The ascendent handbook.
8 basic rule for every ascended by Robrosh Misshal
Rule No. 1 – Find a Purpose
Rule No. 2 – Always fight for the light.
Rule No. 3 – Life is long. Disagreement will happen. Don’t avoid them.
Rule No. 4 – Fight when you have to but don’t duel. Duels will just get you killed.
Rule No. 5 – Sometimes the best way to live is to start a rivalry.
Rule No. 6 – Don’t pick a fight with a warder.
Rule No. 7 – See the Silver City? Walk away.
Rule No. 8 – An event means death.
These were the eight rules in general for ascended. Sheetal had found then in what looked like a search bar on her hud. Actually, she had found a book. These were just the names of the chapters. It was a simplified version of what looked like a law book with Rules, laws, articles, and amendments. The book gave examples of cases and in simple terms explaining what to do and what not to do. It was a bit dry, but she had read rambling whitepapers, and she needed to finish it to get a better understanding of the world and their place in it.
And she would have finished the gods danged book if Ash didn’t continuously distract her.
Sheetal looked at Ash from the side of her eye. He was balancing a chair he was sitting on two of its back legs. He had a look of concentration on his face but that didn’t stop him from humming a song. He shot his hands forwards and compensated for overbalancing the chair. His chair titled forwards and he came thudding down. Ash gave the walls around him an annoyed look and tilted himself back again.
“Nananana nananana nananaaa”
Thud.
He tried it again.
“Nananana nananana nananaaa”
Thud.
He began to lean back again and almost toppled when Sheetal screamed.
“Will you stop that? You are driving me mad!”
Ash shot a look Sheetal way. She was busy poking her finger in the air. He could tell that she was going through all her screens with those strange numbers while looking like a nerd. Why couldn’t she be normal for once and use the system the way it was supposed to be used like what he was doing?
A devious grin dawned on Ash’s face when he saw the concentrated look in Sheetal’s eyes with just a hint of annoyance. He purposefully put his feet on the edge of bed and leaned back while singing loudly.
“NANANANA…NANANANA…NANANANUH.”
Sheetal shot her hand out and stopped Ash’s movement in mid swing.
“What in the fudge is wrong with you?” Sheetal stopped and started again “Actually don’t answer that. The answer to that is obviously everything. Start by telling me, why are you humming the song so loud in my head?”
“Mmmm…mmmmmm….mm” Ash tried to speak but his whole body was trapped in Sheetal magic.
Sheetal unclenched her hand and Ash’s chair thudded to the ground.
“Seriously, She…”
Sheetal raised her hand and with a death glare ordered “Answer, first.”
Ash raised his hands “Okay. Okay. I am not humming the song. I am playing it.”
“Playing it? What song?”
“This thing called, I want you. By two guys called Savage Garden. Who by the way don’t look savage at all. ”
“What?”
“Yeah, its an old boomer song.”
“No, its millennial song by an Australian band.” Sheetal shook her head “That’s not important, how are you playing the song?”
“I told you. Through the system. It is a computer, She.
Sheetal closed her eyes and raised a finger “Hold on. Walk me through it. How did you find a music player on the myriad of displays we have on our hud?”
Ash shrugged “It’s not a music player. It’s a video streaming website thingy. It’s nice though.”
Sheetal floated closer to Ash “Video streaming website? Tell me the lyrics of the song.”
“You want me to prove it? You can do it on your…”
Sheetal hissed “Ash! I have almost got all my windows perfectly lined up to show me the most essential stats in the most efficient way. I don’t want to mess it up. Just tell me the gods danged words!”
Ash leaned back on his chair “Fine. Fine. Hold on let me turn the captions on.”
“There are captions?”
“It’s a video site, She. And… Yeah. It goes like something cherry cola.”
“What?”
“She, I am trying to listen here.”
“Sorry, go on.”
Ash gave Sheetal a discontented look. Looked in the distance and narrated “It goes like, come stand a little bit closer. Blead in, get a bit higher.”
“And. Breathe in and get a bit higher.” Sheetal corrected Ash
Ash narrowed his eyes and sand the chorus “Ooh, I want you. Something… something… need you. But, ooh I die to find out.”
Ash stopped with a grimace on his face “I am taking it back. It’s not a nice song. What kind of a guy would die for someone else?”
