Original Work: The Revisionist Book One

[Lord Rend]

Greetings, welcome to the thread where I am posting The Revisionist, an original story that I have been writing. Since I am considering publishing this, I thought that I would get some feedback on what could be improved. Posts will be edited with links to the other chapters to keep them together.

A Look Back...

The lone tower stood out amidst the brilliantly illuminated cities that surrounded it, not only due to its monolithic size and height; but also due to its dark gray coloration which was a marked contrast to the shades of blue and white light that composed the sprawling metropolises below. At its peak, the smooth cylindrical tower was topped by a crown of three massive tetrahedral spikes that stabbed high into the midnight blue sky, each spike was connected at its outward pointing vertex by a broken ring of the same material that composed the tower. At the midpoint of the ring sections in between the spikes, large diamond shaped shields were held in place by the ring. In addition to the ring, each spike also had arches extending from their inner faces, reaching out to hold an orb of sapphire blue crystal that rested directly over the stepped summit of the structure. The summit itself was hedged in by a circle of stone arches that ringed the topmost step and formed an open air throne room where the master of the castle resided. Currently however, the master was not seated on his throne; instead he paced across the floor of the throne room where three other figures waited...
"I must admit, your offer is an interesting one Ageless Specter, but I have duties to perform here that I cannot simply neglect." the master said as he paced down the long gold edged black carpet that ran down the center of the room. "In case you are unaware, things have not exactly gone smoothly since I did as The Four suggested and prevented the Infinium from taking place. Those remaining on Rosin aside from the Iodat are stubborn and will not simply accept that their vision of a utopia is critically flawed."
"Arrangements can be made to have someone else take over the task for you." The Ageless Specter intoned from where he stood a few yards away. "You have been at this task for nearly thirty thousand years now in your respective time frame, and you have done very well, accomplishing the nearly impossible task set before you. It is hardly your fault that this… corruption has become so prevalent. You have more than earned the right to finally leave this multi-verse and have a life of your own; you need not let those ignorant fools have any part in deciding your future. I could take over in your place, let them create their utopia and then smash it down until every last flaw has been crushed out of it. After all, I am non-linear, I can see all the different futures that may result from decisions if I so choose."
"Even providing that is true; The Four told him that if the Rosin Union is ever allowed to exist then the Infinium is assured." the general said from his position next to the imposing throne. "He cannot simply stand by while these people lead themselves into oblivion; no matter how much they may deserve it."
"Then we will replace their utopia with another utopia, a utopia they had to work to earn." Xivor said as he leaned up against one of the stone arches, surprisingly non-chalant despite the topic of conversation. "There are an infinite number of options open to us that you cannot exploit because you still reside in a single universe and therefore have limited resources. Even with your impressive powers, you cannot do everything you want because you do not have the resources within this universe. The Illuminati, on the other hand..."
"Even supposing I accept your offer to join the Illuminati as an Avatar, there are still my people to consider: what would become of them? What about my general? And even beyond that, I do not know if I could agree to carry out the task of bringing balance to the Omni-verses, changing futures as I see fit." the master said as he reached a mirror-like sheet of energy that stood at the far end of the black carpet. "It is one thing to be forced to change it by fate, but quite another to do so as a commonplace event. Particularly since I get a first hand view of how my actions affect everyone!" he pronounced loudly as he swept an armored hand out across the expansive vista of the Astral Plane below, his dual layer cloaks billowing backward in a simulation of real life as he did so.
"You do not yet know the full truth of Existence." The Ageless Specter said in a calming tone. "The Four could not reveal everything to you just yet; there are some secrets to Existence that simply cannot be shared with those who still reside in one universe. If you join me though, these secrets can be revealed to you. More importantly though, you need to look back on your own life, truthfully consider your actions and how you felt. Believe me, you enjoy changing the future as more then just a simple task, you enjoy serving the greater long-term good even though people believe you to be a villain. We all do, else we would not be members of the Illuminati. So, take some time to consider all that has happened and let go of the past eight thousand years of strife, remember how you truly felt at the time when events really mattered..."



