The Star View (The Totality Cycles Book 2) Page 5

  View Sixteen

  Kreceno’Tiv woke up early the next turn, and considered.

  Do I really need to prove the next two levels to myself? he wondered, then he sat up resolutely. He did not have to prove them to himself, but he needed to practice skills with them, to know what he could do, should he need to. He performed his exercise regimen, cleaned up, got something to eat, then moved with determination to the Nil’aris. Setting it to private once more, he stepped inside and thought about the specifics of the next level.

  “Level Ten – Kumi’Nil’Gu: the ability to see Nil’Gu’vua with tertiary retinas, to directly manipulate Nil’Gu’vua, and conceive of glyphs that can affect Nil’Gu’vua. The eyes can go fully compound at this level.”

  I already know that I can see Nil’Gu’vua with my tertiary retinas, he thought. What I need to do is test my ability to conceive of a glyph that can affect Nil’Gu’vua. But besides Traveling, what does that? He connected his vuu’erio to his tertiary retinas and studied the forms and flow of Nil’Gu’vua around him. Could Nil’Gu’vua decompose the way that material and immaterial glyphs could? He tried to refine his vision, the way he did when he wanted to see deeper into the workings of a glyph. The flows around him sharpened, but did not break apart into any constituent parts. So he studied the flows, and almost started as he tried to interpret what he was seeing.

  The – the space-time and energy-impulse aspects are almost – interchangeable? he marveled. But if that were true, then what was missing on Nil’Gu’dae worlds, that surely existed in space-time? He went to the controls and slowly drained away half of the Nil’Gu’vua from the Nil’aris, then realized the exact nature of what he was doing. The Nil’aris could directly manipulate Nil’Gu’vua! It was a glyph that was made by someone of level ten or eleven, and implemented by someone of level eleven. So why was that level marked as theoretical? Like the Long-Travel glyph, it was actual! He looked around the small, cylindrical space of the Nil’aris, and saw the lines of the glyph that made it. And with half of Nil’Gu’vua gone – he looked around himself again, sharpened his vuu. There were still flows, but the energy-impulse aspects were thinner, not as many interactions happening. He tried to refine his vision even more, and saw that there were forms in the flows, repeated over and over, never fully taking shape, but able to become any and all base shapes for material things. These forms followed the shape of the space-time aspect, or the space-time aspect followed the shape of these forms, it was difficult to tell which was which. And when he slowly increased the Nil’Gu’vua in the room, the flows and forms became more numerous, and the dance of forms faster.

  What happens in a region of super-concentrated Nil’Gu’vua? he wondered, thinking of the Solidaris Orm and seeing a screened view of the Star-Whorl core. There was an example of super-concentrated Nil’Gu’vua – the core. But he had been warned not to look directly at it – was that also a subtle warning not to try to create a region like that? He decided to take it as such. Besides, the core had a super-mass in it – was that what allowed Nil’Gu’vua to become so concentrated? I’m certainly not going to try to make a super-mass here!

  But such ponderings availed him little. Did understanding the workings of Nil’Gu’vua, such as he could, help with coming up with a glyph that directly affected Nil’Gu’vua? He turned the concentration back up to regular levels and thought.

  It seems that glyphs that affect Nil’Gu’vua are, at least sometimes, expanded spatially, he mused. The Long-Travel glyph had to expand to move people tremendous distances. The Nil’aris glyph enclosed the space within the room. But there are other aspects of Nil’Gu’vua to manipulate. Time, for instance.

  As he thought about it, he realized that the Long-Travel glyph also affected time, for it was not hecto-orbises later when he and his parents had returned from the Orm. So time was definitely a manipulatable aspect. How about a time-accelerated region?

  He reached out with his thoughts and expanded the potential of a small region into a sphere, the basis for his glyph. What he wanted was a region that gave the resultant event before the initiating event took place. So a droplet of water, moving through this small space, would emerge before it was dripped through.

