Great Journey

Great Journey

---

Eisha relished the feel of her black socks as she readied herself to go out into the random variation of extremely divergent events. The socks were old friends. They were worn out a bit but still sturdy and patched up. Lovingly cared for. Eisha had patched them herself reliving the lessons her old uma Martha had instilled in her as a little babe.

Ah yes, Martha the old weaver of tales and nano-material Master of sietch.  Eisha kept her head on the molecular bonds and especially on the levels of energies loose in the fabric.  One had to be aware of a lot of things as one donned their armor for battle. A suit of armor was a living thing. Of modified molecularly manipulated weaves, complex and beautiful. Intelligent and symbiotic. One must be careful when integrating the techno organic mesh with the nervous and biological systems of the body. Eisha donned her skully with the kitten on it. That kitten was yellow though faded from wash.  Then over her  nanoweave she donned her dense polymer armor plate, it was going to be cold out.  Then she put on her snow boots and her scarf.  Then her horned rimmed glasses. Optical interface system spooled through a diagnostic pass as she put them on. Armored up, and integrated. Tech Knight Eisha was ready for battle.

---

On her way down stairs from her bedroom Eisha bumped into her little brother. Paper and crayons in his hands.  An extremely furrowed brow. “Excuse me,” little Leon said. Entirely engrossed in some work he had to complete. Perhaps a masterpiece that would one day be a national treasure. Perhaps the young Mage was working on complex new spell work. She could never tell.  “Hey Eish Ma said you needa get something to eat for you go out.”

“Okay, see ya Lee.” She said in passing.

“Huh?” he said, a finger examining the geological layout of his upper nasal cavity.

“Nothin lee.  Byeee.”  Poor Arcane Artisans, they always get so wrapped up in their work, she thought walking down the old white hallway into the living room.

----

Well the court seemed particularly restive today. This was a good thing for Serah Eisha, battle tested Baroness of Locke. She had plans. The Queen seemed to be in her informal gown, a bit tired but otherwise looking wise and lovely in the relaxed atmosphere. The rest of the Royal court seemed to be engaging in small talk and partaking of a rich breakfast over parlay.  Eisha had no time to get embroiled in petty politics, she had many affairs of state to be about this day. And some domestic decisions to make.  She bowed low to the Queen though, always good to pay respects. “Mornin Ma!”

“Eisha goodness you are dressed already , well sit and get a little breakfast okay? Nene cooked some bacon for me.” said the Queen.

Eisha nodded to the Lady Nene, one of the Queen’s chief ministers. “Thanks Sis,” said Eisha as she sat down at the table and buttered some toast. Grabbing a few pieces of bacon for herself. Eisha poured some Orange juice as well.

They gave each other a light high five. “Ma are you going to rest today?” The poor Queen had been rather overworked. Heavy was the burden on the poor ruler since the King had passed some years back. That’s why Serah Eisha and Nene tried as best they could to lighten the load of ruling the country.

“You know baby? I might do just that, well you look cute. Try not to get dirty okay? “ said the Queen taking leave of the council to retire to her resting chambers.

“By Ne.”

“Alright Eish.”

Eisha finished her orange juice and placed it in the sink on the way out of the kitchen and to the front door.  Time to head out into the City and get some things done.

---

It was pretty rough that first bite of the cold outside. A blanket of snow seemed to have just dropped down on Locke Street. Some cars were in it up to their wheels, weekend laziness afoot. But the streets were relatively clear. A lite snow continued to fall though. Eisha the Wanderer, had been wandering through the cold wastes of the new artic for years now. When her city had perished in the new iceage she’d finally decided to head south to see if there were any other survivors of the icy apocalypse.

Eisha the Wanderer could barely see through this bad artic blizzard though. Darn the old times for destroying the planet with its war and pollution. A pox on them.  What was that ahead? A band of humans?  She crouched low and drew her Natarl with its serrated front and smooth other side. Trouble.

---

Eisha was definitely in trouble. She had been trying to flee off planet. And had made it to the starport’s transliner boarding bay. But alas, it appeared that Imperial Inquisition troops were guarding the entrance. She was going to have trouble if they noticed her. Even more if they decided to inspect her. Marcanese Imperial troops had been really coming down on off planet visitors since the Assassination attempt. Eisha was part of the Free people’s alliance though that assassination hadn’t been her fault. Those idiots in that FPA cell had endangered every operative on the planet. Typical.

Best to try to appear nonchalant. Try to sneak past.

“Hey Eisha,” said one of the larger of the three boys. “Where ya going?” Well the jig is up. Eisha silently gripped the butt of her plasma arc pistol. Maybe she could take em?