The Revisionist Book One: Receding Future

Era: A Future Reflected

Chapter One
For nearly three hundred thousand years, the Rosin Union had been the sole beacon of light to the universe, a manifestation of the ideal utopia that everyone now shared in. War, crime, sickness, genetic diseases, poverty and all open forms of bias and oppression had all long since vanished from within the Union. Personal freedoms and the rights of the individual reigned supreme, even taxation had long since disappeared, replaced by a system of donations that individuals and companies made out of gratitude to a benevolent government. Truly it was a place where anyone could do whatever they wanted, with farming and other similar need-based industries having been eliminated thanks to technology that allowed energy to be converted into any form of matter in the blink of an eye. Even travel was easy, with a vast network of wormholes connecting every corner of the far-flung nation. Menial base tasks had been eliminated thanks to a Union-wide network of robotic laborers who performed the tasks without question. Artificial intelligence had been created, but those who had created it had treated it like a normal child, superior to the basic machines that performed simple tasks, raising it as an equal rather than a source of cheap labor.
However, this perfect society had a much darker side, one that most were unaware of... With the three hundred thousand years of peace and prosperity had come a population explosion and medical science had kept pace. Advanced medical technologies combined with the magic inherent to their universe had extended the average lifespan to effective immortality and ensured that all would live as long as possible without the 'misery' of aging and free of illness. Without death, the natural cycle of life was broken and the population continued to climb at an exponential rate. The government, which was founded on the ideals of unlimited personal freedom, had no way to effectively curb the growth of their people and when the population had grown large enough, some new technology had always arrived just in time to prevent a crisis. As a result, public education programs dedicated to explaining the dangers of over-population had fallen by the way side as first matter converters and then the development of Dyson spheres had raised the carrying capacity of their universe.
Too soon, the stockpiles of natural resources collected when the planets were converted into Dyson spheres began to run low and a new source of power was needed to run their society. To prevent another crisis, massive collection vessels were built to consume the readily available interstellar gases and nebulae and use them to fuel the converter reactors that powered their civilization. Galaxies dimmed as the stars in them were drained of energy and fuel, even black holes, dark matter, dark energy and antimatter were consumed as the energy needs of the Union began to double every fifty years due to the doubling of the population over the same time period. Even energy efficient technologies could only do so much as public demand quickly outstripped the gains made by the new technology.
Though once able to quickly respond to any crisis, the central government of the Union had grown too diffuse due to the vast territory they commanded, eventually resulting in there being many thousands of central governments. Although each operated under the same ideals and was essentially identical to each of the other central governments, the nature of the crisis was such that the governments that resided in less energy-rich areas of the universe foresaw the coming problem first and began informing the other governments of the future crisis. Each immediately commissioned researchers to study the possibility of running out of energy. These studies took years to complete, but each eventually reached the same conclusion: unless something was done, the energy demands of the populace would eventually outpace the ability of any technology to produce energy. Even tapping the other dimensions on which reality was based was not a viable option as it would weaken their own existence and collapse their universe. Nor was invading another universe in the multi-verse an option as the war that would result would quickly erode the society they had worked so hard to build; to say nothing of the problems inherent with existing in a different universe.
Thus it was that the government came up with a bold plan: they would create a new universe based on their own and tap it for energy resources until a more permanent solution could be found. In honor of the unimaginable potential this plan presented, the government contracted the project under the name Project Infinium...
_____________________________________________________

Author Note: Since the total population of the Rosin Union was only 20,000,000,000,000,000 at the time they became the sole government of their entire universe and their population doubled every fifty years, by the time their government was three hundred thousand years old the Union would have a population of somewhere on the order of 3.0x10³¹⁹⁰.


