Chapter 16 - Discussion
Year 3001. 22 Days until classes start. Workshop.
The residual goo of the stasis fluid slowly rolled down as my eyes adjusted to the world again. The stasis chamber swung open and I stumbled out.
In front of me was Dr. Monday who waved, “Was it fun?”
“Heh. Fun? I don’t think dying is fun.”
The man grinned, “Well, after that whole thing you got to shoot a bunch of different rifles. What’d you think of them?”
I shrugged, “The repeaters were nice. Charge rifles too. But all the traditional ballistics were rough.”
“Well, that’s to be expected. Traditional weapons weren’t initially made with ether in mind.”
I looked at the other side of the simulator room as David and Athena stumbled out of their stasis chambers. Athena looked up at us after squeezing the goo out of her hair, “I hate how this stuff sticks.”
Dr. Monday frowned, “Let me get rid of it.”
Snap
The goo covering the three of us seemed to vaporize and I looked up in surprise. Athena seemed a bit less enthusiastic about the vaporized goo, “Hey!”
“Huh?”
“Don’t do that.”
Dr. Monday frowned, “Oh. My bad.”
-----
“How’s the food?”
I munched on a potato as I shoveled some noodles onto a spoon, “It’s incredible!”
Dr. Monday grinned as he poured some more noodles into the large pot in the middle of the table.
Athena grabbed a bowl and asked, “So, what’s the planning for the discussion?”
Dr. Monday finished chewing, “I’m going to try the solar approach for Kaiser. It makes more sense if you consider family history. David will have his discussion next week with Luna on a separate mission.”
“Luna?”
He nodded, “The whole Monday house has always been a representative of Lua.”
“Grace is a psychic?”
Dr. Monday shrugged, “She has some kind of special deal with the Earth and Lua.”
I looked up, “So… what is it like?”
Athena frowned and crossed her arms, “It’s loud. Very loud.”
“Loud?”
“Yeah. Earth is uh… she’s very loud.”
“What would we talk about? How do I even talk?”
She shook her head, “When connected to these big celestial bodies you must remember the size difference between them and you. Earth often ignores beings because it can’t be bothered to pay attention to them. The discussion sort of is a way to alert Earth to pay a little bit of attention to a certain cluster of ether.”
“So, I’m not actually talking?”
“Not really. She can pretty much read your mind from even the tiny poke we give her. She can also easily predict what you want from her so she’ll just set the contract conditions, and you decide to accept them or wait it out.”
“Contract? Wait it out?”
Athena sighed, “Okay. So, do you have an understanding of ether?”
“Um… not really.”
Athena nodded, “You will never understand it. It’s not possible.”
“Not possible?”
“Earth prevents you from understanding it.”
I was confused, “How can Earth make me not understand it?”
Athena frowned, “You are made of the Earth. The Earth has a certain control over your will. The stronger your own awareness becomes the more attention Earth places on you. This attention is often referred to in historical records as spiritual pressure or exorcisms and such. “
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“Pressure?”
“You have felt the pressure I’m talking about. The simulation earlier today? That’s Earth. Imagine everything on Earth as one massive simulation.”
I winced as I remembered the pain, “But I broke through that with sense?”
Athena smiled, “That’s what would have happened if you used sense. However, Earth will not let you exert your own will until you form an agreement.”
“Then, what was the point of that pain?”
Athena frowned and looked at Dr. Monday, “You know more about this than me.”
Dr. Monday nodded, “Don’t trust her.”
I glanced at Athena, “Her?”
Dr. Monday laughed, “No.”
I looked at Dr. Monday who pointed down and mouthed the word with his mouth.
Why not trust the Earth? Weren’t we born on Earth? Why would the Earth be untrustworthy? I spun my spoon in my hand, “Why… Why not trust her?”
Dr. Monday frowned, “Let me explain the contract. The Earth gives you a maximum amount of will you can exert at once. You say yes or no. The Earth then marks your sentience with its own ether. Every time you use ether a percentage of the amount you’ve built up is syphoned off and absorbed by the Earth. Sometimes, Earth needs to double check the contract and the user experiences some pressure depending on the command. But it’s just a small risk of pressure and losing a little ether.”
“That’s it?”
Dr. Monday sat upright in his chair, “Um. Yeah. That’s all you must worry about.”
“So what’s considered a good contract?”
“A maximum of two million particles and a thirty percent cut is normal. And Earth will say another number after those two. If it says any number more than one you must reject the contract.”
“Why?”
I looked around and saw both Dr. Monday and Athena staring at me, “If you want to use ether in your lifetime you must only accept a contract with a third number less than one.”
“What if Earth offers a contract with something more than 1?”
“Then reject it.”
“Reject it? Then I wouldn’t be able to use ether!”
Dr. Monday nodded, “Yeah. In the short term. It would just mean that you must wait for the discussion of Sol.”
-----
“Kaiser? Are you ready?”
I sat on the cushion with my eyes closed, “I think so.”
“Remember. Nothing matters except that last number. It must not be more than one.”