Sheetal who had raised her finger to stop Ash lowered it.
“You know that was good. I didn’t know you could sing.” Sheetal complemented Ash.
“I can? I mean, obviously I can. I am awesome.” Ash stopped and sighed “Okay, I couldn’t sing. But I guess I am more awesome now. And I can sing. So, what was the point of all this?”
Sheetal exhaled “I could hear the lyrics, Ash. Even the ones you mangled.”
Ash looked at Sheetal and exhaled loudly “That’s great but you shouldn’t have said that aloud. Now they will come to separate us.”
“What?”
“Give them a few minutes.”
“Anyway, you should go the Nebula Play website and check out the playlist Hundred and Fifty thousand songs that appeal to Humans, Cyborgs, and other bipedal races.”
Sheetal glared at Ash as he began to lean back on the chair again.
“What the heck Ash? Why are you doing that when you just said they are coming to separate us?”
Ash looked at Sheetal and replied with a smile “Well, because my centre of gravity has changed. I am skinny, short and have noodle arms. I need a way to get used to this. So, I am doing what I can in this confined place.”
“Can you do it later?”
Ash put his feet on the ground “She, when they try to separate us, we’ll fight. Until then, let’s not get worked up.”
The wall behind Ash melted and parted to the sides. He turned on hiss chair and looked at Taran 45 standing in the opening with a slight smile.
“Hello warders, fighting won’t be required. I am not here to separate you. I am here to show you to your new accommodations. Bigger ones. So, that you don’t kill each other.”
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“Huh!” Ash and Sheetal grunted together and looked at each other.
Sheetal turned back to Taran 45 and asked the middle aged man “Why the sudden concern?”
“Oh, I didn’t expect you to so casually use your powers everywhere. Like the time you decide to float a jug of water to your hand. And for that I must congratulate you. That was deftly done. But, you both need more space. I am shifting you to the politico suite. That’s where we hold our heads of state.”
“Before they lose their heads?” Ash chuckled.
“That’s only happened thrice.” Taran 45 responded with a chuckle of his own.
Ash got up and Sheetal followed him out. They were all quickly surrounded by cyborgs who looked ready to pounce with their hands on their weapons. Sheetal wary of making the mistake of saying too much again decided to keep her silence. Ash on the other hand began quizzing the man.
“So, have you decide whether we are guests or not?”
Taran 45 smiled “You are our guest. Until you are not.”
Ash groaned “Seriously man, you are going with that?”
“You seem to know our business. Tell me wouldn’t you do the same?”
Ash sighed and changed the topic “So how does a spy master become a leader of a cyborg force?”
“By staying informed and carefully predicting the future.” Taran 45 said wisely.
“Do you always have cute answers for difficult questions?”
Taran 45 stopped in front of sliding doors and waited for one of the cyborgs to open it.
“I am sorry, but a politician needs to have his secrets.” Taran walked into the new room and waved the warders in “Perhaps we can discuss a different topic? Maybe, something the lady warder would like to know.”
Sheetal’s eyes lit up and she wondered if she should ask her questions about the power sources of the augments. Was it just a long lasting battery or the holy grail all of earth was working on, a small portable nuclear reactor.
“No.” Ash cut off her line of thought with a curt shake of her head.
Sheetal shot him a look filled with accusation and asked “Why?”
“Because you wont ask the right questions, She.”
“And you will? What questions could you ask which would be the right questions? What kind of lube they use? Do they have aloe in their waxing strips? Or, let me guess, do they do the robot dance?”
Ash chuckled “Those are pretty good questions but no. I have a more important one.”
Taran 45 looked all around the suite and took a seat on a plush single seater sofa.
“So, what do you want to know?”
“Simple, where are we?” Ash asked instantly.
“You are in the continuum forward operating base. Which will soon be the new HQ of all the continuum forces in the Trials”
Ash sat down in front of the man “That’s nice but where are the Trials?”
Sheetal who had been ready to burst out in anger just stood there. Ash was right. She hadn’t she asked that question to any of the soldiers she had met?
“Ah!” Taran 45 tapped his chin “What do you know about reality?
“It’s there?” Ash hedged.