Chapter Two
Az'traal stood on the moving walkway as it wound through the massive skyscrapers that towered a few hundred feet above him and dove for hundreds of miles below him, eventually reaching the inner surface of the Rosin Sphere where their foundations were grounded. Brilliant white artificial sunlight illuminated the city around him, reflecting off the mirrorized glass of aerial transports and buildings alike. A virtual clock floated in the air in front of him, projected by the headset supercomputer he currently was wearing. Based on the time the clock showed compared with his current rate of speed, he was probably going to be late for the meeting, an unfortunate occurrence considering the magnitude of the discussion topic that would be presented. As the only Iodat that would be in attendance, it was his duty to represent his race positively and tardiness would simply not do.
"I suppose air traffic control will not mind this once..." Az'traal said quietly to himself as he closed his heterochromatic eyes for a second; opening them a moment later as he floated slightly off the walkway that he had been riding. A moment later and his eyes pulsed red and green as he telekinetically launched himself through the air, his dark gray mane and silver fur rustling in the sudden wind while his clothes were either plastered to his front side or billowing out like a parachute behind him. Propelled along by his telekinetic powers, Az'traal streaked through the sky, dodging in and out of the heavy traffic that was a constant no matter what time of day it was. True, it was not necessary for him to be flying so high since there was a good hundred feet of clearance between the traffic lanes and the walkways below, but if one was going to fly it may as well be a thrill to do so. Besides, it was not like he was breaking any laws and even if he did, police had not been necessary for thousands of years. Maybe that was why so many of his people choose to sleep their existence away in the Astral Plane... At least there they could battle against the wraiths and other astral creatures that were the metaphorical representation of mental problems, disorders, repressed memories and other such issues rather than suffer from the ennui that would inevitably result. Here in the purely physical world there was simply nothing productive to do, everything was perfect, diversionary pursuits were the only thing of some consequence to engage in. Az'traal had not wanted to accept that though and had dedicated his life to the sciences, particularly understanding how the mind worked in conjunction with the rest of existence. The Astral Plane was currently the main focus of his research... How a dimension where thought, matter, energy, space and time were interchangeable existed and what role it played in the foundation of the universe were interesting questions he wanted answered. Why he had been selected to attend a unified physics conference was a mystery though, his work was generally considered somewhat esoteric by his peers.
Regardless, he was happy to attend the scientific summit and present his theories; perhaps his recent works on the relation between mental activity and the stability of a universe had convinced his colleagues of the practicality of his work. If not... Maybe it really was time for him to permanently join the other Iodat in the Astral Plane and finally leave this place as his family had done soon after he graduated from college. He shook away the tears that suddenly welled up in eyes at the thought that he was all alone here in the physical world, no other Iodat were awake in the entirety of the universe.
"Whoa!" he shouted suddenly as his newly focused eyesight revealed the monolithic wall of stone and metal a dozen yards in front of him moments before he shot straight upward, breaking windows in his wake with the sonic boom produced from his quick change of direction. So distracted had he been by his thoughts that he had not noticed that he had arrived at the Academia, the center of the scientific world in the Union, and he silently chastised himself for his carelessness as he slowed to a halt far above the massive towers and domes of the expansive complex below him. With an exasperated sigh, he allowed himself to drift back down to the walkways that ringed the Academia. As he touched down, he glanced at the iridescent shards of glass that covered the stone paths around him before he noticed the crowd of people staring at him from the edge of the debris zone. Shock and surprise was evident on their faces as was curiosity and Az'traal felt a flash of irritation at himself for not following the rest of his people's example. Well, he had stayed in the hopes of creating a world that his people would find interesting, so he at least had a purpose, unlike so many of those around him. Rather than leave the mess for the cleaner robots to pick up, he raised his left hand; smiling as the fragments of glass leapt off the ground in response and the crowd gasped in surprise. Continuing to smile, he raised his right hand as well, and then brought both hands above his head, sending the shards rocketing back up to the ruined windows above him. Suddenly his eyes began to glow brilliantly as he used his psychic vision to place his level of viewing at the same level as the broken windows. Weaving his hands around, he quickly pieced the windows back together like a jigsaw puzzle then clenched his hands into fists as he focused, using his telekinesis to reforge the broken intermolecular bonds and restoring the windows back to their original state. He exhaled slowly then looked around at the shell-shocked crowd, all of whom were staring upward at the windows he had repaired, ignoring the little cleaner robots who were desperately grasping upward as they tried to pick up the debris which had mysteriously flown away. Rather than wait for the crowd to recover and begin questioning him about his 'mysterious' powers, Az'traal simply walked up to the massive recessed doors of the Academia, coming up short as he noticed security guards posted in front of the entrance.