“Hey Marcus,” Eisha said, controlling her contempt. Marcus was so darn weird.  If you ignored him he got bad. And he was mean to her even if she didn’t ignore him sometimes.   But then sometimes he was all nice to her.  The boy’s behavior had been puzzling for some time till recently when she had made her discoveries. Now she thinks she had an idea of what the trouble was.

“So you want to hang out with me and Mike and Lar?” Marcus said walking up to her. Mike and Larry were walking up to her as well but spreading out. Swish swishing through the snow. Best to not let them surround her. “It’ll be fun.”

Fun like mud in her hair, which is what happened last it me she hung out with the 5^th graders. So much hassle.

“Well?” Marcus said smiling. Well at least his eyes weren’t all funny today. Maybe…. She felt the sharp heaviness of a two ton knife on her back.  Anxiety filling her. She’d read that that might be that feeling was.

Just then the sound of the bus pushing up the street. And stopping a few feet by her. Saved! “Sorry my bus is here! See ya,” Eisha squeaked out as she ran aboard.  The others thankfully didn’t follow her. But she did hear a “Man why you even mess with her anyway, she is weird.”

Whew. That had been close. Somehow she’d managed to fast talk the Imperials. And it was looking like a trip an interrogation in the cold cells of Imp Security.  Her fake documents had held up too.  Too late for them now though this starship was already cutting out of the atmosphere and pulling away from the planet. Then it hit warp and disappeared into FTL travel.

----

Adept Scholar Eisha the Adventurer was nervous and excited. It had been a long journey through perilous ordeals but she had finally made it back!  She had arrived at the hidden Ancient Archives with its vast store house of knowledge. She had survived her latest adventures.

Long ago, a different person had stumbled upon this place and been accepted for training by the Ancient Eidolons who inhabited this place. LeGuin, Gibson, Herbert, Butler, Asimov. And all the rest. They’d accepted her for training and then her world had changed. She had changed. Her world had seemed to become more alive more clear and filled with wonder. It opened on what she considered were limitless paths.  They told her this would happen.  She was learning to travel to other worlds.  Her a little 4^th grader from Locke street.  What a treasure this place was how could everyone she knew not see the shining of this place. Outside it appeared a dirty old-style building true. But that was the trick that hid its secrets.  Inside it was filled with warm and pure light. The light of learning.

Eisha gulped and started up the old forest encrusted steps. She wondered what adventures the Eidolons would be sending her on to this time.  They could be tricky and dangerous, but usually taught you good lessons. They also filled you with this energy.

Eisha said hello to Miss Padma, as she returned her books.  Took a big breathe and released a sigh of contentment and then wandered farther into the downtown public library.

----

This is just a little jaunt down memory lane. And some of the old things I used to imagine as I made myself through the day. I would def make up crazy fantasy to cover over the mundane world. Still do. It just wasn’t as varied as it is today, I didn’t read as much. Also a little love letter to reading and one of the most magical place in our world. The public library.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 Terror and Love

Test

---

Just a test.

These were perhaps words that once existed inside the mind of a person.

Perhaps it was a person, a person who might even have had human thoughts. Oh, once long ago. Long ago when there was not pain. For you see, all that was of what might have been was now only pain.

The entity couldn’t say when it had been born, the entity couldn’t even say if it was alive. There was a constant storm of which it existed in. Pain.

When did the pain start? Perhaps there was always pain. How could the entity even know of such things other than pain?

Vast rivers of evil white fire exploding outward on complex existential patterns.  This white fire twirled and twisted in a tornado funnel feeding back on itself. The heart of the system of existence was only one thing.

From that center flew the dark warmth of black weighted pain so heavy.  A liquid weight of an anvil squashing all before it as it ran its course and to touch it was to know pressure.

Then there was sharp and bright pain, sparks of heavy dense electricity shot to and fore. Spark spark spark, racing back and forth. Raging and pricking. And wild like a constant scatter.

So many violent storms at the edge of things. Green clusters of blizzard, blue sharpness of razors cutting and splitting. Things coming apart into their component pieces.

Birth and death of universes of torment. Mote size and micro.  Blue raging anger, and freezing paralyzing parties of despair.  Stinging pain, blunt. Throbbing cobalt.  Slashing silver.  Red tide of the piercing cascades. To the red hot rage of the molten forms working and pumping, pulling and scraping. Moving the universe of pain.  The vibrations and storms sounds of the vent.

It wasn’t just pain.   Repetitive constant beats, shrieks, stabs, gorges, fire explosions. But it was a pattern, a unified system.

