelle became quite incensed as she realised that he had stopped.

Now, who did he think he was?
Jeff??

Didn't he know he was a dream? And that she was the one dreaming him? She would not have him refuse her! She stood perfectly still, momentarily, indecisively studying him. Rebellion, she finally decided, that what it was, full blown rebellion! All as she stole a glint now and then of that, oh so nicely shaped body, thoughtfully weighting her choices. Her eyes becoming increasingly stern, getting an almost imperial gleam to them.

“If my Lady reciprocated though, it would inspire?” came a voice, most apologetically.

“ Reciprocate?”

“The weather is very nice, My Lady. Quite warm in fact.” He coyly encouraged. And it was true, it felt as full summer to him. Even though there was no sun to be seen he could still feel the warm sunshine warm his bare skin.

Now it was Janelles turn to be taken aback. That her dream could bring with it such unreasonable demands. She was a lady after all, not a common serving wench. She all so rightly found her pride, and blue blood, raise to the demands of the occasion.

“How dare you.”

As Jeff looked at her he saw her proud, slightly pert, nose raise. Sticking big metaphorical holes in the sky as she stared him down. Damned, he was good. No more meditations needed for him. Royal could go pull some old mat over himself. He was in the groove.

“I’m soo magic.” He smugly congratulated himself, belatedly realising that he had said it out loud.

Now that Janelle could agree on. He was hers figment of imagination, and a most naughty one too. She had to establish control.

“Yes you are.” She answered just as smugly as she leaned down and pulled of his last try for decency.

“And mine.”

From that point there was no return, Janelle soon finding herself laying on the grass beside him, with them both fast losing all control over their senses. Her touches light as butterflies caressing, and with her sweet scent growing on him she filled his whole world. All thoughts lost in the glow of their lovemaking he finally gave in to the sensual pleasures of them exploring each other in every way imaginable, and some new.

She was as all he ever had dreamed off, no, more than he had dreamed. And as he looked into her eyes they seemed to grow, making him feel as if he was tumbling down into a green loving universe, encompassingly, lovingly, seeing him for what he was, and still loving him.

Ever so slowly he started to undress her, giving each inch of her body the full and undivided attention it deserved. As she felt his hand move to gently caress her nipples she breathlessly, languidly stretched, as a cat purring under the full heat of his gaze.

“Do your best, serf.” She admonished.

“Yes My Lady. We serfs live to please.”

And as they finally consummated their relation it was as if they already knew each other, being old comrades. Even though it was their first, for them both, neither found it awkward. Their bodies easily adapting to each others needs and demands. It was as if they was meant to this from their birth, and maybe, that was the truth? Janelle had had her fill of romantic novels, heroes storming the castle, rescuing ladies from the evil might of dragons. But this was real, and so different from anything she ever could have imagined.

After they finished they were satisfied to stay in the grass, letting the sunshine cool them down. Janelle and Jeff both finding it increasingly hard to believe that it only was a dream. If it was, Janelle thought, then she could only wish for reality to be as good, all her musing over their separation of rank now more reminding her of the confused thoughts of an spoiled child.

“I l*rve you.” carefully whispered, as he nibbled her left earlobe.

“Mmm, and soo tasty . .” in a slightly clearer voice

“I love you too, goofy.” she whispered.

=

Sorry about how long this took.
I'll most probably have to go over it again.
It's more of a draft.

Anyway..

==

What makes a God?

The ability to create, out of nothing? Then Mountain might be one. Even if there was a reality outside his realm of consciousness, able to see him as well as what he created he surely had to count as a ‘Demi God’. And he had became curious, not because he was bored, bored always assume a arrow of time but because he was becoming involved.

For him there was no instants of ‘nothing’, only those instants that had an arrow of time. But he was also able to choose his reality from that pool of indeterminacy, in where all those possibilities rested. Think of it as that pond in which you lazily gaze, some nice summer day. In the woods maybe? Isolated from all human activity. Maybe you feel for a swim, maybe a dive too? And as the water turns from clear to that golden brown it gets chilly, and as you dive ever deeper you find your sight disappear, in the end leaving you nothing but blackness and a numbing coldness.

Humans are not made for that, but Mountain was.
=

As Planet continued he found much the same effects ruling as the Suits had. But he had already developed several hypotheses’ to explain the gravitational fluctuations while on the surface. And now he found one of them coming into focus, the one where he had speculated about mini black holes, And as he already had surmised that his Earth wasn’t a natural construction it didn’t surprise him. Eventually the same happened to him as it had done for the others, the translation between spaces being as surprising for him as it had been for them. But, as he looked at his tracker he could see it flicker to life, its beacon weakly glimmer, for the first time since he had started it up.

At last the hunt was on.
==

“You hungry?” asked Jeff

“Yes.”

“Okay, if it’s a dream then let’s find out who’s dreaming it.” He said smiling at her.

“Let me try first.” He set the image of fresh bread and cheese clear in his mind and concentrated.