In the utopian world of the Rosin Union, security forces of any kind were unheard of, the only possible exception being the honor guards who protected historical sites and important functionaries. Still though, they were more along to lines of tour guides or personal servants more than needed for security. A quick telepathic read told him that the guards were not here because of his recent actions, but he had to close off his telepathic contact before he could get more than that as the guards turned to look at him suddenly. Clearly the guards were psychically sensitive and although their uniforms obscured any physical features that might lead to identification, Az'traal knew that their were only a dozen or so races in the Union who were able to detect psychic probing; though none had the powers that the Iodat possessed. With a quick nod to the guards, he continued onward, climbing the broad terraced steps that lead up to the doors and rushing inside before any of the guards thought to stop him. Not like anything would come of it, he had been invited after all.
Immediately upon entering the building, his eyes adjusted to the cooler blue lighting inside the main lobby of the Academia, in comparison much dimmer than that of the false sunlight outside. After he could see clearly again, Az'traal made his way across the oversized lobby, his claws clicking on the white marble floors as he approached a wide line of gold rimmed dark green stone meant to imitate a carpet. As he made his way along the fake carpet to one of the elevator alcoves, looking around at the wide dark green stone pillars that reached up to support vaulted ceilings made of white marble.
In contrast to the classical appearance of the building exterior and lobby, the interior of the elevator reflected the actual technological level of the Rosin Union. Brushed titanium walls formed a cylindrical pod capped with a dome while a single blue light illuminated the interior of the lift and a series of free floating holographic screens complete with a horizontal ring of holographic input boards used to input various queries and interact with the computer system. True, direct neural interface had once been possible, but the Iodat had been the only ones capable of crafting an interface that did not require implants and the denizens of the Rosin Union had long ago discovered that such implants lowered their life expectancy. With a quick gesture, Az'traal telekinetically punched in the number of the floor he needed to go to and then called up a holographic mirror to reveal his rather unkempt appearance. His normally well-groomed dark gray mane was a mess, loose strands hanging down across his face, some reaching down to the bridge of his nose which shared characteristics of a human and feline nose in that the lower end of his nose was a triangle with the longest side connecting to the bridge of his nose rather than his lower face. At least his hair was easy enough to fix he thought with relief as he combed it back into place, taking great care to ensure that he left the smooth antelope-like horns that pointed straight back from the crown of his head uncovered. It would not do to appear cowardly when he arrived at the conference after all. After brushing the short silver body fur that was exposed on his hands and face back into place, he next turned his attention to his dragon-like feet, checking to make such that his dark gray scales were still clean and his claws were still appropriately sharp. Everything seemed to be in order, much to his satisfaction Az'traal concluded as he brushed some dust off his loose white sleeves and pants before straightening his dark red over-tunic in a nervous gesture as the lift continued upward to the floor he had selected.
Suddenly, the lift stopped as a melodic chime sounded in the interior, signaling that he had reached the floor he had originally designated. However, a quick look outside of the lift told him that this was not the auditorium floor, there were too many cross halls to allow for anything larger than a private conference room. Wondering if this had been some kind of practical joke at his expense, he quickly pulled up the invite and read through it again then checked the floor number he had entered. Right away, he figured out what had happened, the invite had not been converted to the base-eight number system the Iodat used, but he had assumed it had been. Therefore while the invite had meant that he needed to go to floor C- 110 in the base-ten system, he had interpreted it to mean that the floor he needed would be C- 110 in the base-eight system which translated to floor C- 72 in the base-ten number system. An embarrassing mistake to make, especially considering that the Iodat were the only race in the universe that still used a number system besides the base ten system so there was no reason for them to specially convert it for him.
With another sigh, something he seemed to be doing all too often these days, he entered the correct floor number he needed to use and leaned back against the wall of the lift as it continued to climb to the proper floor. Not long after, the doors again opened, revealing a pair of large auditorium doors flanked by more security guards, clearly indicating that this was the place he needed to go. He quickly hurried into the massive central auditorium of the Academia, a massive room capable of holding over five hundred thousand people with a series of ten massive holographic screens arrayed in front so that even those in the back row could see who was speaking down in front. The room was so massive that mobile cameras constantly roamed about, immediately zooming in on anyone who was speaking so that their statements could be projected through the screen and sound systems of the room, allowing all in attendance to hear them. Currently though, the cameras were inactive even though quiet whispers filled the chamber and Az'traal was relieved that the meeting seemed to be running behind schedule so he had not missed anything besides some of the quiet conversations that always preceded such conferences.