  So how must time behave, to give me this effect? He pondered. It seemed to need to know the intent, the decision to cause an event, so that it could produce the result just from that. Another quasi-sentient glyph? That still bothered him. How to do it without making an intelligence? His short-travel glyph had required no such thing. I will have to be the intelligence-factor then, he decided. So he tied a tiny part of the glyph-region to his own mind. Now, when he had the intent to do something, the glyph would respond, and make the result appear before he actually executed the action. And what if I never execute it? Would the results disappear, or just stay? First, I have to figure out how to make it happen. But there has got to be a better solution, that does not require intelligent observation or intent. What about the probability of an event as the catalyst, rather than a conscious decision to execute it? He liked that better, and untied the corner of the region from his glyph. Instead, he made a probability saturation point at the top of the region, based on the impetus of one of the smaller base-shape flows of Nil’Gu’vua. It had the potential to be in many places until observed, which then collapsed those possibilities into one almost absolute probability. From the saturation point he formed a funnel-like time structure, that accelerated the resulting event, then looped it back on itself, so that the result-end of the funnel came before the precipitating certainty of the event. So the possibility came first, then the result, then the certainty...

  Kreceno’Tiv found himself on his back, his head swimming. He had not noticed the effort required to fashion the glyph, but he had certainly expended it, and his stomach rang more than hollow, it actually pained him, demanding that he replenish the calories that he had evidently expended in making his glyph.

  The glyph. The glyph sparkled before him, swimming in and out of focus, but he was certain that that was from his need of food, rather than the nature of what he had made. He managed to glyph-spark three platters of food and inhaled them without tasting them. He only felt a little bit better. But he was determined to complete his experiment. Gathering his last reserves, he impressed the glyph onto Nil’Gu’vua, and watched as the flows moved in a toroidal swirl within the region of the glyph. With the last of his energy, he made a globe of water above the glyph, and caused it to drip through. And it began to reform under the glyph before the first drop touched the top.

  View Seventeen

  Every part of him ached as Kreceno’Tiv woke the next turn, in the Nil’aris, still. His new glyph still hung in the air, with a globe of water hovering below it. Laughing softly to himself, he sat up painfully and made another globe of water above it. As he was about to make it drip, the one below got bigger, swelling with water that had not yet gone through the glyph. Was it really the same water? Was the glyph forming water out of the stuff of Nil’Gu’vua in anticipation of the drip, and unforming what came through?

  I made it, and even I’m not sure, he wanted to laugh at himself. Did it matter, so long as the result was what he wanted? It matters. To be able to create things without fully understanding them... how can such abilities exist? Now I’m questioning myself.

  Out of curiosity, he connected his vuu’erio tennae to his secondary retinas. And sure enough, he could see the glyph, and... and a little bit of the region of Nil’Gu’vua that it affected. But his head began to throb, then lance with pain, and he closed his eyes, groaning at the pain. He sparked food and an analgesic for himself, and lay back down after consuming both, waiting for the pain-killer to take effect.

  He woke up once more, and the pain was less, though not completely gone. He dispelled the water, then stored the glyph pattern in what he hoped was a hidden alias deep in the Nil’aris archives. He dispelled the glyph.

  So I am near level twelve, he thought, dazed. Should I see if I can generate Nil’Gu’vua directly? He decided not to – there was not much time left, and he had to rest, to leave no indication of what he had been doing. He went to his suite, lay down in his rest-pad, then noticed that his view-glyphographic was indicating missed communications. Groaning, he got up again and saw that it was Ro-Becilo’Ran. There was a message left for him, and he played it.

  :Hey, numb-pace, Gali and I are going to Curil’Ma to spend a little time together. I may not be back in time to go with you to Tertius, but we’re still going to be in the same room together, so don’t take the best side, all right? I’ll vuu you there!

  Going off somewhere with Ropali Galici’Bel? That was certainly portentous. He collapsed onto his rest-pad and contemplated what he had learned about himself and about Nil’Gu’vua. Level twelve Nil’Gu’ua, or very close to it. When was the last recorded instance of a person being at level twelve?

  Not in several generations, he remembered, from the information that Vespa Karaci’Tiv had given him. Not that had acknowledged that they were, at any ‘pace.

