LotS/The Story/The Right Tools/The Psychic
The Psychic
Intro
"I see everything." -- Scrawled in blood across the wall of Sun Xi's bedchamber in the imperial palace
---
"Is that what I think it is?" you ask.
Telemachus heaves the red metal backpack onto his shoulders. A series of lights glow at the bottom of the pack -- indicating that the item's weight is being borne by technology rather than just his boyish muscle power.
"Well, you said I couldn't bring my mech," he replies.
"If that thing blows up when you try to use it, you'd better not be standing near me," Talia says.
You file off the ship, onto a tarmac plain that seems to mirror the clear night sky -- its softly glowing lights echoing the stars above. The Princess and Lu Bu are already there, negotiating with spaceport staff over the procurement of a vehicle. Diogenes has nothing in the way of a mass transit system, and even the settlements are far from the planet's ports -- let alone the isolated dwellings. It's a world of seclusion, for those who want the comforts and reassurances of civilization without the inconvenience of dealing with their fellow man.
A hovercar large enough to accommodate you all is found, and brought over by one of the attendants.
"Remember -- you'll only be able to use the designated roads and flight paths," he says, after you usurp him by slipping into the driver's seat. "If you try to deviate, the onboard navigation system will autocorrect you."
With that final warning he steps aside, allowing the others to enter the craft.
The car rises into the dark heavens in almost complete silence, its engine calibrated not to disturb the serenity of this peaceful planet and its reclusive inhabitants.
"It's a beautiful world," the Princess says. She gazes through the window, at the vast shadowy pine forest that rolls below you, swaying beneath a crisp and starry sky.
"Too quiet for my liking," Ragnar says. "Last time I visited the place they kicked me out for machine-gunning a squirrel. What's the good of all that wilderness if you can't even hunt in it?"
"Many great thinkers choose to withdraw to Diogenes," Lu Bu says, "when they wish to be alone with their thoughts, their art, or their scientific research. I believe they would find it objectionable to have a Niflung rampaging through their forests whilst discharging an automatic weapon."
"I think people would find that objectionable just about anywhere," Talia says. "What about you, captain? Can you imagine living in a place like this?"
You glance out of the window, at the little specs of light ensconced in endless expanses of greenery. Peace and quiet for miles around.
"Maybe," you reply. But the thought that fills your mind is how difficult it may prove to convince someone to leave such a place behind.
"The most difficult part will be getting a ship to Sian undetected," you said.
"Conventional forms of cloaking will prove inadequate," Wu Tenchu agreed. "They would never withstand the sensor capabilities of the Centurians."
"Given time, TALOS might be able to engineer something," Lu Bu said. "But the timeframe may be unworkable."
"I suppose we could offer Nemo a load of credits and ask him to loan us the Silver Shadow..." Talia said, her smirk expressing just how realistic she considered such a transaction to be.
"Nemo?" Princess Illaria asked.
"A rather notorious space pirate," Wu Tenchu replied. "His operations have all taken place far from Sian space, and he does not court publicity in the same way as others of his ilk. Thus you may never have head of him. His infamy is largely confined to those in law enforcement and the criminal underworld."
"And pilots," you said.
Talia nodded. No pilot could fail to be enchanted by the stories of the Silver Shadow. A special ship, unlike any other...
Master Wu fiddled with a nearby terminal for a few moments. His final key-press was rewarded by the appearance of a new holographic projection -- displacing those chronicling Lupin and Artemis Kess, causing them to shrink and shift as they yielded their space.
The image it displayed showed a plaza at ground level, a wide, flat, square expanse overlaid with many thousands of colored tiles that formed a sumptuous -- yet from that angle unrecognizable -- mosaic. There were buildings on the far side of the square, large and lavish structures that bespoke the wealth of the neighborhood -- but adorned with neon signs and bright banners which betrayed its levity and tackiness as well. Large crowds of people were passing to and fro in the distance, and in the immediate foreground of the picture. However, a short distance in front of your viewpoint there was a big portion of... emptiness. An inexplicable gap in the crowd. In fact, you noticed that people were deliberately turning their steps to walk around the edges of that invisible space, rather than intruding into it -- as though it had been reserved for some special purpose.
"An external security camera belonging to the Trimalchio Casino on Tarlella," Wu Tenchu said. "Mounted above the building's front entrance."