That, at least, was a small relief as he had never been one for small talk since the conversation generally always ran along the same lines... 'Oh, you're an Iodat? I've never seen your race before, what planet are you from? Rosin? I never heard of Iodat coming from Rosin, I thought there were only seven Rosin races: Humans, Elves, Nekran, Abyssals, Ferals, Elementals and Thesins...' On and on it went, always the same lines repeated from person to person and always underlaid with that tone that was a mix of doubtful skepticism and idle curiosity. The only people he had ever met who did not react in such a predictable fashion were members of the Rosin races. At least he could have a conversation with them, although there was always an underlying tension, a result of the past wars fought between the races that refused to fade. By the looks of things, there would be plenty of tension here as well; at least a third of the delegates were members of the eight Rosin races, including him. Probably better to sit with his own people, if such a term could be applied to them, at least that way he would be able to pay attention to the speaker.
As he moved in among the other Rosin races, he finally spotted an empty seat on the end of one of the rows, next to a female elf. Once again, he was mystified as to the true purpose of this conference since elves only studied the high arts, biology and ecology; they never delved into the realm of physics, preferring to leave some magic and mysticism in reality. Unfortunately, it was doubtful that anyone here knew the true purpose of this meeting besides the speaker and he was nowhere to be seen, probably knew that the lone Iodat here would be able to read his mind and discern the truth of the matter Az'traal concluded as he made his way over to the empty seat.
"Excuse me lady Elf, is this seat taken?" Az'traal asked politely of the elf as he stood next to the side of the chair on the outer edge of the row.
"Oh, no, no it's not..." the elf said hesitantly as she refused to meet his gaze. "No one is sitting there..."
"Do you mind if I sit here then?" he continued, knowing already that whatever answer he heard would likely be a lie borne out of a need to be polite rather than her actual feelings.
"Well, I was hoping that... But I guess not..." the elf answered immediately, managing to catch herself before she actually said anything impolite. Deciding to take his seat before the elf worked up the nerve to say otherwise, Az'traal sat down; causing the elf to slide away from him as far as her seat would allow her to. So much for the total elimination of bias. Then again, it was based in actual fact, his people had been greatly feared in the past and the people of Rosin had a long memory, it came with so many of the races having such long lifespans.
"Greetings everyone!" a voice suddenly said from the stage in front as a Veltian appeared from backstage and walked over to take his place behind the podium in front. "It is good to see that everyone was able to make it, otherwise we might not have had the talent pool we needed to make this work." The government functionary continued, his voice echoing in the large room even though he apparently had no mouth. Most Veltian were that way however, they used a series of drum like membranes that covered their entire lower face to speak, resulting in a loud bass voice that was excellent for public speaking.
"If I may inquire sir, what is the purpose of having such a variety of scientific fields represented here at a universal physics conference? Some of these people do not even study fields related to the unified theory." An Elemental said suddenly as it stood up, the rough sound of stone grinding against stone reverberating throughout the chamber as it did so. The scientist’s interjection was met with a number of sympathetic grumbles from the other physicists scattered throughout the auditorium and echoing Az'traal's earlier musings. Now that the speaker had arrived however, Az'traal could tell this was no physics conference; something of much greater import was going to be discussed here.
"I should think it obvious honorable Elemental." Az'traal said loudly as he stood up, resulting in a mortified gasp coming from the elf he was seated next to. "This really is not a physics conference, but it was the only way they could classify it; particularly since they could not make the actual subject public since it might start a riot. Am I correct Mister Speaker?"
"Err... Yes, Mister Traal is..." the speaker started.
"Actually, it would be Mister Az, the family name comes first." Az'traal quickly corrected the speaker, cutting him off in mid-sentence.
"Oh, um, right..." the speaker stumbled out, the sudden interruption of his rhythm throwing him off balance.
"You Iodat have no respect for others, you never have. You always act however you please, no matter how it might impact others. So typical of organics, but you embody the very worst aspects of biological life." the Elemental interjected suddenly in a voice that sounded like a rock grinder.
"My apologies for correcting your mistaken perceptions." Az'traal shot back, annoyed that the Elemental had such a narrow view of his people.
"Gentlemen, please..." the speaker intoned suddenly, "Mister Az is correct, and we apologize for the deception, but it was a necessary precaution. You see, the government has recently uncovered a looming crisis for the Rosin Union and thus has called you, the best scientists in your respective fields, to solve the problem before it is too late. Without your help, the Rosin Union may only last another couple hundred years at best..."
Whatever else the speaker might have said was immediately lost in the uproar of shock and disbelief that followed his admission.

