Sheetal looked at the unusual surroundings and asked “What is this place?”
Time was a strange thing in the dreamscape. Every time Sheetal got distracted time slipped away from her. And so did everything around her. She did not know how long she had floated over here in this spot or how she had gotten here. And it worried her.
Taran 45 put a finger on his lips and glared.
Sheetal glared at the high councillor. After everything he still had the gall to shush her? Why? Her words had come out muffled as if the world all around her was covered in a wet blanket. Also, her shards that had begun to feel like a part of her felt faraway. It wasn’t like the null zone where they had just stopped functioning, over here she could float, but still her shards were difficult to reach.
Why was that? In the null zone, potentiality had been ripped away from her. According to Ash, it was even sucked out of the air and into the stone floor. That meant she couldn’t breathe in potentiality to restore her stocks but it also meant that the resonance that her shards created didn’t reach the world? The universe? The reality?
Basically, her shard could not communicate with the area around her to let her float. And that meant potentiality, whatever it was, was a medium. Now all she had to do was figure out, what kind of medium it was. She was banking on a wave but she was scientist and she would keep her mind open.
Sheetal jolted. Taran 45 was shaking her. He put a finger on his lips and pointed to the side. Sheetal looked at him blankly.
“You zoned out again.” Taran 45 whispered and then muttered “Sit.”
“Huh?” Sheetal whispered back.
Taran 45 rolled his eyes and dragged a metal stool to her with a screech and bid her to sit on it and observed Ash on a hologram.
“What was that?” Ash asked from the other side.
“Nothing, just a chair being dragged.” Sheetal replied.
Ash covered his ears with his hands and grimaced “Softly! Talk softly.”
Sheetal leaned back and looked at Taran 45 “What’s going on?’
The high councillor lowered the volume and answered “We are in low potentiality area. All the potential is being syphoned from here to the white room your brother is in.”
“He is not…”
Taran 45 responded “Yes. Yes. We know.” And hit the same button once again.
Sheetal glared at the older man.
Taran 45 ignored Sheetal and looked at the shards embedded in the walls. They hummed in different pitches as he lit them up row by row. Finally he whispered “Ash, a moment please.”
Taran 45 slid a knob upwards and asked Sheetal “Feel better?”
Sheetal blinked “What did you do to me?”
“You are in a dreamscape. This slider here allows us to let you lucidly dream or put you in rem sleep.”
“How do you always get us into these things?” Ash asked her in a whine from the other side.
His question wasn’t without merit. He was trapped in a small eight by eight by eight room that was all white. It’s floor was white, its ceiling was white, its walls were white, and the white was not just white, it was white. And Ash was beginning to hate white.
“How about now?” Taran asked Ash.
Needles faded into the room with Taran 45 and Sheetal and looked at the shards with a surprised expression on his face.
Ash grimaced and waved downwards “Still. Loud.”
Taran 45 bit his lips and nodded.
“Now?”
Needles looked at Taran 45 and started “If we do that…”
“Yes, that is how we restrain prisoners, but do you see the boy in discomfort?”
“Prisoners?” Sheetal asked in a threatening tone.
Taran 45 took a step back and away from the warder.
Needles answered “Yes. We do restrain some people like this but take a look. Ash is… fine?
They both turned to look at the boy. He was trying to do a one handed handstand.
“Yeah, I am fine.”
Sheetal closed her eyes “Ash, straighten up. We can see you stuff through your pink panties.”
Taran didn’t wait for Ash to respond and asked “How about now?”
Ash fell on the other room and sat up straight “That… That was okay.” He paused and looked around “You can see me?”
“Yes, warder.”
“How? I don’t see any cameras in here.”
“You wouldn’t even if they were there.” Taran 45 muttered and added “We are in your minds, warders. This is not a physical location.”
Sheetal repeated her original question “What is this place?”
“Sheetal this is control room for a white room. The system provides the blueprint of these rooms to all factions when they finish their first quest or missions. It is primarily used to balance your shards. Also, at times, to restrain and interrogate prisoners by filling the room with potentiality.” Needles answered.
“I am done being a prisoner, Needles.” Sheetal stated flatly.