There was a sudden burst of commotion at the near edge of the screen, rippling out through the people in the immediate foreground. They turned startled faces towards something behind your field of vision, events taking place within the casino. A moment later they were scattering in panic. Some ran to the left, others to the right -- vanishing from your perception. Some ran directly away from the casino and your camera viewpoint, though even their terrified flight didn't cause them to trespass into that patch of empty space. Instead they ran around it.
The source of their panic emerged into the bottom of the screen a few seconds later, firing his laser pistols behind him at what you assumed must have been his pursuers. It was a male figure, dressed in a bodysuit. A full helmet concealed his head in its entirety, replacing his features with a smooth black plate. A short cape or coat fluttered in the air behind his legs.
The man ran in sideways fashion, moving towards the background of the diorama while still firing at the foreground. He approached the empty space, drawing ever closer to the curious forbidden area that had rebuffed and repelled everyone else.
He reached its edge. Then he vanished.
A few seconds passed. After that, the parted crowd moved to fill the previously inviolable space as if nothing untoward had ever happened.
Wu Tenchu waved his hand. The footage froze.
"His ship?" the Princess asked.
"The Silver Shadow," you replied.
"How did he accomplish such a feat?" Lu Bu asked. "A good security camera should have detected the craft in spite of whatever form of light manipulation or projection-based trickery it employed."
"It's suspected that his ship contains alien technology," Wu Tenchu said. "The vessel is capable of total invisibility, on a level which may deceive both electronic and biological observers."
"But surely the passersby should have collided with the invisible vessel, and become aware of its presence."
"Yes..." The Princess nodded. "What made them walk around it like that?"
"A psychic field, I suspect." Master Wu stroked the slender trails of his moustache as though pondering -- and vexed by -- the mystery whose solution eluded him, as few things ever did. "One designed to eliminate all curiosity and provide yet another layer of obfuscation."
"Who's Nemo?" Telemachus asked. "How did he get hold of that kind of ship in the first place?"
"No one knows," Talia replied.
"There's more than one of them," Ragnar said. "Maybe a whole gang. I think they take turns wearing that stupid getup."
"How do you know?" you asked.
"Because I chopped him in half in a bar, after the bastard cheated in a card game. The day after that, 'Nemo' raided a weapons factory on Belzabar."
"Are you sure it was Nemo you butchered?"
The Niflung paused for a moment.
"He said he was. But he might have just dressed up like him to scam free drinks from people. It was a pirate bar, and everyone wanted to meet Nemo. They were pretty pissed off when I killed him. Ended up having to kill the rest of them as well."
"Could we make an arrangement with him?" the Princess asked. "Offer him a fortune in exchange for his help?"
"That would be inadvisable," Wu Tenchu replied. "A man such as he, motivated solely by financial gain without honor, would think nothing of betraying us to the Centurians in exchange for further wealth."
"Why don't we just steal his ship?" Telemachus said.
"Sure, let's go out looking for an invisible ship," Talia said. "Should be pretty easy..."
"Even psychics haven't been able to track it down," you said. "Maybe because of that field Master Wu referred to."
"Perhaps they simply weren't capable enough," Wu Tenchu mused.
His gaze met that of the Princess, and held it for a long moment. The advisor's face was inscrutable, but her eyes widened.
"But... She won't..."
"Under the circumstances, I believe we might be able to persuade her."
She turned to you, and you felt an illogical arrogance, as though her first thought was to share the secret with you.
"When I was a girl, one of my father's advisors was a woman called Sun Xi. She was a psychic. A powerful one."
"Her visions were erratic," Wu Tenchu said. "But sometimes they revealed vital knowledge, allowing the Emperor to obtain a significant advantage in both diplomatic negotiations and military operations."
"And her powers kept growing. Her visions got more and more powerful. She could see further and further -- through space, into the past, into the future, into people's minds. It was... amazing. But in the end..."
"She could no longer master her mind." Wu Tenchu sighed, for perhaps the first time in your memory. "There was an... episode... in the palace. She was found unconscious, bleeding from a cerebral hemorrhage. She had scrawled on the wall beside her with blood from her own brain."
"She was in a coma," the Princess said. "My father's personal doctors treated her. They were able to bring her back. But she couldn't keep using her powers. It was too dangerous."
"What happened to her?" you asked.