“No. No. No.” Taran 45 laughed and explained “The best way to put it is that reality, as we perceive it with all its matter and rules of physics, is resting on a net. Things, pieces, old and new dangle from the net. But there is not just one net. Some run parallelly. Some intersect. Where a lot intersect, there are the Arata. They are strange non biological creatures. They feed on these places. They gather up the old refuse from broken world and creates bubbles. These bubbles merge into one. That is the trial.”
“Huh?” Ash asked and looked at Sheetal to ask “Are you getting any of this?”
Sheetal floated to Ash and asked “That sounds highly improbable. We have theorised that our universe is connected to some kind of anti-universe, not this.”
Taran 45 clapped his hands in joy with a cheerful “Ah! So, you are an advanced civilisation. When I saw you with those things, I was afraid I was dealing with a medieval one.”
Sheetal followed Taran 45’s finger to Ash’s tonfas and rolled her eyes “No, that’s just Ash.”
Taran 45 chuckled “I see. The anti-universe is the net I am talking about. Or I should call them a mesh if we are being technical.”
“What the hell is going on?” Ash asked with a blank look on his face.
“Think of it like a slice of cake.” 45 started his explanation again “You have layer of reality, then a layer of unreality, then a layer of a different reality followed by a layer of another unreality. And think of Arata’s as bakers. They take berries from here, bananas from there, and pistachios from somewhere else to create a slice of cake. Finally, they top it up with whipped cream by letting potentiality in. And, hurrah, you have the trials.”
Ash nodded “Yeah, I am hungry now.”
“Ash!” Sheetal scolded the younger warder.
Ash shook his head “No, lets go back to the bubble analogy. Let me guess, the bubble is going to burst, and we all are going to die, right?” Ash asked.
“No, that is more than highly unlikely. The Arata guard their lands jealously. Say, the slice of cake becomes big, and it starts pressing against other cakes. The arata’s stop and start building somewhere else. That is how the anomalies get in.”
Ash noticed how Taran 45 emphasized the word anomalies asking him to ask more about these creatures. Ash didn’t take the bait.
Instead, Ash asked man in the fashionable uniform “So, your world is connected to the trials, and you all what, keep coming here for shards?”
Taran took in a breath and for the first time lost his smile. He exhaled with a pained look and answered “Our world before it died, had passage from it to the trials. We created it to grow stronger, to stop a war that was raging in our world. But, the ones we left behind, may the gods burn their souls in the nine hills, blew it all up. The flipping idiots. And now we hope that someday, someway, we could travel the path all the way into a new world. A world called Reir. Where we would have potentiality to grow our technology to the next stage, where we could belong, where we could be safe and rest our heads in peace.”
“What if that world doesn’t accept you?” Ash raised one of his bushy eyebrows.
“Then we will bring a lasting peace to everyone.” Taran 45 smiled again.
“I see.” Ash leaned back and looked at Sheetal “Now you can ask him your questions.”
Taran 45 raised his hand and tapped a gemstone on a thin black chain he was wearing on his wrist “Actually, I would like to ask a few of my questions now.”
The door behind them slid apart and Parvati M with her strange white hand stiffly walked in. She used that hand to thump her chest in a salute and greeted Taran 45 with a mumbled “Councillor.”
Ash smiled “Hello Paru.”
Parvati M smiled slightly “Warders.”
Taran 45 nodded “Parvati M, ask your questions please.”
Parvati M took in a deep breath to calm herself and started “Could you read out your last shard advancement notification to me?”
Ash looked at Sheetal and with his eyes asked her to stay calm, took a moment to open his hud and in a bored tone he answered
“Congos… You have advanced and merged a shard with your soul. Shard type - Density. The roots blah… blah…”
Parvati M looked at Ash for a moment and turned to Taran 45 “Sir, the data is correct.”
Taran 45 grinned “Thank you for the confirmation warder. And just for clarification. That is one of reasons that your link with you sister is growing. It is not of our doing.”
Sheetal’s eyes locked on the sharp dressed man “Could you tell me a little bit more about the link?”
Taran 45 nodded “Sure, what do you know about microtubules?”
“Not much.” Sheetal answered and expanded “They are a recent discovery in our world.”
“Microtubules are microscopic tube like things in your brain. In basic human anatomy they allow you to have sentience by perceiving all four dimensions of reality. But as an ascended grows, the TKTL1 gene grows with them.”
