Gondo closed his eyes and began the meditations that would put him into a relaxed state. Body ready to accept the chemicals. Mind ready to bend time and space.
Hypnagogia settled on him, the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep. His mind began to conjure strange images. A cuckoo clock floating in the void with two dancing figures twirling in front of it became a blinking eye and melted into starlight. As the chemicals were dispersed into his body, he let his mind wander into stranger and more elaborate patterns and drifted into sleep.
Eventually, as he reached R.E.M, the Trinalyte entered his system and his dreams became tangible. He was able to enter the focus state he needed to begin astral travel. Once again, he began to sense the world in 4D space. Most Casters would imagine themselves as a ball of glowing light, and Gondo was no different. If he were to open his third eye now to behold the world, he would see himself dozing peacefully on the table, Lowell and Ignasius observing his corporeal form as his astral body floated lightly in the middle of the room.
If he were a simple spy like many others in his field this would be known as remote viewing. A more common term would be an out of body experience. In fact, anyone could exhibit this state with enough training and the right pharmaceuticals. Scientists had recently proven that Deja Vu was actually a mental reaction to an accidental probe into the focus state that was required of Casters.
This close to his body he could open his third eye, or Scry, and observe the room, its contents. He could even travel around and search it for a time. However, even a highly trained astral traveler like Gondo could not remain in this form indefinitely. Eventually the clock ran out and his mind would tire, he would drift back to his body and resume sleep.
The operators in the room would then load the information from his Crown, hook it into their own cranial patch, and experience the recording.
When this was done on the cosmic scale it was quite different. A point in the far galaxy would be selected based on deep space scans and then established in the mainframe. A place where rare minerals were predicted to have formed on planets or asteroids. The traveler would sense this ping through their crown and then attempt to cast themselves out to reach it. The more experienced the Caster the higher the accuracy. For an A.E.C. operative fresh from the S.P.A. this might mean one in a thousand Casts was viable. For Gondo it was more like one out of five.
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Once in place the Caster would open their third eye to Scry their surroundings. This experience was highly shocking, and after a few seconds the mind would rush back to the body, exhausted. The Caster would then return to normal sleep. That small peek into the ether was all an operator needed to determine the structure and makeup of stellar objects. They would analyze the recorded data and then coordinate probes to investigate further. This process saved immense amounts of time and capital, and its application had driven technological advancement for the last few centuries.
Gondo imagined the universe as a giant web, with strands connecting the various celestial objects and their rotating paths. These veins were pathways between solar systems and galaxies. While his sleeping brain could plot a path along these interstellar highways, he could never behold the scale of the universe.
The human mind whether awake or sleeping was incapable of understanding or picturing the utter vastness of space. An analogy of its scope on the brink of human understanding could be made and then multiplied by a billion and it would still not suffice. Naturally, this comprised a problem for explorers. Computers and observational equipment could only go so far before more up-close investigation was required.
The cost for these kinds of operations was in itself astronomical. Luckily Gondo and his crew were the best in the business, they were able to sell the collected information to fund their research. Lowell had set up a series of untraceable dummy corporations to transfer the funds. It paid to have a brilliant renegade hacker on your team.
Gondo could hear Ignasius's low and peaceful voice through his connection to the crown. “Alright my friend, this one is a cakewalk. We’ll be Casting to an asteroid that looks promising in the Abel galaxy. I’m sending the ping now.”
He could sense rather than hear the low pinging in the dark blankness of the void around him. As he harnessed his focus his subconscious was able to extrapolate the space between his mind and his goal and plot a path to the destination. This would have been impossible while awake, even with the focus. Utilizing his psychic senses and the untapped power of his sleeping mind, he Cast himself reeling into the darkness.