“You are not a prisoner.” Needles said calmly and explained “In fact, if you were out there you would know that the only one who is a prisoner right now is the former High Councillor.”
Needles turned to look at Taran 45 and in a stern tone started “You are a warder who needs medical attention. You and your brother’s souls are not compatible with your body because someone decided to cut portions of anomalies and shove them in you. So, we have isolated your consciousness so that we can merge it back together with your body. And that is all that we are going to do. Isn’t that right councillor?”
Ash called out from the other side “Guys, this is boring. If somebody doesn’t do anything fun, I am going to start drawing on the walls.”
“He can’t do that.” Taran 45 muttered.
“Yeah. You are telling me the kid who just force fed us the sweetest caffeinated drink I have ever had, and made us eat something from a stand that called its wares crispy jalapeno cheese chow mien samosas, that he cannot change his mental state with a wandering thought?” Parvati M141 glared at Taran 45.
“Specialist medic. Someday, maybe even tomorrow, the council might vote to unseat me but that is not today. Today, I am the high councillor and you are just a medic of a squad.” Taran 45 snarled at Parvati M.
Needles was about to fire back but suddenly Taran 45 wasn’t there anymore. He was in a wall.
Sheetal looked at Taran 45 dispassionately “I don’t like you. If you talk down to my friends again, I will crush your balls.”
“Friends?” Taran 45 asked with a cough.
“Yes, friends.”
“Seriously people. I am not kidding. If nobody talks to me, I will drop my skirt, take off my shirt and start playing with my flute.”
Needles snorted and then looked at Sheetal. She did not look amused.
Sheetal turned to Needles “He is not kidding.”
Needlers eyes widened and she ran to the console “Warder Ash, just a minute please. We will get started in a bit”
Needles looked to Sheetal for help.
Sheetal rolled her eyes and huffed “Ash, you flipping bimbo, don’t be a creep.” Sheetal huffed.
“Oh, I am being creepy? If you could only see what I see you wouldn’t be so quick to judge.” Ash paused and looked at the ceiling and continued “And Taran, if this is some sort of powerplay its not working.”
“I assure you warder, it is not.” Taran wheezed out.
“Wait, She, are you beating up the old man again?” Ash waggled a finger “This is bordering on elder abuse. You need to stop.”
“No.”
“You promised.”
Sheetal released her grip on Taran 45 and grumbled “I said I am not going to kill him. I never said anything about throwing him into a wall.”
“She, I don’t mind you throwing a fit no and then. But when people are stuck in our heads its feels like bullying. And bullying is not awesome.”
Sheetal scowled and in a huff turned away with a growled “Fine.”
Taran 45 looked at Sheetal apprehensively. A second later his shards flashed, and pain disappeared from his face. He straightened his coat, stood up, and moved away from the girl warder under her angry gaze.
“So, Needles, what is this place?” Sheetal trying to distract herself.
“Picture a line.” Needles made a line in the air with her finger “On one side is your body. In the middle is your consciousness. And at the end is your soul.” Needles drew a line under the middle and added “Now, your body is damaged and your brain… It has chunks missing from it. So, we are using quantum computers to replicate your lower brain functions.
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Sheetal mouth fell open and she asked “Are you saying we are dead?”
“No. You are in the frontiers. Life and death are too close here for an existence wink out just like that.” Taran 45 answered Sheetal with weary look and added “Your brain is mostly okay. The khara are evolving it and adding some sections to it. Soon you will be better than before.”
“How?” Sheetal snarled.
Needles drew a square in the air “The white room is a closed off section that stores most of your consciousness. We do it to keep you relatively pain free, and brain functions normal while we work on an ascendent’s body. Also, to keep you away from your shards. So that you do not use it accidentally and throw one of your attendants into a wall.”
Needles looked pointedly at Sheetal.
Taran 45 continued “Also to stop you from accidentally using them and causing yourself more damage while we…”
Needles stopped and focussed elsewhere. There was a khara nudging her with their small white tentacles. They poked her head softly and she looked back in surprise.
The two anomalies were all but pieces behind the two medical pods. She looked at the slabs of meat and bone, and then turned to look at the slight smile on the high councillor’s face. Her eyes focussed on his. He wasn’t paying her any attention. He was looking at the khara and the pods.