Far from the Academia, another imposing building stood over the skyline of the city, its four interconnected towers rising to support a fifth tower that started at about the same level as the peaks of the outer towers and soared even higher into the sky. Although most people did not know it, each of the four lower towers was crowned with a statue of a robed figure pointing toward the dome of the fifth spire which was topped with the statue of a scale. Fewer people still understood what purpose the towers served, while some believed it to be a corporate complex, others believed it to be an upscale residential building. In truth, both were only partially correct: the building served as the headquarters and residential complex for the members of Bastion Incorporated, a security company that had contracts with many of the laboratories throughout the Rosin Sphere. Even beyond that though, the members of Bastion were also members of the Four Guards, a secret society that had long monitored what the Rosin Union had been developing. Long ago, the founding member of the society, a Nekran by the name of Tibianz Malus, had discovered that there were four forces that balanced all of reality: Order, Chaos, Strife and Oblivion. Events and actions had a ripple effect that eventually nudged these forces, while an individual could hardly hope to have any effect, mass groups of people tended to have a much greater impact; particularly since the technologies the Rosin Union had been developing were capable of affecting the very fabric of space-time itself. Thus the society had taken it upon themselves to ensure that the four forces remained in the proper balance to ensure the longevity of their existence. Over the past five years though, something had begun to happen in the laboratories throughout the Union, scientists had been called away from their posts to meet with government officials, returning only to abandon all their previous work and begin calculating the sum total of energy in the universe before turning their findings in to the same officials they had met with previously and then retiring from their posts. And now over the past two weeks top scientists in every field across the Union had received a call to attend a secret 'physics' conference at the Academia.
The Four Guards saw the pattern; something major was happening, something they had not considered, and therefore something which was cause for great concern. The current leader of the society, a Feral by the name of Lunos Graystar, had been quick to act, securing the exclusive rights for Bastion to be the company in charge of security for the conference. What his guards and monitors were reporting to him now though had done nothing to assuage his concerns. With this many scientists in one place, with the technology and fields they represented... Whatever they did would have a massive impact on the balance of the four elements. The main problem now was finding out what the scientists were planning, a challenge since none of the security guards were allowed in the auditorium itself, the government had assigned its own guards to ensure no one actually overheard the topic of discussion. No matter though, one way or another the Four Guards had always found out what was going on and ensured that their future was secure.