Maybe he didn’t try hard enough? Maybe he was aiming to high here, a sandwich then? What was it Royal had said, relax and let it come to you, wasn’t it? Well, he really wanted that sandwich to come now.

“Damn, I can’t get it to work Janelle. You try it.”

Janelle had to hide her triumphant smile. She knew it, it had to be her dream. She wasn’t sure if she had made Jeff though, or if he just somehow had slipped in?

“Typical boys, always intruding.” She muttered as she concentrated, She felt vegetarian today so, something tropical perhaps, ananas pizza?

“A roast?”

One second it wasn’t there, the next it was. Two plates, steaming hot and each one flaunting its own piece of roast, with a mix of mashed potatoes, salad greens, and, ananas?

Jeff looked at her, clearly impressed.

“Ok I won’t roast you for this.” He said.

“But damn, I was so sure it was me?”

“Roast?” Janelle asked still trying to decide if it was her invention.

“You know, poking fun of.”

Janelle suddenly found her nagging suspicions bloom.

“You! It was you.” She said. “You tricked me, didn’t you? Admit it..”

“But how did he know about the ananas?” she mumbled to herself as she tried to stare him down.

Now it was Jeff’s turn to feel confused, why did she look at him that way? Although he refused to let that distract him from his tasting.”

“Delicious.” He proclaimed as he dipped his finger in the gravy for the second time. “You have such a good imagination Janelle, or would you prefer me to call it taste? Try it.”

That decided it, 'good huh'? Now she was dead certain he was poking fun of her, but he was right, she had to try it. And as she tasted it she realized that no matter who or what that had made it Jeff was right. This had to be the best roast, ever.
=

Now, humor me a little. Try to think of the constant ‘c’, being lights speed in a vacuum, as if it was a clock beat instead of a speed. Normally defined as a ‘distance in time’ it isn't entirely correct when thinking of Mountain. Where Mountain normally 'were', where and what ever that is, there could be no such clock beat. To him a clock beat only could exist in his choice of focus, and without him choosing there was no ‘arrow of time’ to be seen.

You might see it as he consciously could choose both ‘beats and direction’, and then there was the added complication of 'scales' of course. Those scales that for us find their upper limit at ‘c’, whilst their lowest limit becomes at Plank scale. Where lights smallest propagation, or beat, is one Plank length in one Plank time.

So, you might wonder where Mountain normally ‘was’, under that weird Planck scale, or maybe over it? Did he exist at some place, faster than light? Well, I admit that such definitions do make sense for us mortals, living as we are inside SpaceTime. But for Mountain, he just couldn’t care less, after all, he always knew where he was.

Just, here.

While they had finished their meal darkness had started to fall, the void above them slowly changing its hue to a dark velvety blue, and behind it distant lights twinkling. As they looked up in wonder Janelle gasped as she saw a shooting star blazing its trail across the sky.

“Look.”

As they watched it seemed to slow down, and suddenly Jeff realized that it was growing.

“Not good.” muttered Jeff, who decidedly hadn’t planned to finish his life under a meteorite.

“We better find some shelter, Janelle?”

She didn’t answer, it was as if she couldn’t hear him? And as he took hold of her it felt as if she was melting away, becoming more and more insubstantial for every breath he took.

“Janelle! We need to move.” As he tried to shake her into wakefulness.

Suddenly she was gone, vanishing without a trace, and with her that falling star too.

In despair Jeff started to search, but she was nowhere to be found.

“It better be a dream.” He mumbled as he at last sat down to catch his breath.

“What if it isn’t?” his last words hopelessly jumbled.
=

Janelle didn’t know where she was as she looked around, it was as if she had blinked to then find her, where? With her body feeling as if wrapped in cotton, and with nothing except a diffuse white light reaching her, from everywhere.

“Hallo, anyone here?” It was eerily silent.

‘Human, be awake.’ it was more of a thought than a word.

‘Janelle is it? Good to meet you at last Janelle. Jeff and his companion I’ve meet already.’

“Companion?”

‘What do you call it? Ah I see, Argel.’

Janelle found her mind strangely disconnected, having no fear and no real curiosity either.

“Why am I here?” she asked just the same.

‘I needed a sample, one individual is not enough.’

She could feel it page through her, as she was an open book.

‘Well, that should be all Janelle, thank you for your time.’

“But where am I? What are you doing with me?”

‘Nothing Janelle, I will set you back soon. And you already know where you are.’

And in some strange way it made sense, she did know where she was, even though not exactly where it was.

“I’m dreaming, isn’t I? You’re just a dream.” She told it as she felt the presence draw back, did that make her and Jeff a dream too?

“Wait, will I meet you again?” she called out, not knowing why.

“Don’t worry Janelle, I’m always here.”

Mountain had found a hobby. He had no answer to why he wanted one, most of the things existing he did have answers for, but as for his own destiny? That one was unfathomable, even to him. But yes, nevertheless he had lately found himself becoming something of a, collector?
==

Lord Slade looked up from his latest missive. They kept piling up on his desk, and he had no choice but to deal with them. It was his chamberlain standing in the door.