“What does it mean?”
A small pause of silence hung over the room, “You’ll figure it out. Anyway, you ready to summon her?”
I smiled. Summon the Earth? That sounded ridiculous. There was no way. Just how much would the pressure hurt? It couldn’t be that bad. Heh. I made a thumbs up, “I am ready.”
Tschhk Tschhk TSHHHH
“Ether beacon jolt active. Nearest focal point forty kilometers in her skin.”
Dr. Monday clicked a series of buttons, “Give me bearing. We need to bring it closer.”
Athena sounded distressed, “How close?”
Dr. Monday’s voice was strained, “Close enough for a weak link.”
“Do you know Kaiser’s affinity?”
“The Fritz family has historically low affinity with her. The former councilor also has low affinity with her. I tuned it to the lowest affinity.”
Athena’s voice shook, “So we’re reeling the focal point in as close as possible?”
“We have to.”
“Degree eleven point seven two north. Degree five point two two east.”
TSHHHH
“Are we pointing in the right direction?”
Athena sounded excited, “Yes. The focal point is approaching quickly.”
“Alright. Closer. Closer. A little more…”
BAM
A tremor shook the ground. The feeling of something crushing my head from every angle reminded me of the simulation earlier. This was pressure. It wasn’t that bad.
“I got the focus here. Are you ready Athena?”
“Yup.”
TSCHKK
The ground rumbled and shook as the feeling of crushing my skull strengthened. I struggled to take a breath in. Struggled to take a breath in? The feeling wasn’t just on my head. It was squeezing my whole body.
“GREETINGS.”
Some warm liquid shot out my nose. A bit seeped into my mouth. Blood. It hurt. But I could no longer tell the difference between pain and awe. Awe? What was I in awe of? Could I be that powerful? Wait what? No. What was I thinking? But if I could be that powerful the things I could do. What? How could I be as powerful as a planet? But if I could be that powerful. There was no way though. Ugh.
“I SEE.”
A warm trickle dripped out of my ears as my eardrums burst. What about that contract? What happened to Athena and Dr. Monday?
“I OFFER”
I felt my lungs deflate as my body was compressed by the pressure squeezing all the air out of my breath.
“NULL”
Null? No Limit? What? That’s unheard of!
“NINTY”
Ninty… percent? What.
“Hm. TWELVE.”
Twelve. Twelve is less than one. Wait what. No. Twelve is not less than one. What? Why was I going to say yes? They said I couldn’t if it was more than what? What was it again. Was it twelve? What was the limit? Where were they.
HEHEHEE
I need to see. I need to see what is happening. The pressure made opening my eyes unbearably difficult. I peered into the inky blackness of the helmet Dr. Monday had put on me. In the darkness was a blue speck of something. What was that.
“YOU”
What was that. What was that? The blue speck seemed to shimmer and disappear. What was that!
“SEE”
What?
“ME”
What? I blinked.
“YOU SEE ME”
A massive blue sphere with masses of green on it that seemed to morph and move every second with white wisps that flew around it at dizzying speeds appeared in front of me. On the sphere was one massive bloodshot eye. It stared at me. No. It didn’t stare at me. It stared at me. Stared at my very essence. It smiled with its eye. I stared at the pupil as it rapidly dilated in front of me like a beating heart.
“BRAVE”
The eye looked at me as if it was looking at an animal. Livestock. An interesting species. It seemed amused.
“TOO BRAVE”
Splat.
Some warm liquid ran down my face across my cheeks. Across my cheeks? My eyes… MY EYES? Suddenly the vision in front of me flickered like a flame and vanished.
The pressure that was keeping the pain away lifted. A thousand sharp needles struck my skin and my orifices burned as streams of blood trickled down my head pooling on the chair.
A pain ran up my spine, and I slumped forward my mouth agape. The pressure on my chest lifted and I took a deep breath through my mouth as droplets of blood dripped down into the pool at my lap.
“Huuuuuu… GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.”
Yo. How are yall doing? This chapter is pretty fun right? I was gonna hint at what the contents would be last week but I think it was pretty obvious. I'm currently working on my RRCM submission so I've not been able to make my patreon backlog worth the money. I promise that I will get on the grind as soon as the month is over. I just really need to pock in on the RRCM submission. I'm putting a crap ton of effort into that thing.
Until I get to making that promised 10+ chapter ahead on , the best way to support me is to follow and comment here. I love reading comments and mostly reply to every comment if appropriate. You could also check out my which has daily rants from me. Daily. I've not missed a day since I started the website. Yup. I don't plan on stopping any time soon either. It's raw unfiltered mudkip thoughts.
So the next few chapters will be bringing things back to the main arc at hand. These past few chapters are to setup the rest of the story but will be the stuff that happens in the long run. Right now we're gonna start working towards the middle of the first major arc. This means we're nearing the quarter point of the book. I'm still debating if the next chapter will be a recording or not but either way we will learn about ether veins next chapter. Hopefully Earth behaves itself. She's a very angry rock.