“T.K. What?” Ash asked.
Sheetal hovered over to the sofa next to him and sat down “TKTL1 gene. It is responsible for human intelligence.”
“Yes.” Taran 45 continued “The gene is broken but an ascended is basically reforming their body from basic to evolved, to apex. An apex human’s genes are in perfect order that is why they are almost unbeatable. No missing links, no broken chains, and no deformities.”
Ash noticed how Taran was looking at him. As if he was a monkey. A monkey that Taran 45 wanted to tear apart to see what made him work.
“So why is this TKTL1 gene and these microtubules important?” Sheetal who had seen Taran 45 laser focussed attention, tried to divert it.
Taran 45 leaned back “The TKTL1 gene, when its starts growing and completing itself inside a body, it changes both your brain and its chemistry. Before it starts working itself downwards. But all that exerts pressure on the brain. To compensate for that, the brain increases the quality and the quantity of microtubules. Allowing us to use potentiality and do, this.”
Electric sparks shot out from Taran 45’s fingers.
“Scary.” Ash responded with a sharp smile.
Taran made the sparks disappeared and nodded “I knew you would appreciate that.”
The high councillor turned back to Sheetal “Let me preface by saying, I personally have never seen linked souls. But I have read that when a link forms, the microtubules in both the brains start resonating close to each other. Letting both the parties to sense each other and visceral level.”
“Wow! I barely got two percent of that. I mean I got ten percent of the first one. Almost all of the second one but this one?” Ash muttered and shook his head “Nope. I am not doing this anymore.”
Sheetal ignored Ash and asked “So why did you want to know about that?”
“To keep you safe.” Taran 45 got up from the chair he was sitting an and excitedly paced “Now we know that we must keep you together. Because if an assassin takes one of you out, they take both of you out.”
Ash chuckled “Yeah, but which assassin will infiltrate a base overseen by an ATI and one which is full of cyborgs and soldiers.”
“Yes, I need to work on a good answer for that one. Why couldn’t the raks make thing easy for once?” Taran 45 nodded distractedly.
He visibly pulled himself out of his thoughts, turned back and sat down on the chair opposite the warders and continued “Now, you are going to meet another of the continuum’s councillors tomorrow. He is not like me. He is Jay. The oldest amongst us. And he doesn’t like people who give him trouble. Be nice and truthful to him or he will do something stupid which we all will regret.”
“A loose cannon?” Sheetal smiled while looking at Ash.
“The mentor is not a loose cannon. He is driven towards a goal.”
“And that is?” Ash asked.
“For him to reveal.” Taran 45 answered.
“Okay sir, we will be on our best behaviour, sir. High Councillor, sir.” Ash thumped his chest in a mockery of the salute Parvati M had done earlier.
Taran 45 squinted “Please be. I am trying to make this easy on you.”
“We will be.” Sheetal shot Ash a look and added “But…”
“But?” Taran frowned at the female warder
“But?” Ash asked in curiosity.
“But, if we are going to comply then you should help us too. We think some of our soldier friends are in that broken down city we ran away from. The one with the massive explosion. Save them and we’ll be nice.”
Taran leaned forward “Give me their names and any identification you have for them. I will ensure they remain safe and bring them in.”
“Really? Just like that?” Sheetal asked in tone that was full of doubt.
“Yes, we have already begun our operations in the region to retake the city and its nearby areas from the Nishachars. They won’t be too hard to find.”
Sheetal looked at Ash and waved for him to go on.
Ash looked at Sheetal sheepishly “Umm… Do you want to answer that?”
Sheetal looked at him “Why?”
“Because I don’t remember their names. Actually, I didn’t bother learning their names in the first place.”
Sheetal gave him an incredulous look.
“Don’t look at me like that. They are boring, led by Colonel Generic and angry hairy man. That’s all I know.”
“Colonel Arivarsaan is the military leader. Doctor Joshi, he is my mentor. Then there is Major Singh, Captain Abesh and…and…”
Ash got up from his chair and dramatically pointed at Sheetal “Ha! You don’t know their names either, do you?”
“Shut up.” Sheetal responded in huff and floated up after him.