She turned to look at the khara. One of the fist sized khara phased out of Sheetal’s pod. It emerging from the dark brown churning bio matter wasn’t what caught her attention. It was the fact that the khara was holding a bone. A femur.
Another khara floated to the first with a long femur from the anomaly. They both dug their thin tentacles inside the femur and phased out the bone marrow from the medullary cavity. Holding the soft spongy tissue to the side, they both touched the bones together and the femur flashed.
Needles knew this flash. She had seen it before. When she had been called to treat miners aboard the Kehar. She had seen the khara floating around and phasing metal straight from the rocks and turning it into alloys. They called it transmuting. And those were simple kharas. These were divine touched.
In front of Needles eyes, the bones melted together to make a dark, almost black blob. The kharas quickly moved their tentacles shaping the bone as if it was clay. Soon a femur took shape. This one wasn’t a weak yellowish bone that Sheetal had been born with. This was a toughened metallic material that the khara created. She did not know what to even call it. And the khara kept going, phasing the marrows together, stuffing it back into the bone and moving on to the next section.
Needles turned back to look at the high councillor. He had his eyes locked on to Ash’s pod. Unlike Sheetal’s pod it was filled with a churning silverish opaque liquid that glistened in hues of opalescent light. The kharas were doing the same thing to his bone. Only his bones were not turning dark but into a transparent grey material that twinkled like a gemstone.
Needles knew that the High Councillor had his eyes set on Ash. But this was beyond anything that she had expected. What the khara were doing was not healing. They were remaking the warders into something else. Something nobody had seen before. And there was Taran 45 with a smile plastered in his face. Had he planned for this? Was he feigning his defeat? No. That couldn’t be. He couldn’t have predicted the khara’s reaction, could he? No, that couldn’t be possible. But then, why was the khara nudging her so annoyed?
Needles flicked a mental switch and gave the little khara access to the dreamscape and went back inside.
“Needles? Everything okay?” Sheetal asked.
“Hmm? Yes. Sorry the khara needed something. Where was I? So, the plain white empty room is the visual result of all the measure we take to keep potentiality at its minimum. It allows your soul to restore itself and heal the body from the trauma it has suffered.”
“It is also the place we store souls while we create the bodies of the augmented.” Taran 45 added.
Needles gave the high councillor a searching look “Augments? The robot looking man was an augment. What are they?”
“Our fallen. The ones we could not heal. Now their bodies are made of metal with pocket of potential. They cannot create any external affects, but they are demons in close quarter fighting.”
Taran 45 snorted “Our fallen, is that what you think they are? They are not even a part of the continuum anymore.”
Sheetal could not usually read the man, but at this moment she could sense grief and anger emanating from the high councillor in waves.
Needles seemed to not notice the emotions of the grey haired older Taran and stated “I need to get more information from the khara. Warders, I will be back. High councillor, please continue tuning the white rooms.”
Taran 45’s lips twitched upwards and he nodded.
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Needles closed her eyes and stood up from the chair she was sitting in. She looked to her side and saw the high councillor. He was wrapped up in the soldier khara’s tentacles, and yet he still had a smug look on his face.
Needles took off the thin piece of metal the khara had made for all of them. It’s glyphs dimmed as it came of her and it transformed from a silver band to a dull copperish ring.
“JJ?” Needles called out.
“Yes dear?” Jay 84 answered from somewhere behind her.
“JJ. The high councillor is up to something again. The khara are not happy with it. Find out what he is pleased about.”
Jay 84 cleared his throat “Shouldn’t we just ask, 83?”
Needles looked around and found the thinner Jay amongst the crowd of sentient beings. He was looking down on a projection on the floor. He raised his head and smiled at her.
“Needles, I suggest we let this one be.”
The husband wife pair looked at their old friend with surprise on their faces.
“Look, you know I am all for digging into things. By the gods, that is what got me fired from General Tina’s army. But one thing I have learned in all my years of snooping around is, you don’t mess with Ghost. Even when you think you have got him, you haven’t. He turns things around and hammers you with what you thought were his weaknesses.”