  Or, if they did, they disappeared. Hopefully I won’t ever have to reveal that I am near-level twelve. His eyes closed.

  View Eighteen

  His parents returned the turn before he was due to report to Tertius. He was in the middle of gathering and packing what he wanted to take with him.

  “Hello, Kreceno,” his mother said, knocking and entering his suite. His father also stepped in.

  “Mother, Father,” he acknowledged them, smiling. “I’m glad to see you back.” The straight look on his father’s face was the only warning that something had greatly amused them both. He stopped and looked at them, waiting with some trepidation to hear what had caused them to come to him in his rooms, and what they had found so funny
.

  “So,” Vespa Kareni’Tiv said, and even she could not keep the laughter fully from her voice, “I hear that we sent you quite a sensational gifting.”

  He curled his vuu’erio away, abashed. Who had told them about their “gift” to him? Not that he had explicitly asked his friends not to mention it, but he had wished that word had not gotten back to them – at all, he admitted to himself. What could he say? What glyph could he project? He gestured helplessly.

  “So, let’s see it,” Vespar-Drelano’Sev’Tiv said, expectant.

  Sighing, he went to the special case that he had formed for his aur’preter, and brought it over. He opened the case on his study station, and stepped back to let them look at it, rubbing his hands nervously on his kwats.

  They both stood and stared at it for a long time, and he felt like one of the Bustani sapients, under display. Finally his father looked up.

  “Demonstrate it for us,” he said, quietly, and his amusement was gone, but not due to anger or disappointment, that much Kreceno’Tiv could read in his expression.

  Taking a breath, he moved forward again, and lifted it up, put it over his mother’s head, and settled it on her shoulders. She seemed a little surprised, but let him place it. It took on her colors. Both showed more surprise at this.

  “Express the desire to understand,” he said, quietly.

  “Do I project the glyph?” she asked.

  “No, just – want it,” he said, feeling as if he sounded like a vuu-blitzed numb-pace. She looked around, then raised a vuu-brow. The membranes flowed up to cover her aur’erio. She started, and he wondered that each little thing about his creation seemed so sensational to them. Then he pulled up a Creneloam phrase, and played it audibly.

  “By the Ancient Hives!” she exclaimed, actually jumping back. “By the Ancient Mothers’ Hives, how did you do this?!”

  “So it’s true?” Vespar-Drelano’Sev’Tiv demanded, going to her and making to take it and put it on himself. Kreceno’Tiv carefully took it off and put it on his father. He pulled up a different phrase by another race, played it out loud. His father looked as if all the vital juices had drained from his face.

  “How did you do this?” he asked, also, gesturing for Kreceno’Tiv to remove it. “How does it work?”

  “I – it is...” How to explain without sounding flippant? He tried his best. “It is – it is a little bit of... the aur’preter is not really speaking. It is more of a sound-mirage.” He explained in depth his thoughts and how he put it together. His nervousness got the better of him, and he even mentioned the bad joke that occurred to him. His father interrupted him there with a loud laugh.

  “Aural sex?! Ha ha!” Vespar-Drelano’Sev’Tiv sat down, helpless with laughter. His mother laughed heartily, too, the first time he had heard her do so in a long time.

  “Continue, my apologies, Kreceno, continue!” Vespar-Drelano’Sev’Tiv actually giggled.

  He finished his explanation, feeling ill-used.

  His father became sober, stood. “I know you don’t understand. We’re not laughing at you, it is just – startling, how simple and efficient you made it, and in so short a time. Kreceno’Tiv, many very smart, very powerful people have been trying to do what you accomplished in a single turn. So you are level nine, at the very least. And you are gifted at innovation. And discretion.” He projected something between satisfaction and assent. “Very good.”

  “I – I used the Nil’aris without permission,” he confessed.

  “And did you find out anything useful?” his mother asked, then gestured negation. “You don’t have to answer that, obviously you did. Kreceno...” she actually gestured helplessly, as if there were no words, or glyphs, to express how she felt.

  He looked at one, then the other of his parents.

  “You’re not mad?” he asked, finally.