“Yeah, whatever.” Ash chuckled and reached for a bottle of the orange drink the continuum was obsessed with. He tried to open it. When he couldn’t he looked at Taran 45 who was watching him closely.
The man held out his hand “Allow me.”
Ash handed him the bottle and watched the man twist the cap easily.
“What do you want from me?” Ash asked suddenly.
Taran 45 smiled “I just want you to be better. I want you to come into yourself and be all that you can be. For all of us.”
“Skibidi toilet. You sound like my mother.” Ash muttered.
“Really?” 45 smiled.
“Deadaxe.” Ash nodded.
Taran 45 stood up and added “Also, I want to give you sister her legs back.”
Ash kept himself still but felt Sheetal flinch and focus on Taran 45. She was barely able to restrain herself and the high councillor caught the look in her eyes. He gave the pair a satisfied smile.
Ash’s shoulders drooped “You had to say that didn’t you?”
“You know I had to.” Taran 45 patted Ash on his shoulders.
Ash nodded dejectedly.
Taran 45 looked at Parvati M who was standing close the door and got up. He straightened his jacket and said “I will see you both tomorrow. Remember what I said. Behave.”
The man left with Parvati M stiffly trailing behind him.
“Why do you do that? Why do you suddenly use that nonsensical jargon?” Sheetal asked after the High Councillor and their friend left.
Ash considered his answer for a moment and then answered truthfully “Two reasons. Because you and that guy were using your jargon. I didn’t like it. So, I had to use my jargon. Second reason, I haven’t been able to throw that guy off his game. And, I haven’t found what to say or do to get a reaction out of him. So, I decided to try Gen Alpha language.”
“How was that supposed to help?”
“She, why do you hate it when I use the word sigma?”
“Because sigma is a mathematical sum. Not a term to describe someone.”
Ash got up from his chair and shook his head “No, She. It’s because you feel dumb, and nobody likes to feel dumb. Specially someone like you who has studied books with squiggly thingies in them. But thanks to the internet we can fight back and invents terms to make the older generation feel dumb.”
“That’s very mature Ash.” Sheetal said while watching Ash walk deeper into the suite and added “Thankfully, kids don’t think like you.”
Ash snorted and walked into the adjoining room.
“Seriously, you think that’s why kids invent new terms?” Sheetal raised her eyebrows and followed him.
Ash looked around in the room. It had a four poster large bed, two chairs, a desk and plain grey walls. He peeped into the bathroom. Looked at the shower and the bar of soap and backed out while responding to Sheetal’s question.
“Yes. That’s why all new words are invented. Yeah, people will say they want to do it, to be with it. But it’s mostly because everyone calls kids dumb when they are growing up. And when they finally reach teenage its their turn. And it’s time for revenge.”
“But, in the end, they end up looking even more dumb.” Sheetal said and entered the bedroom and Ash walked out and into the opposite room.
“Hey boomer, we belong to the same generation.” Ash poked his head out of the room and responded
“I know.” Sheetal responded in disappointment.
“Okay, I have good new and bad news. The bad news is that we only have one bed. The good news is that we have an empty room for exercise.”
Sheetal groaned “Why would they do that?”
Ash bit his lip. He had a theory, but he wasn’t sure about it.
“What is it?” Sheetal asked.
Ash sighed “I think Taran 45 wants us to be close. I feel its because of our link.”
Sheetal looked at Ash and hovered into the bedroom “Are there exercise mats in the room.”
Ash blinked and looked back to check “No. No mats.”
Slam!
Ash looked back at the closed door and asked “What?”
Sheetal screamed from the other side of the door “You are sleeping in the empty room.”
Ash blinked and ran back to the door and pushed on it. It didn’t budge.
“She?”
“I mean it.”
Ash kicked the door “She! You don’t want to do this.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because…” Ash hit the ball at the side of his vision and started playing a track “I have music.”
“So?”
Sheetal through the link heard a little boy start singing. Ash followed him from the other side.
“Sticking out your gyatt for the rizzler. You are so skibiddi. You are so Fanum tax.”
Sheetal cringed and asked “What the hell is that?”
“I just want to be your sigma.”
“Stop!” Sheetal put her hands over her ears.
“Freakin come here. Give me your Ohio.”
“I will kill you.”
Ash grinned and started again “Stickin out your gyatt…