The Masters: Extinction Files

Chapter 1:

Haraki Dima’s extended claws punctured the cloth covering the chair’s back as she took the last step and fell more than lowered herself to rigidly sit in the end seat of the first row of fold-downs. Mercifully there was no assigned seating. She wouldn’t have made it any further.

Even while she sat at rest, searing agony burned up and down her neural-muscular pathways. Haraki’s breaths were shallow and ragged and barely raised her thin chest. Hakari also noticed that her vision had started blurring in and out with her pain-accelerated heartbeat. That’s new . . .

The facts couldn’t be denied. Just the walk from the teleport pad in the hotel's lobby had exhausted the meager reserves of strength and sanity she had been drawing on to function the last several days. The wasting has accelerated, even faster than Physic Strang told me it would . . . Did I make a mistake coming here? Am I going to be able to contribute anything meaningful? . . . Am I even going to make it out of this room?

A loud single click snapped inside her mind, and a black pixeled image against a white background appeared before her. Within the pixels, Haraki saw the tall, thin silhouette of an alien species she didn’t recognize. Female? It was over two meters tall, lightly built, and its body and limbs swayed as if underwater. The being bowed its head in greeting on its thin, graceful neck. It then spoke directly to Hakari’s mind with a kind but unyielding tone. The voice was female.

[No, Haraki. I’m sorry to say that you are not going to make it out of this room. Even now, I am accelerating your cognition to give us a few moments together to make an important decision . . . but in your usual perception of time, there are only moments before your Essence leaves this physical body.]

Physic Strang had also said there might be hallucinations at the end . . . And with a career of law enforcement in all the working years of her 41 summers, Haraki had never favored mincing words . . . But talk about ripping the bandages off!

The Cheetah-Affin centered herself and was admittedly a bit proud she had schooled her reaction from those finding seats around her. Hakari went with her gut and queried the alien image.

I mean, really . . . I could have jumped up screaming at your words . . . Isn’t that how most people respond to mind-invading hallucinations?

The pixilated image of the alien shook her head. [Time is very fleeting, Haraki. I’m reading your thoughts. You know this isn’t a hallucination. Your lifetime of service to your people and your very finite time left are the reasons I have chosen to form a Ka Dominion with you—]

Hakari’s ears pointed up at the unfamiliar term.

Knowing the Cheetah Affin’s thoughts as soon as they were formed, the mind invader explained.

[— That means I will use your body as my Avatar to prevent terrible wrongs from being done by your people . . . as well as against your people. Understand that I am an Immortal Master.] Sensing more concern at the new, unfamiliar terms,[— Immortals are beings that have Transcended beyond mortality to the next spiritual realm. Immortal Masters act on behalf of mortals against other Immortals who have chosen to devour you all as fuel for their cultivations.]

The pixilated image's elongated features briefly flashed disgust and resolved in the set jaw of anger, seemingly at thoughts of the powerful consuming lesser beings.

After a moment of reflection, and as bizarre as the explanation was, Hakari had no room to dispute any of the mind invader’s claims. After all, the speaker was in Hakari’s mind and actively reading her thoughts. On top of this, the voice was right. As abrupt as this— whatever it is —was, she did not think that the communication was a hallucination. As close to the end as Hakari’s body was, the Cheeta Affin did not think she was losing her mind.

But isn’t that usually the last lucid thought of anyone who loses their mind? Likely . . . Hakari admitted honestly to her own question. But the sincerity and crispness of the image and voice in Hakari’s mind just didn’t feel like she was losing control. A real hallucination would also probably have related a more pleasant message . . .

Please proceed . . . Hakari sent from her thoughts.

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A very brief pause. [. . . It is important that you understand— and accept —that when the Ka Dominion ends, even if you weren’t dying, your Karmic connection with this reality will be severed. Your physical body will die. Your Essence, the Karmic totality of your being, will move on as it always does at the totality of mortal existence, to the mortal spirit nexus for rebirth.]

So . . . somehow . . . this is really happening, and I believe every word being said. Still, Hakari had lived her entire life taking the necessary time to make the right decisions. To do that, the Cheetah Affin needed several questions answered. Whether there is time or not, as it had so many times in her life, Hakari’s mind slipped easily into an interrogation framework.

Mortals? Immortals? Great wrongs committed by and against my people? Please explain.