"The Emperor had a home built for her in a secret location," Wu Tenchu replied. "Special materials were worked into its walls, which would encage her wandering mind and allow her to live out her days in peace. A peace which I fear we must now violate."
Song of a Fallen Empire
A bleeping from the hovercar's display and a slowing of its engine inform you that you're nearing a no-fly area.
Your destination is a short way ahead, where a soft spill of artificial light meets the moon and starlight to paint the sides of a small building -- a house surrounded by expansive gardens that are in turn encircled by a wall.
It seems that the proprieties of Diogenes won't allow an unauthorized vehicle to fly closer to a resident's sanctum. So you land, touching down upon the narrow road a hundred yards from the closed gateway, and proceed on foot beneath the night air -- your steps escorted by the thick forest on either side.
Cherry blossom trees wave above the wall as you approach, their purple flowers dancing to the caresses of the breeze.
"Sun Xi always loved the blossoms in the imperial gardens," the Princess says. "So my father had some of the trees planted here for her."
There's a small communications panel near the sealed entrance, embedded in the midst of a pillar's decorative swirls. Illaria steps over to it, and places her palm on an object shaped like a smooth gemstone.
Perhaps half a minute passes, its silence broken only by the rustling of branches and the hoot of a distant owl. Then a beam of illumination fires from the gemstone. It widens in its flight, before giving way to a swirl of color that resolves itself into the image of a middle-aged woman wearing Sian robes.
"Greetings, Mistress Sun." The Princess bows her head.
"Illaria!"
There's wonder in the woman's voice, though tinged with neither fear nor delight. Merely surprise, devoid of good or ill, pleasure or dismay.
"Forgive our presence here. We had no way of contacting you to request permission for our visit."
Sun Xi gives a small nod of acceptance. Her home is devoid of all communications devices beyond that linking building and gate. And no one on Diogenes knows her true identity. Hers is the life of a hermit, her isolation total. Until now.
"It is... pleasant... to see you again," her holographic form says, each word soft and subtle, emerging as though from a dusty chamber in which they were laid to rest.
"I fear that what I have to say won't be pleasing to you, mistress. We've come to ask for your help."
The holographic woman gives a deep sigh, like the gentle breaking of a barrier. When she speaks again, the words flow more freely.
"I am grateful to your father for the kindness he showed me, Illaria. But you must return to him, and tell him that I cannot re-enter his service. The risk is too great, both for me and for those who would be around me."
"My father is a prisoner, his life threatened. That's why we've come here."
Anguish crosses Sun Xi's face.
"Tell me... Tell me what's happened to our empire."
Blood and Weiqi
The Princess beckons you, urging you to stand alongside her in Mistress Sun's gaze. For your stories are one, bound up with that of the empire and its ruler.
You bow as you introduce yourself. Then you join in the tale, your voice and the Princess' sharing in its unraveling.
Together your words describe the events upon the Child of Heaven, and the Centurian attack. They chronicle all the sorrows and misfortunes, all the little victories, that have filled the expanse of your lives between then and now. You allow the true depths of your feelings to spill into the story, knowing that you must reveal to her the full magnitude of the shadow which has fallen across the Sian Empire.
She questions you, seeking the knowledge to understand what has transpired in her absence from the wider universe. She asks you about the UHW, and TALOS, and the other factions and organizations with whom she dealt in her days as one of the Emperor's advisors. You answer each query as best you can, with Lu Bu interjecting and offering his precise knowledge and recollection to fill the gaps. The tangled mass of interstellar politics is heaped before her, to pick through as best she can.
At last the words stop, and Sun Xi sighs once more. Her bubble of tranquility has been burst by the horrible knowledge you've brought to her doorstep. Her paradise has been stolen.
"I... I do wish to help, Illaria. I would give anything for your family. But the moment I stepped from these walls, I... I can't say what might happen. It's been years since I was forced to endure the presence of so much as a single other mind."
"Let us try. Allow my captain and I to enter your home," the Princess says. "If even that proves too much, I swear that we will leave and trouble you no longer."
"Yes..."
Sun Xi bows, and reaches a holographic arm beyond the border of the image. The gate whispers open on its near-silent runners, sliding across the inner side of the wall.
"Your other friends may wait in my garden."
You all pass through the gateway, into a lavish realm of trees and flowers. A robot is trundling in the distance, administering to a bed of red blooms with a watering can. Other than that there's no sign of movement, beyond the gentle swaying of the stalks and branches. A beautiful garden to be gazed upon from behind glass, its paths untrodden even by their owner.
