Siah watched the ships of his people from his view port- the craft were beautiful, smooth,
glinting dull silver in the morning glare, mist seeping upward from the ground in curtains. A
barren, broken land from the end of time itself lay beneath- a never-ending tundra, broken
by outcroppings of rock and small lakes. He and his followers had been sent away, a
portal opened between the last city and the mundane world. They would all die their final
death here, in exile- they could never return.
Siah glanced around the cabin of his ship- many people were asleep- those who didn’t sat
very still, their eyes unfocused. Some of them hadn’t eaten in several days, even though
food was available. The shock that had taken hold since the Delpini attack had not
dissipated, and if he could not reach them soon, they would all be dead within a month.
Already many had died of no discernable cause- alive going to sleep, never waking up.
If he was going to recapture their will, he would need the help of his enemy. The piece of
cybernetics he had gotten from Dr. Pendle grew heavier in his pocket with each passing
hour. The machine was a hateful, brutal thing- but he would incorporate it into himself for
the sake of those who believed in him.
He would not do the surgery now- such a loathsome shock to his psyche at this moment
would put him in a frame of mind little better than the others, and he would project such
images into the souls of his followers that they would likely not survive the day. There
would be time enough after they arrived at their destination. Then he would make their
wills one- if Jal lived in the collective unconscious, in the world of dreams, then dreams
could destroy him. He had been to the outback- it was a conceit of humanity- it wasn’t the
Creator. If all of them were to find salvation, Jaldeja as well, they would have to have the
faith to live their lives one last time, dying the final death to again become one with the
Creator.
#
It is very late- the sky had clouded over again, glowing orange to deep red, mist hanging
in thin veils that pass slowly over the towers of the city whose lights are muted through
the haze.
The air is heavy and damp- and the sound? Jal leans back against the wall- he had heard
this sound before in other lifetimes- the sound of the ocean- the sound of eternity, or the
Tep itself.
The ball of hashish in the hookah glows brightly for a moment, then slowly fades out.
Katya sets the hookah tube down, gazing at Jal steadily. Reaching out, Jal touches the
ball lightly, causing it to crumble into powder.
“Gone now,” he says. Why was the Outback a desert and not an ocean?
“Who’s to say there’s no ocean there?” asks Katya. “The Outback is the collective
unconscious made real- it’s the body of the Tep. It can be whatever it wants to be.”
It can be whatever it wants- but it chooses to be a prison.
Katya shrugs.
“I’m finally seeing how it can be done,” says Jal, speaking aloud at last. “The implants
are the key- not many have them now, but that’s changing. I can feel the resonance of
people using them now.
My subconscious- the part of me the Tep tried to destroy- when Pendle put it back in me
during the operation, it didn’t separate from my waking mind. My psyche is whole- the
subconscious- the part of us that exists in the outback, is no longer hidden from me. I can
see it anytime I wish, even now. The resonance from the devices travels though the
medium of the unconscious- I can do more than just sense the thoughts- I can
experience, destroy, or manipulate them.
I can catch them like feathers in my hands, and change them to reflect my own desires,
or I can follow the transmission back to the psyche that created it and know ever facet of
their soul. I can see these images even now, floating around us like butterflies. I can
catch one and show it to you.”
The idea form accretes from small bits of light around the room, hovering over Jal’s
outstretched hand. “What beautiful mind made you?” he asks the shape as it spins,
forming delicate lattices of color, images, sound, and emotion. “I will free you,” he
whispers to it.
The light slowly fades, and Jal leans back again, eyes unfocused, staring upward.
So few have the implant now, but there’s already so many images; little fragments of
holograms, and I can sit at the center, changing them- I can create my own outback-
focused to my purpose- a weapon!”
Lowering his eyes to meet Katya’s, he saw she had a pistol leveled at him- it glinted dully
in the narrow light of the room.
“No,” says Jal standing up, hands held up in front of him. “You can’t kill me- you can’t kill
me now. Please . . .”
When he looked up, she was gone.