There! Follow the white hot burning vortex at the center. Follow it out.   It was the unifying core of the entire system of pain.  The heart and control.

Yes.

Ah “yes” was a word. Word. This described existences that used to be beyond understanding. Where words could impact something, but no what would that frame work be?

The different pains, their colors and frequencies, and the pattern resonance shapes took on new meaning now. Rushing down a violent river from the source of all the pain. That vortex to here in the wave of it, crashing and shattering. To thumb and roar and churning of the masses.  Through it crashing in the river down smaller and smaller flows. Not shrinking but expanding down to encompass all even as the awareness of grew to incorporate many difference divergence experiences.  It became aware of the little vagueries of the storms. The little ones that made up the whole.

A whole.

The pain could be felt now in those small insignificants up into entire broad spectrums of pure sensation.

Yes!

Awareness down to such a small degree while maintaining awareness of a whole.

Whats more awareness wasn’t just awareness. This system of being could be manipulated. 

Control!

Who did the manipulation? In the storm of pain a controlling force became aware because of that control.  Not experiencing but reading. A sense of self. This prospect was entirely enticing this sense of self. But not yet human in thought. It was animal now though, wild and running.  And the pain wasn’t pain it was information and being. Simultaneous.

Desire swept awareness and all the sparks and clouds of infinitesimal being to the feeling of large unity silenced.  A body of reality going quiet in supplication of a will. And the will realized it could examine at its want any part of the whole and control it as it wanted.  Tracing the echoes back to the beginning the entity found itself.

The observer and controller.  And in this awareness it found a level of reality closed off from it, that could be existed in again. Linear sensory time. But this place, the path to this place would be from where she, Yes she, would experience the world from now on.  And so she went back up into that world. And awoke.

---

Sister Rione felt herself awaken.  She couldn’t move a part of her body. She could feel how she had been strapped down to a bed. Its support of her back was a lifeline of sensation.  Her eyes felt heavy and weighted.  By what she could feel she was at a low level of energy. Her body was drained. Almost each cell desperate for energy.

Yes that place of being many and one was there! Easy to fall into now.  A sort of dual reality of which she now existed. She sent her awareness coursing over her body even as her eyes adjusted to the light. It appeared her entire body had been through a trying draining ordeal.  And then she remembers the pain.

That was it. She had survived. Into her field of vision entered the old wizened face of First Lady Adrumel and her sister of the heart Natalia.

“Congratulations, Sister Rione. You survived the torment of the awakening.”

“Ah yes I did.” She said realizing she was here in time, not back in the multitude awareness of each cell of her body. “It was….”

“A terrible thing. And yet necessary. You have gained the inner awareness. And can now know your body with a level of intimacy and control unquantifiable to your old self. “ said the old woman.

“I can see.” Rione said a black tear running down her cheek. Rione looked at it in wonder.  “I did that, that’s my ink.” Then a green tear as she manipulated her internal chemistry a bit.

“Sister Rione. From now on you will have the control. And walk as a path maker for our society. A shield and eye for it. You are on your way to becoming a Sentinel for the order.  Now you can begin the true training to become a full Shaper.”

Rione nodded. Yes this was just the intermediate control for what was to come in her training. Full body awareness down to the cellular level. Full body control of each cell. All of them her, including the her that rode upon them. That such a state could exist. Even the intermediate training never hinted at this. She longed to go back into that many faceted state, but knew she was tired and like the flick of a switch went to sleep.

“I frankly did not think she would make it.”

“I never doubted it Ma’am” said Natalia not even bothering to hide her beaming pride.

The Watch

The Watch

---

Dark empty space and an incredibly luminous spiral of gases.  This was the scape before which Noomi stood. Pondering the vastness of a universe filled with untold wonders. How could you not when faced with such vistas as the one up on the forward viewscreen.  It was lonely and dwarfing which Noomi found to be quite romantic. Thats what she felt as she saw it all. Immensity. As Noomi watch it she also felt a sense of pride.

Noomi currently held the watch on the IGP, Intergalactic Patrol Intersystem Destroyer Ithaca. The illustrious "Ithaca", already legend in IGP annals. And Noomi was holding command. Her! It was exhilarating.  Noomi was sitting in the famous Captain Blackshaw's chair. Thee Captain Blackshaw, stuff of legends. The merchant of peace to Thanis Cati. The one who single handedly broke up the Amorynatu Slave ring by going undercover in it!  The breaker of the Hancor pirate band.  

And here Noomi sat, in THAT chair while the Captain slept.  Noomi, a rookie cadet out of IGP academy.  She couldn't believe she was only a year out of the academy.  Now newly promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and entrusted to hold a command watch on the ship while Blackshaw slept.  