The Princess leads the way to the house, a picturesque building shaped in an indistinct but somehow pleasant architectural style. The two of you stop before its door, which gives way with a hiss -- as though an airtight seal is being broken.
Behind the door is a small lobby, its walls decorated with paintings of various shapes and sizes, depicting an equally vast range of subjects -- from seaside landscapes to a detailed magnification of a human iris and pupil.
A robot drone, similar to the one you saw in the garden, stands in the middle of the little room. It's a simple contraption, a modular cylindrical body with well articulated mechanical arms and a rectangle embedded with an orange circle by way of a head.
"Come inside."
The voice comes from robot, but it's Sun Xi's.
The Princess steps inside. You follow, and the door hisses itself shut behind you.
The robot turns to one of the walls, in which a doorway slides open, and beckons for you to follow. You're about to do as bidden when you see that the Princess has stopped. She's gazing at one of the paintings, a smile on her lips.
She turns away at last, and follows the robot. You glance at the picture after she passes into the next room. It's a watercolor painting of the imperial palace, rendered with more enthusiasm than skill. The artist's name, in childish cursive script, is scribbled in the corner. It reads: 'Illaria'.
You rejoin the Princess and the robot in a chamber decorated in ancient Japanese fashion. Some of the walls have been made to resemble wood and paper lattices, though your scrutiny reveals that they are in fact constructed of less flimsy materials. Double-doors of similar aesthetic close off another room. These throb with dancing illuminations of dark and light blue. The warm glow of a lamp shaped like a flower bud completes the gentle bewitchment of the chamber's lighting. A few pictures and ornaments adorn the room's serene sparsity, along with a low table. A thick glass weiqi board rests upon that piece of furniture. It's the same shifting blue as the doors, between the engraved lines of the grid. Two ceramic pots of stones -- one set black, the other white -- stand beside it, ready for battle.
The twin doors part, one slipping away to either side in utter noiselessness. Between them stands Sun Xi.
Her step is unsteady as she enters the room. There's a smile but also a grimace on her face. You move forward to take her arm, but she waves you back.
"A moment..." she murmurs. "Just a moment."
She takes a deep breath, and the lids close over her bright eyes. When they reopen a few seconds later she seems to have regained her composure. She bows, a gesture you and the Princess return. The robot merely observes your courtesy, evidently not programmed for such niceties.
"Your mind is strong and firm," she says, meeting your gaze and holding it with her eldritch, color-filled orbs. "That will be important, if I'm to travel with you."
Illaria goes to her, and this time the psychic makes no motion to avert the coming contact. She embraces the Princess with a tentative hug, her arms touching Illaria's back so softly it's as if she fears that one or both of their bodies might shatter like fine crystal.
"Sit. Please."
You sit on the floor mats surrounding the low table, around the weiqi board like generals around a campaign map. At Mistress Sun's gesture, a robot emerges from the next room, bearing a tray of delicate pink and white sake cups.
"Drink this. It will aid you in what must follow."
You take one of the cups proffered by the robot, trying to mask your curiosity from your thoughts as well as your face.
The sake tastes... That's all you can say of it. That it has taste. Its exact flavor seems to escape your mind -- as though your taste buds have become disconnected from your brain, unable to convey their experience.
"The herbs will help," she says.
The robot slides away after the empty cups have been returned to its tray. Sun Xi fixes you with an intent stare that seems to end well behind your eyes.
"I wish to help, as I told you. But for me to leave this place, and its protections, I must have anchors. People with thoughts steady enough to serve as my rock, my lynchpin."
She looks to the Princess, releasing you from her scrutiny but leaving the force of her gaze behind.
"Your presence will help. But... forgive me... this one is stronger. Her thoughts are... firmer."
The Princess smiles.
"I have placed my life in the captain's hands more than once. You only honor me when you praise her."
Sun Xi's eyes regard you once more. They seem almost luminous now, their color imperceptibly but unquestionably different from what they were but a moment ago.
"However, I must be sure. I must know that your thoughts will remain steady no matter what happens. I wish to test you."
You bow your head.
"As you wish."
"Do you play weiqi?" She smiles as your face betrays your surprise. "I do not pry into people's minds uninvited. Your thoughts are safe until you open them to me."