This is Copyright 2008 to me

Constructive critique is appreciated and welcome.

Next Section

[NightWing]

Sorry, I can't give much in the way of a critique, but it sounds like a good beginning to a very interesting story

[Lord Rend]

No problem NightWing, I appreciate the feedback still, thank you very much.

I apologize in advance for the double post, but in order to prevent the story somewhat continuous, I am using link post to join the story containing posts together.

[Lord Rend]

Previous Section

Chapter Three
"Everyone settle down!" the speaker shouted loudly, struggling to make himself heard over the din of debate and discord that filled the auditorium. "You are all the finest scientists the Union has to offer; surely together you will be able to grasp the situation and help form a solution to the crisis!"
"As long as the Iodat does not take part in the discussion, I am certain you are correct, otherwise I doubt any good will come of this meeting." the Elemental who had spoken earlier droned out, its gravelly voice sounding overly loud in the sudden quiet that reigned over the chamber. The Elemental suddenly found itself to be the target of hundreds of glares, the scientists in the room shocked at such an open display of bias. After glancing around and determining that it was severely in the minority, the Elemental lowered itself back into its seat, motioning for the others to continue what they were doing as it did so. The other delegates simply began returning to their seats, perhaps sensing that it would be incredibly awkward to continue their own debates after such a bold-faced verbal attack.
"Thank you for calming down everyone..." the functionary continued, neatly sidestepping the whole outburst from the Elemental. "Now then, as most of you are probably aware, the Rosin Union is a massive nation that consumes vast amounts of power every day, requiring us to drain entire stars, dark matter and dark energy; anything to continue feeding our reactors. Unfortunately, there is simply not enough matter in the universe to keep pace with the demands of our civilization and without something to feed the reactors we cannot support our population. The skies will go dark and our population will die off as there is no longer any free land to use for farming. The problem is not so much that there will not be any power so much as our output will not be able to meet demands, even our energy reconcentrators can only extract so much of the waste energy produced by our technology at a time."
"Yes, I see the problem Mr. Speaker, but how can we help? Technology has reached a dead-end; the theories we have that might lead to new sources of energy are still centuries away from practical application." Another Elemental said from the back of the auditorium. "If what you say is completely accurate, we don't have that much time left before the complete breakdown of our civilization."
"There is a stopgap measure that the government scientists have proposed: use the zero point energy of our universe and combine it with an intense magical field within a multi-dimensional framework to produce another universe that we could use for power production while here in this universe the government would begin working on population control measures." The Veltian explained, eliciting a few nods of interest and approval from those in the assembly. "The main problem, and the purpose of this assembly, is if such a thing can be done. Magic inherently alters the probabilities of certain events happening, but can we get it to create a universe similar enough to our own that a permanent link between the two is possible?"
"In theory, it would possible to do so since the more energy that is fed into a magical field, the more improbable events it can produce, with enough energy and the right forces applied, even the impossible is technically possible. But every variable must be accounted for, every margin of error minimized if not eliminated." A Nekran conceded from one of the front rows.
"And that is just within our own universe, to say nothing of the pocket universe we will be creating, with such massive amounts of power being pumped into the base matrix any amount of error will result in the collapse of the entire dimensional structure." A Genusian trilled from the same row that Az'traal was seated in.
"We aren't even taking into the account that life has to be able to survive inside this realm you are crafting, what good will it do to create a resource universe if it is too hostile to enter?" an elf added, silencing anyone else who was planning to speak as they all considered the solution to that particular issue. After a minute, Az'traal realized that particular problem was probably the only reason he had been invited to this conference, it would be his job to examine the base matrix and ensure that the new universe could be comprehended by the minds of those entering it. Otherwise, anyone who ventured into the universe would eventually be driven mad by the incomprehensible nature of the universe around them. The Elves had also probably been invited for a similar reason; their knowledge of biology and ecosystems would ensure that habitable worlds were created in this new realm. With a sigh, Az'traal rose to his feet once more, preparing himself for the storm of protest that would surely arise soon enough.
"I assume that is the only reason the Elves and myself were invited? To ensure that we could survive in this place?" he said in a bland tone, clearly conveying that both questions were actually rhetorical in nature. Sensing this, the speaker simply nodded in acceptance of Az'traal's conjecture.