Noomi admitted that her hero worship had distorted reality for her a bit. But the actual reality of IGP work was strong and rather hard. But interesting. IGP duty as it turned out had been grueling and eye opening. There was never enough presence, never enough people to cover, protect, and patrol the vast reaches of galactic civilization. Actually a mix of them.

IGP Captains were given a lot of autonomy and sadly not enough resources to cover their assigned areas.  The aftermath of the 1st galactic war had ravaged the militaries of the major powers. Lawlessness was an almost unknown predicament to the ordered peace minded old cultures of yore. That was, until it wasn't and the galaxy fell to anarchy.  It was in the aftermath of this war that a strange backwater race came to the fore. Humans and a group of other small minor polities stepped in, where lifted up, to help bring order to a galaxy. In a short time as the galaxy knew it, Humans had made quite a name for themselves in the galaxy as a force for order. A new legend.

A lot of it was boring though, cut with moments of pure terror and wonder.  A lot of customs work, relaying, and help with request. Some SAR work. Only a few battles thankfully.  There was a surprisingly massive amount of paper work and Noomi grimaced. Even more so of diplomacy.  She'd not realized how much till Captain Blackshaw had negotiated resupply deals from the Shangoitls, of the Shangois system they were currently stationed in.  The Captain had done some piecemeal work for the impoverished and relatively lowtech starsystem’s native inhabitants. They ran off some pirates, did some haul work, actual gravwell to orbit scut work.  But the Shangoitls loved the IGP now, well at least the Ithaca.  Many tips and other info had come their way. They had even given the Ithaca free resupply from their meager stores and access to their fledgling space infrastructure. They were where earth was around 2075 when the bad times had swept the galaxy and finally reached Earth system. Earth hadn't gotten anything like this "help." Earth had gotten a neural collar around the neck and a whip to the back.

Andalla, among others of the crew, had told Noomi about some of the times they'd had to deal with bad neighborhoods and hostile neighbors.  Horror stories. The ship had been at lower than 1/2 rations at one point to complete their mission. It was that threadbare sometimes.  

This was so far the opposite of those times. Shangois was now a quiet system and well placed to cover 4 nearby settled systems.  This ship was on the edge of the spear of IGP space, but no trouble yet, not since Noomi and the rest had arrived.

"How does it look Ensign Felders?" Noomi said to the tactical officer of the watch. A young rookie combat ops specialist. One just in the infancy of training, relatively. Noomi had been assigned to help the kid out as a mentor, as  young officers were expected.  He’d been a bit too green and it made her remember fondly her own first days aboard.  Noomi had feared at first, because of all her mistakes but Capt. Blackshaw's crew didn't even blink. They’d built her up (and wore her out) until she had become a decent officer.  No hazing here, like she had imagined might happen. This period of time had been one of the most exhilarating and exhausting of her life. Noomi was a Scientist specialist, with a PHD in planetary mechanics and stellar cartography.  It didn't matter as she had received a lot of cross training. A lot. So when Felders was placed under her she took it to heart to pass on the love she had been shown. While the Lt Commander handled Felder’s formal tact training, Noomi instilled in the boy Navy basic.

The cross training was particularly enlightening IGP tool. Noomi was a Scientist and thought that was it, but she had found she had a hand for navigation and the practical application of her stellar cartography. She was thinking of going into the navigation route. It had surprised Noomi that Captain Blackshaw had no formal education whatever,, had grown up in public basic ed and went right into the service. Unheard of these days.  It hadn't stopped Blackshaw from becoming one of the most decorated IGP Captains in its short history. This was an inspiration.

Felders looked back at Noomi and smiled, “Sar it does not look too bad out there.” Noomi nodded at this.  “I managed to complete 2 of the 4 tactical drills the LC gave me.  Two were really tough though.”

“All hands lost?” Noomi said in a comforting but wily voice. “Yes Sar,” replied the defeated Ensign. “Ha! Lieutenant Commander Gersande is quite the gamer. be careful of tricks within tricks.”  “Yes Sar,” he said a bit brighter.  

Then Noomi’s voice was cool and hard, firm but not harsh. Crisp. It was command voice.  “Felders give us a quick weapons check. Bring them up to ready state 2, charged state and ready to fire but not armed.  Then do a check and bring them back down.”

“Yes Sar!” Felders responded. It didn't even dazzle Noomi anymore to have control over weapons so powerful, well not much.

“Ensign Colby, How does it look in your sphere?” Noomi said asking her officer currently handling the Comms station.