Needles approached the projection and saw a top down view of the warders and Taran 45 talking with each other.
“Warder Ash. How does this feel?” Taran 45 asked Ash who was inside the white room
The hologram expanded in area as it turned from a square block to a sphere with Ash in the middle.
“Ooh… That tickled.” Ash replied in a giggle.
Taran sighed and muttered “Lower then?”
With another few swipes on the wrist controller Taran 45 he adjusted the white room until he heard Ash say “Okay, you have successfully turned the world into a soup. Can I swim in this?”
Ash moved his hands about and in a disappointed voice grumbled “No. Nothing can be just fun, can it?”
Taran 45 rolled his eyes with a chuckle and turned his eyes upwards and spoke to Needles “I am saving this setting for the warder’s physical perception. Moving on to mental perception.”
Needles looked from the projection to 83 and asked “Weren’t you call Conspiracy Theory in the army?”
“No. I was just called theory?” Jay 83 asked.
Needles smiled “Well theory my dear brother in law, I am sure you have some theories regarding all this. Care to share some?”
83 took in a deep breath and gave his friend a considering look “Why didn’t the General kill Taran 45?”
“She can’t kill the high councillor.” Jay 84 snorted.
“Can’t she? What has the old guard done other than hamper her efforts? Why do we never see her faction when the continuum gets together? Why don’t we even get news about her? Why didn’t you get any news from me when I was in the army?”
“Because the General’s army prioritises secrecy?”
“JJ.” 83 sighed in disappointment “No, its because everything we send back is censored by Jay 7. And Taran 45 is supposed to be Jay 7’s man who is continuing his work under his leadership after having a fall out with the army. So why didn’t the General chop off the high councillor’s head?”
84 and Needles looked at each other and finally 84 answered “Because the High Councillor had already done what he needed to, and he was ready to die for this project of his?”
“No. No. JJ. I love you man, but you need to put your sinical hat on.” 83 shook his head.
“Then why?” 83 asked.
“Think about it. When we ran in here we saw that Ghost and his people didn’t know what they were doing. But he did just enough to compel the khara to finish his work. The khara are like that you know. They see a puzzle piece and have to put thing back together. Wheat do you expect out of a species with three OCD brains. But, before all of that, the general noted that the warder’s lives weren’t in danger and left.”
“So?” Needles asked.
“What else did General Tina see?”
“The warder’s souls?” JJ asked.
Theory closed his eyes and when he opened them there was a pitying look in his eyes and it was directed at JJ.
“Fine just tell us.”
“Parts from the anomalies.” Theory stated and asked “What do you think will happen if you send the warders back home to their planet? They will get chopped apart by their own people for research. And now that they can’t go home, they are basically ours.”
JJ recoiled “The general wouldn’t…”
“She didn’t do this. Jay 7 and Ghost did. And I am sure, now that this is almost done, the soldiers in the fire city Ash and Sheetal were so worried about, they will be encouraged to leave.”
“Explain.” Needles said shortly. She didn’t like untangling schemes like Theory
83 shook his head “The kids. And yes, no matter what you say, they are kids. Kids who have been fighting for their lives for days. With one simple hope that their people would come for them and save them. What happens when those same people abandon them. What happens to that loyalty? Luckily, we have the Continuum. It will magnanimously slip in and offer its care and protection. The warder’s loyalties will be easily transferred to us and the only thing that will be left would be for one of our leaders to ingratiate themselves over the others.”
JJ shook his head “No, you are making us sound like the bad guys. I know you have your disagreement with the old guard, but we are not the bad guys. And the continuum, we were created to continue humanity.”
83 pointed to the pods “Do you think the warders that will emerge from those med pods will be human, JJ? This doesn’t go against our mission. Soon, things are going to get very messy. The councillors will move against each other and we will be their pawns. Thankfully, that fight hasn’t begun yet. This is just the first stage. And T here is…”
83 put his arm around the shoulders of a squirming Taran E65 and continued “T, the one warders gave a nickname to, is perfectly placed to lobby for the General. I am sure, others will appear who will try to join our squad for the warder’s favours.”
Instead of objecting E65 raised his eyebrows and asked “So, where do you stand Theory? With the Old Guard or are you coming back to Perseverance?”