The black pixilated image moved up the alien's fully extended telescoping neck and zoomed into its lean face. A single affirmative nod accompanied by a firm set of the jaw. [Anticipated, if not overly helpful response. I will have to be very brief in my explanations. In your time, you have less than 1.3 seconds before your elevated blood pressure ruptures several neuro-vascular vessels in your posterior cortex.] The invader started in a slightly irritated tone at having to backtrack to placate Hakari’s law enforcement background. Placating the obvious tactic of forcing the repetition of what were considered unlikely facts in order to increase the possibility someone would slip up in their explanations

The pixilated image zoomed back out and the alien pointed at its face with a thin, elegant hand. [In a review of what has already been explained— I am an Immortal Master. Immortality is the next level of existence beyond your mortal existence. Not an unkillable state. Immortality is a myth, at least as most mortals— people think about it.]

The image zoomed back into the alien’s face. [Masters are a loosely associated group of Immortals who have decided to prevent the multiversal extinction of mortal sapient life. Adharmic— evil —Immortals routinely return from Transcendence to harvest mortal soul Essence to further their own cultivatory advancement. This happens often enough, that the vast majority of Ethos Combi have predicted to a 97.4% degree of certitude that mortal sapient life will be extinct within the next five hundred million standard galactic rotations –approximately 1.2 billion of your local solar rotations.]

Hakari couldn’t deny that the extinction of all mortal sapient life was a bad thing. Still she couldn’t hold back her initial reaction to hearing it.

Maybe I have lost my mind . . .

But the cop in Hakari wasn’t worried about her mental state. She wanted a bit of information.

Ethos Combi predictions, explain?

The pixilated face nodded again. [Also anticipated. Ethos Combis are Ka-infused constructs that link Immortals with all matter, energy, context, and meaning in any iteration in the multiverse they are currently in. Combis provide information, probabilities of events, locations, and outcomes.]

The pixilated image zoomed out again and the black dot alien casually waved a hand to take Hakari into her confidence.

[Proper use of our Combi is how we know what we know. How we act on future probabilities before they occur. . . How we seem ‘god-like’. However, for our purposes, Ethos Combis will be largely irrelevant. When I take you as my avatar and form the Ka Dominion, I will be disassociated from my Immortal consciousness centers. This will make use of the Ethos Combi impossible. I will be very much limited to your mortal abilities and the physical realities of this iteration.]

The black pixilated image's wide eyes shifted up as if checking something, and then its cadence was hurried. [—I know you need several more pieces of information before you can grant me meaningful consent— but we are running out of time.]

Hakari accepted this but wasn’t dissuaded from finishing her questioning.

If you are who you say you are, and things are so dire, why do you need my consent at all?

[Immortal Masters are limited by the Principal Master’s penta-protocol. Violation of this protocol is very serious and personally costly in the extreme. None of us acting with dharma, for the ultimate good of all, would do it. Aside from the fact that we are all terrified of our boss, we follow the protocol because when we worked without it, we placed mortal iterations in greater danger than they were from the adharmic Immortals we were trying to protect you from.]

The pixilated image leaned her head in as if keeping her voice down to avoid others from hearing an embarrassing admission, [. . .The damage we caused was sometimes so great that entire international probability paths were lost . . . Along with all the mortals dependent on the existence of those probabilities. Still, in complete honesty, you are right. In this case, my Ethos Combi predicts a greater than a 60% chance of me failing to stop the Immortals involved unless I take a Ka Dominion and act directly. In such a situation, the penta-protocol allows me to act unilaterally. I am not required to get your permission. But that is not how I roll. . . I was a mortal before I Transcended. I have never and will never form a Ka Dominion without the avatar’s permission. That’s you. Now there is no more time . . . I need your decision.]

Two personal concerns sprang from Hikari’s mind almost unbidden.

I want to be aware of what you are doing with my body . . .

A single pixilated affirmative nod. [I can make it so.]

Will I still have to bear . . . this pain? Hakari’s eyes involuntarily glanced down in shame at her next admission. I don’t know if I can . . .

A single pixilated shake of the alien's lean face. [No . . . never again. That I promise.]

A predator’s smile flit over Hikari’s Cheetah Affin face. Then I have one more ask. If you agree, what’s left of this body is all yours . . .