"I can play."
"The way a woman plays weiqi reveals much about the quality of her mind. But our game will be more... trying."
Your eyes instinctively travel towards a painting you noticed earlier, a copy of a famous Chinese original. It depicts an episode from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
"Yes," she says. "Are you willing?"
"I am."
"Good."
The robot who escorted you into the room takes up a position beside Sun Xi. Another, presumably the one who departed with the tea tray, rolls in and stands at your left-hand side. There are two metallic clicking noises as slender blades appear at the end of each robot's arm.
A Second Chance
Blood pours from Sun Xi's arm, flowing down her flesh in disregarded rivulets. Her luminous eyes are fastened on the board, plotting her next move.
You feel the blade biting into your own flesh, and the crimson escaping from the wound. But you don't glance at it. Your gaze is likewise upon the grid and the black and white stones which vie for victory on its geometric battlefield.
You place a white stone where two lines meet. Your hand has barely relinquished it when a black stone follows from the psychic's. You seize another white token of war, and place it in turn -- doing your best to match her speed, to calculate, attack, and defend with the same rapidity.
Stones are placed, forming patterns of life and death, as the blood from your twin wounds forms patterns of its own.
The game continues in silence but for the dripping of crimson and the clicking of stones against the board.
When it ends, she is the victor. She bows her head, and you do the same.
"Very good," she says.
Mistress Sun signals to her robots. The blades retract into their arms with dual clicks, and are replaced by other tools instead. For a few moments they administer to your arms -- until your wounds are closed, and the blood cleaned away.
"You allowed your flesh to be opened. But now I must ask for your mind to be opened as well. To truly test your fitness, to know if your strength is equal to the task, I must travel into your thoughts and test you there as well. Don't grant permission lightly. For every woman has thoughts they would wish to remain hidden from the world."
"My blood, mind, and soul all belong to... the empire."
You almost uttered two other words instead. There's a faint smile on Sun Xi's lips.
"Do what must be done," you say.
Princess Illaria's hand touches yours. When the rest of the world vanishes, its warmth is all that remains.
Incandescent realities swirl around you like existential whirlpools, churning up matter and making flotsam and jetsam of all creation. Motes and infinities of color paint themselves across the void. A thousand sounds reach your ears, until they ring with crashing oceans and exploding stars, calling birds and crooning songs of love and loss. Bizarre medleys of scent and taste add themselves to this synesthetic tempest. You smell lavender noodles and petrol flowers. Chocolate kidneys and limestone pizzas envelop your tongue.
But the grasp on your right hand is still there, unchanging even as the universe dances.
"She means a lot to you, doesn't she?"
You look round, breaking the grasp of your hands in your surprise. It isn't the Princess who's standing there, who spoke to you. It's Sun Xi.
Sun Xi, but not as you saw her before. Her eyes blaze like tiny suns, in colors that change with the passage of each sundered second. Her skin is radiant, infused with a golden glow that shines with the very essence of life. The simple, plain robes she wore have been replaced by glorious garments woven from the fabric of impossibility.
"That's good," she says. "Let it give you strength."
She smiles. Then she explodes. Colors and sensations erupt in all directions, becoming part of the raging maelstrom around you.
"You've experienced many victories," her voice says, the sound emerging from everywhere and nowhere, eternal and sourceless. "A life studded with challenges met and triumphed over. Each one has made you stronger. Bolder."
Something is taking shape in front of you, a scene assuming solidity in the colorful ether.
"But there are defeats as well. And it's in facing these that your measure may be judged."
The colors are forming outlines now -- three distinctly humanoid figures coalescing from the incomprehensible rawness. Recognition tears its way into you as the transformation nears its completion.
A ferocious beast roars at you, a reptilian monstrosity with both cunning and savagery in his eyes. You're on the Zenith again... Your vision latches onto the still assembling shapes to the right. General Rahn. And the Princess. They're struggling, fighting over the glowing object clutched in his hand.
Your thoughts scatter before an invisible blow, and reform into something both real and unreal -- an unintelligible mass of dream and memory.
You're going to lose her... Rahn's device will take her, will snatch her away from you and whisk her off into the void.
Have to stop him, save her...
You step towards the pair. But the alien moves into your path, roaring a challenge that makes the world tremble.
Have to save her...
Lineage
Sun Xi