83 smiled and looked at his old friends “Needles, I know you don’t want to take command of our squad, but you need to. JJ and I will follow you. We have already been doing that for years. Let’s make it official now.”
Needles took in a deep breath while looking down at the projection. She looked up and a stern look came over her “We stand with the warders E65. We didn’t do this for the general or any other councillor. We ran in here to fight for the warders who saved us. We will do the right thing and stand by them.”
T frowned “The general did not do this. She didn’t even know about this experiment. She rushed back as soon as she heard. You can’t blame her.”
83 chuckled and pointed down “T. This is a good thing. That boy…”
Everyone looked down at Ash doing cartwheels with his frilly skirt flying around everywhere.
83 snorted “That boy is something else. Everything I just said. That warder knows already. He has deduced everything from the time he came in our domain. Look at Sheetal. She is angry. She is worried. She is depressed. And plagued with every other emotion that a prisoner goes through. Now look at Ash. Do you know what scares me? That kid.”
Ash spun and twirled while doing a handstand.
Needles nodded “I know. He is desensitized to violence and his personality type…”
“It’s not that.” 83 shook his head “Look one of my jobs when I was working for Cheel was pattern recognition. Now obviously, we do not know the warders to have all the data and variables, but I went through the transcripts of their conversations. In one of those, conversations Ash said something. He said it so nonchalantly that I dismissed in the beginning. Then I remembered his words…”
“I am going to make you the empress. The line he said to Sheetal?” E65 asked.
“What? No. I don’t know what that means.” 83 gave E65 a confused look.
“They have these plays in their world. They call them movies. Derived from the term moving pictures. In this play, there are theses bad guys who wear black, wield red swords and are evil. Ash wants Sheetal to emulate that.” E65 tried to explain.
Everyone looked at him blankly.
E65 rolled his eyes “The general bought the information from the Nebula shop and made me consume it. I am supposed to be their guide to the end of the universe.”
“Well, that was a waste of time.” Needless said and looked at 83 “What were you saying Theory?”
83 chuckled “I was saying that boy said that he was trying to figure out his new centre of gravity.” He pointed downwards at the projection and asked “How many days has it been that he been like this? Two? Three? Can you imagine an individual, who can so easily dissociate with their situation, find the problem they are faced with, take steps to correct them and then do it. Without an ounce of self pity or emotion.”
“That’s because he is a sociopath.” JJ dismissed.
Needless shook her head “Psychopaths and sociopaths get angry when they lose control. They lash out violently. He is controlled.”
“Yes. It’s like he is in control. Watch.” Theory who was keeping an ear on the conversation looked down and everyone followed him.
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“What does he mean by that?” Sheetal was asking Taran 45 about something
The high councillor began his explanation to explain both, Ash in the hologram and Sheetal sitting next to it.
“As I explained earlier, the white room is a room where we balance our shards.”
“And interrogate your prisoners.” Ash yelled from the hologram.
“Yes. Still angry about that?” Taran 45 asked with a smile quirking his face.
“Angry? No. Salty. Yes.” Ash chuckled and asked “When will you stop trying to get a reaction from me?”
“When will you stop trying to get one from me?” The high councillor shot back.
“Gentlemen!” Sheetal said in loud voice and asked “The explanation?”
The high councillor nodded “Potentiality, as you can see on your meters does not just come from killing things. It is everywhere around us. It is gift from the great mother to the frontier worlds under her care. The shards in the walls around us, dampen the volatility of potentiality until it as near a static state as it can be. That helps us balance our shards.”
“What does that mean?” Ash asked.
“You have what seven, maybe eight shards.” Taran 45 asked Sheetal.
“I am not going to reveal my secrets to you high councillor.”
Taran 45 sighed “I was not asking you to do that. All I was trying to say was that your shards sooner or later will start conflicting with each other. Like what is happening to Ash. Kid, you have four speed shards. I know it make you fast but then you have a density shard which does not have anything to do with speed. Then you have channelling shards. Which has nothing to do with density. And what in the gods name made you put a sense shard in your head. You are a sensopath, boy!”
Taran 45 stopped and gathered himself while waiting for an answer.