“Yes Arthur?”

“Sire one of the high priest asks for entrance. He says it’s urgent.”

“Damn them to hell.” Muttered Slade.

“Sire?”

“Is it news about my Lady?” He was deeply worried about her, the cantrips worked no good, and nothing his physicians had tried seemed to ease her mind. The only solution they had found was to drug her into such a deep sleep that he feared for her very life.

“No Sire, maybe, I don’t know? He refused to explain, only to tell you that it was most urgent Sire.”

That was the problem with those priests, Slade thought, not for the first time. Once bearers of truth and compassion they now seemed reduced to merely another rabble of power hungry manipulators, thirsty for the king’s ear.

“Oh well, let him in will you.” He asked. “Eh, and thanks Arthur, go get some rest now.” He added a little sheepishly . His chamberlain getting older for every day, he knew it was high time to find a replacement, but Arthur was too good to retire.

“In all truth better than me lately.” He muttered bitterly as he went back to sit behind his old black desk, sweeping some of the more secret paper work into a open drawer. One never knew what those priest would do.

The man that came in was clad in red, everything looked red thought Slade sarcastically, from the High priests bloodshot eyes to his robe. He was also fat and slow of motion. Climbing the tower to Lord Slade's private study had taken most of the breath out of him, which in fact was one of the main purposes Slade had secretly planned for, placing it that high. The long climb created fewer disturbances, and with it some illusion of privacy for Slade. As he labored with what little he could do, to hold that unending tide of destruction that had came to be lately.

He watched the man bow, still breathing heavily.

“Lord, most noble defender of the faith. I’m afraid I bear ill tidings.”

Well, that was only to be expected thought Slade sourly. Those few that climbed the whole way usually did.

“Yes, arch bishop?"

“Our prognosticators have been strangely restless of lately Sire, warning that the guardians are stirring in their sleep.”

The guardians? That was not good, as if the constant skirmishes they had wasn’t enough.

“Which Guardian?”

“No Sire, not which, all, it seems as if they all are getting ready to wake.”

The Guardians were, well, half myth, half-truth. The Golden Faith that the archbishop belonged too, once grounded on their faithful watch over those sleeping, had of lately became a bigger player in the kingdom. It was said that the great temple itself was resting over the guardian’s nest, but nobody knew for sure, well, maybe the priests did? But, if so, it was one of their most guarded secrets. He had no trust for them.

“So archbishop. Do I need to worry?” he asked slowly as he with barely hidden distaste studied the burly man shrewd movements, as he tried to move close, to take a peek at the kings correspondence.

“Sire.”

The priest wrung his hands, nervously studying the King as he parlayed with himself. He was too shrewd the King, not young anymore but still hale and hearty. To cross his ways was a most foolish thing. But he was also one of the fairest men in the kingdom, and a diplomat of great accomplishment. Who but the Lord Slade could have held this kingdom together so long?

Then there was this thing he had about priests of course. The archbishop knew all too well that Slade found priests to be of little good, having upset their plans more than once. But he had no choice but to acknowledge their presence and power. And perhaps it was time at last, perhaps the time had came for the true faith to take that leading role the archbishop thought as he damned the old mans carefulness in hiding his papers. Smugly enshrined in his secret longing for those lost days when the faith had been strong and glorious, and Kings their mere tools.

“No Sire, we will handle it. But we thought you needed to be told.”

As the archbishop went away he knew he had thrown the dice, for good or for bad. The priesthood was nobody's servants, except the guardians perhaps.

“Blessed thy be Amorkath.” He mumbled as he devoutly crossed his right hand to his eye. Right hand for blessings, the left for cursing.

But as for the rest of it? A theocracy was after all the natural way of the land, wasn’t it? With kings growing too big for their boots only asking to be cut down to size.

“Without our light, and our guidance, this realm will surely fall.” He loudly declared as he ponderously trundled those last steps to meet his entourage.

“Children, make haste. The temple awaits.” Sweeping his blood red robe around him. Well, he had given the King his last opportunity of choice, with the King foolishly refusing his responsibilities to the faith. Now, it was time for negotiations, and plans. After all, there were other lands. Lands that still remembered, respecting their ancient power. The only thing still worrying him being the guardians themselves. ´They were too unpredictable, but the chance of them really raising was slim, wasn't it?

Honestly, he had little faith himself in the prognosticators. Chosen from their beauty more than their abilities they were something of a constant thorn in his side. Once there had been strict demands and tests before accepting them into service, but those days it was their beauty that decided. As sad as it might be they had primary became the outlet for the priests darkest desires, some stopping at nothing to force the maidens into service. But as the archbishop once piously had remarked.

"Making a priest won't unmake the man."

"We all have human failings, smile upon us Amorkath." the archbishop mumbled as he felt his personal prognosticator working her wonders below him. All as his palanquin quickly threaded its way through the crowded smoky streets, ignoring the screams of those unlucky trampled under. His bearers muted hairless giants of north, steadfastly carrying him through the caves, ever closer to the temple of Amorkath.

==