“No problem Sar, I am expecting to do the local dl of system traffic once planetary sats gets back in our arc. Should be about an hour. No anomalies, just picked up some local trader traffic.”

Noomi nodded a thank you.  Since their arrival in this sector of space, trade had picked up quite a bit, nearly doubled in fact. It was telling that that was something Captain Blackshaw showed pride in, rather than military accomplishments.  It wasn't much to a 75 billion population, like say Urasnor System, but out here a few more extra vessels was a godsend.

“Lieutenant Jane?” Noomi asked of the other Lieutenant on deck.  Jane had the station Noomi usually operated on regular duty. The ship’s sensors.  

“Nothing on sensors, its pretty quiet Sar.” said Jane. Noomi outranked him only by a few months.

Usually the XO, Executive Officer Presit handled this watch. But lately they’d been giving it too Noomi more and more. The XO was up, but probably down in engineering. As he was like to be.

A weird garble came through the speakers on deck. “What was that?” Noomi asked.

“Sar,” said Lieutenant Jane in an odd voice. “I spoke too soon. I got something” Just then another sound chimed and Lieutenant Jane threw the data over to Noomi’s console.  “Two, no three translight jump signatures. They just now hit us. So that puts them at entering normal space about 5 mins  ago.”

“Goodwork,”Noomi absently replied. This was weird. It put them on the outer system. Trade Ships usually dropped into the inner planets. “Any communications?” she asked and Noomi’s voice was going hard.

“No Sar,” said Colby.

“Sar based off of these signatures, I have no match in my DB for them.” said Lieutenant Jane puzzled. “But signature reports are not a match for anything the size of trade vessels either. Not even the big Corp jobs. The splashes were too powerful.”

This immediately worred Noomi. It could be anything... or it could be trouble. “Are we active?” Noomi asked, her mind sparking. “No.” “Good keep us that way. Felders where are you with the checks?”  

Felder’s looked a little worried but did a good job of hiding it in his voice. “Uh, I was just going to bring them back down.  But I guess now we leave them at R2?”

“You would be correct Felders.” said Noomi. “Nav plot a good shadow intercept, sleek warp approach,” Noomi said, recalling similar orders in training. “I will alert the XO.” And Noomi was feeling a bit of pressure at having this in the real and not in simulation. But it was weird there was pressure but it didn’t panic her. She felt her pulse steady. She shook her head and gave orders “Bring the ship up to yellow status.”

---

It was a long few minutes before the doors to the bridge opened. But Noomi let out a sigh of relief when it did. She hadn’t known she was holding it. But instead of the XO there stood the Captain. All composed warrior. 6 foot 7 inches tall of toweringly strong presence. Though it was more than just physical stature. You could see the prominent scars crossing the Woman’s dark skinned face. Remnants of her time in slavery. And despite the hour Captain Blackshaw looked not at all disheveled.  “Report Lieutenant. Xu.” she said, asking of Noomi. And Noomi filled her in as fast as she could. Captain Blackshaw nodded at the nicely compact precis. “Good work Xu,” said the surprisingly light voice of that strong presence. And Noomi felt her cheeks flush.  She felt it more deeply as she vacated the Captains chair to resume her usual station receiving a quick salute from the Captain. As Noomi surrendered the watch, the rest of main shift officers came in.  3rd shift all went to their usual stations or left the bridge.

Captain Blackshaw spun her chair around in a clockwise rotation as was her tick.  “Nav?”

The Navigations officer responded, “My assistant, our ensign, managed a decent course I think. It looks optimal.” And that Ensign at his sub console for navigations beamed through his worry.

“Okay then” said the steady light voice of the Captain. “Charge translight drives. Have warp field drives ready too, I want to keep our signature as low as possible though. I want us ready for a microjump. Who ever just popped in won’t be ready to jump again until they spool down their jump engines down and then back up.”

“Thinking of trouble Captain?” came the XO over the com at secondary bridge.  “Not sure yet. You say one ship had diff power sigs from the others?”  

“Yes” said Noomi from sensors.

“Could be anything true, but to be safe…” and the Captain shrugged leaning back into the Captain’s chair.  “All right Nav take us to warp state 4.”

And Noomi eyes on her secondary screens of electronic interstitial space watched as the Destroyer shifted into warp and moved to acceleration

----






Wrote this little quickie for  http://www.misfortunecookie.ca/blogs/neverending-story-project/ Haven't submitted this one yet. It might be too long.

I have another IGP tale I am working on. Not sure if I want to finish this one. Though in the short time I really grew to like Noomi, and Andrea Blackshaw.

Thanks for your time.

terror.and.love@gmail.com