“Umm… I wanted red eyes.”
“Excuse me?” Taran 45 asked.
Ash shook his head “Hey, high councillor, buddy, it doesn’t matter. I know what is really bothering you. You are jealous that we can have more shards than you.”
“Jealous? Seriously?”
“Yup. Tell me you didn’t wonder the first time you saw us in person, how much difference you could have made if you could have all the shards you could get?”
Taran 45 looked down at the hologram with narrowed eyes.
Ash continued “Then you decided to the second-best thing you could do. Kidnap us and involve us in your schemes.”
Taran 45 looked at Ash in silence.
“Well?” Ash pressed and when he didn’t get a response he asked Sheetal.
“Hey, She. Is he squinting?”
“Yes.” Sheetal grinned.
Ash laughed “Got you.”
Sheetal laughed and then bit her lower lip “I cracked my shard while fighting the nishachars.”
“Oh great, make everything about you again.” Ash’s hologram muttered and this time everyone ignored him.
The high councillor nodded “Yes, we know. That is why we were going to take you to the white room first. But then you revealed that your brother doesn’t accept his notifications. That means there is something seriously wrong with him.”
“There is nothing wrong with me. I am awesome.” Ash stated.
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83 looked down at Ash and took a step back “See that boy… Even if he was some sort of a spy wherever he came from, and a good one, is a warder now. A warder will grow more powerful with every shard he consumes. And he can already outwit and outplay Ghost. And he is doing a good enough job that the old legend is treating him like an equal.”
Everyone followed his gaze and looked at the high councillor conversing with Ash. The greying Taran was enjoying the conversation.
While Ash and Taran 45 fenced in jibes and jokes the superb seven observed the high councillor. The man was smiling and the glint in his eyes unnerved Needles.
Theory shivered too and Needles expected her friend to say something like the thoughts running in her head.
Instead, Theory folded his hands over his chest and announced “By ash and sand. I am not going to get involved in the mess the councillors are going to kick up. And by oblivion, I am not standing against that kid. Sheetal is shotgun, cocked and ready to scatter plasma on anyone that wrongs her. Ash, he is a killer in daylight. You know he will be coming, you will plan for him, but in the end, you will be bleeding out on the sand while he mocks you.”
“So, what? We do nothing again. Just like before?” JJ grumbled.
“No. We protect them.” 83 nodded and added “And then, we make them our squad members.”
“What?” JJ and T asked together.
Theory looked at them as if they were stupid “Guys, the councillors are going to fill up spots in our squad with people we don’t want or trust. They are going to start politicking through us. If we don’t have spots then we are good aren’t we?”
“But then we are the ones who they will be politicking through.” Needles protested.
83 nodded “Yes, and we can ignore them.” Theory paused and corrected himself “Well not you Needles, Ash is playing a game with Ghost. I don’t think you have choice anyway.”
“I don’t get it.” E65 looked confused “They are not continuum.”
Theory snorted “Ash just read the high councillor perfectly. I don’t know of anyone who could do that. Do you? The man is known for hiding his emotions behind an expressionless mask and still that boy got the better of him. When he was stuck in a white room I must add.” 83 felt the goosebumps on his arms and in a soft voice added “Do you think him not being a member of continuum will stop him. And that is why that boy scares me.”
“I think you are being paranoid Theory. Still, I agree with you. Having them in our squad will give us two members we can trust and will keep us out of politics. But first we need to tell them what is going on.” Needles said.
“Tell them what? That your conspiracy theory friend believes that their people are going to leave them behind? Do you think they will believe that? You will only create a rift between us and them.”
“It is only fair Theory that they know.” Needles protested.
Theory sighed “We are their protection detail Needles. Let’s just start with that. But, now you are our squad leader. Whatever you decide, I will stand by you. Like right now, T and I will stand guard and observe from here. JJ, will help Needles inside the dreamscape.”
Needles looked at her old friend and nodded “I will keep your advice in mind. But if I think they need to know…” She shook her head “If they are ready to know, I will tell them.”
With that Needles returned to her chair. This time her husband sat down next to her. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. His closeness made her feel more confident and when she closed her eyes, she had sterner expression on her face.