  Vespa Kareni’Tiv laughed again. “I told you to use your time wisely, and you did. You are ready for Tertius, I think.”

  “Mother...” he remembered his supposition at the Bustani, “are – are the sapients in the Bustani all from races bent on conquering? Is that why they’re there – they are doing penance of some kind? Even Okon’s people? And the peaceful ones are possibly not subject to the Deity-mythos?”

  They became quiet and still, meditatively vuuing him.

  “And what is the root of that supposition?” his father asked.

  He indicated the aur’preter. “I took my interpreter to the Bustani to test it. I only heard a few, talked to one or two, but the whole feel of those there was – one of malice. The desire to dominate. One even spoke challengingly to me, then cowered when I answered him.”

  “How did you answer him?” his father asked, leaving his own question hanging.

  He pointed to the aur’preter again. “It works both ways.”

  He did not think that they could look any more stunned than they already had. But they did, blinking, their vuu’erio twitching. They exchanged glances, then moved toward the port.

  “We have a few things to discuss with each other, and then with you, Kreceno’Tiv. Come to the salon in one time-mark,” his father said.

  He remembered to project his assent, rather than gesturing it. They left, without answering his query.

  View Nineteen

  Kreceno’Tiv looked around. His concentration was now scattered to the air-gulfs. What was so special about his little interpreter? He looked at the time-mark indicator, then did his best to tidy the half-disarrayed, half-packed tangle of his things. He moved a few items from one pile to the other and back again, then gave up – his focus was gone, and the mental map of where he had intended to put everything now eluded him. Instead, he looked at his aur’preter.

  Others have tried to do the same thing, and failed? he was marveled and puzzled. The little quasi-living creation did not seem so special, really. Why the big fuss over it?

  Every aspect of it surprised them. Why? They did not seem nearly so impressed when I modified the Long-Travel glyph. Just angry. This isn’t even up to the same level as that! This only demonstrates level nine. That demonstrated level ten. I don’t understand.

  He managed to eat through the entire allotted mark with his musings. Then, at the appropriate time, he went down to the salon, and took his aur’preter with him.

  Both his parents were seated together, and they looked at him with inscrutable expressions as he sat across from them.

  View Twenty

  “We are going to register your creation in the Library of Quasi-Life Glyphs,” his father said. “It will be attributed to the Vespa Genus and the Tiv Famiya, but not specifically to you. Is that all right with you?”

  It’s going to be registered to the Tiv Famiya...? And... They’re asking? Asking my permission? He knew he was blinking stupidly. They were expecting some kind of response.

  “Yes, Father,” he said, his mind whirling.

  “You have questions,” Vespa Kareni’Tiv said, indicating his interpreter.

  He projected agreement. “Why is this so...” He did not want to say special. “Why is this so unusual?” he reframed his question. “What is it that others have tried and failed at? Is it the non-cogitation aspect of it? Is it illegal to make a servile quasi-lifeform that can cogitate?” He decided not to pursue the question he had asked before, about sapients in the Bustani. If they did not answer it right away the first time, they were not going to, ever.

  They exchanged glances, then Vespar-Drelano’Sev’Tiv projected assent. “As you say, no one else has figured out how to make such an interpreter that does not have a comprehensive vocabulary, without some kind of primitive brain-structure. And yes, it is illegal. Your circumventing that is quite ingenious, son. No one else has ever gone to the basis of communication, in quite that way, I think. And – I take it you wanted it to be concealed, without using a Veiling Glyph?”

  He gestured assent. “I wanted it to be unobtrusive.” He looked down, wondering how to ask the next question.

  “Why are we more impressed by this?” his mother asked, her voice a little bright with a tiny laugh. “We were impressed with your other feat, Kreceno, but we were also – terrified of what could have happened had you been a vuu’erio less perceptive. It was common sense to you to make sure that your glyph did not entangle with Ro-Becilo’Ran’s. But what if you had been too distracted to notice that detail? We were very impressed – and proud – but also...” she stopped and her vuu’erio tennae, usually as composed as the rest of her, waved a little in agitation.