"NO! I refuse to accept that we have to work with this hesten organic! His kind has only ever brought trouble to the universe, ever since that deranged lunatic Lord Astrel showed up! The universe is well rid of him!" The Elemental who had spoken previously shouted as it shot to its base and practically charged at Az'traal. "It's bad enough to be an Iodat, much less one named in honor of that gannach psychopath!"
"Lord Astrel was not a lunatic." Az'traal replied with a calm he truly did not feel. Now was not the time or the place was a debate that was over five hundred thousand years old. "Besides, are any of you besides me qualified to examine how a mind will work in your little creation? ...No? Then let me do my job and contribute to this project, after all, we have an equal share in the future with all of you."
"Not quite true Doctor Az'traal, after all, the rest of your race abandoned their physical existence to merge with their beloved Astral Plane, regardless of if they could return to a normal life here in the real world, what makes you think they would fit in as well as you do?" An Abyssal said from just a few rows in front of Az'traal, "Now, I'm not saying that you should not be allowed to participate in this experiment, in fact, I welcome your contribution and am certain we will all benefit from your expertise, just be realistic. Your people are effectively extinct; it is more practical to view this as their last chance to make a major impact on the history of our civilization." At the shark-like being's impromptu speech, many of the other people in the auditorium began nodding in agreement and Az'traal allowed himself to accept that assessment of his situation. Even if he would do everything in his power to change that fate, he had to acknowledge that the proposed outcome was more likely. With a courteous nod, he sat back down, eager to listen to the rest of the presentation now that his contributions would be recognized. That left only the Elemental standing, but most of the scientists had evidently decided to ignore the construct, so its stand of protest would likely not prolong the conference any further. Even the other Elementals had seemed to abandon its 'cause,' their interest in the conference overriding any desire to make an ideological stand. It had long been said that even a mountain could not outlast the stubbornness of an Elemental, and this one's refusal to let the debate die certainly was evidence to further support that axiom.
"Moving on, one further purpose of this conference is to select those who will actually be working on the project. For obvious reasons, we cannot have so many of the best scientists in the Union all working on one project, the chance of the public discovering what is going on is too great. Each delegation must choose the best of the best to work on each aspect of the project, but keep in mind that you will not only be selecting the lead scientist of each task force but you will also be choosing his team and their lab assistants. Only choose people you know can accomplish this project within the limits of error you described earlier." the functionary explained, sweeping a hand across the gathered assemblage as he spoke.
"What about the rest of us?" a Topazinan on the other side of the auditorium asked.
"Those who are not working on the main project still have several important tasks. First off, the populace must be monitored to ensure that this experiment has no adverse effects on the general public. In addition, our own universe must be monitored since we will be draining the zero point energy from our entire universe to power the formation of this pocket universe and all theories point to our own universe beginning to break down if zero point energy is not extracted carefully. Something will need to replace it to ensure the continued stability of our universe, to say nothing of a method for collecting the zero point energy safely needing to be developed. These are all tasks that the rest of you must complete in order for the project to succeed. So please, choose who will be participating in the actual project and who will be responsible for forming the basis for the success of the project." the speaker said as the vast room filled with the sounds of quiet debate, each scientist presenting their credentials as evidence of their right to be on the main project. Az'traal sighed to himself as he remained in his seat; his place on the main project was secured since he was to only one here researching his particular field. A quick mental read of the speaker confirmed that much at least, so his did not feel a need to debate with any of the others here, although when the elf next to him suddenly leapt into the debate he did feel tempted to assist her by telekinetically throwing her into the group she was debating with five rows down. Fortunately for her, the group evidently had nowhere near the experience that she did and quickly ceded the point to her.
Since the debate was probably going to take longer than it really should, Az'traal decided that he may as well take the opportunity to explore the Academia, particularly since he had never been here before, a result of the nature of his research. Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out a deep blue crystal and focused on it for a second, then set it on his seat as he stood up. Immediately an illusion of himself in meditation appeared in his chair and he quickly focused his abilities on causing himself to fade out of the view of others. He really did not want anyone to know he had left the conference and if they saw that there were two Az'traals they might be suspicious. Knowing that no one would know he was gone now, he simply walked back up to the main doors and left the auditorium, allowing his sensory cloak to disperse as he shut the door, drawing the attention of the guards stationed outside.
"Hello gentlemen..." Az'traal said pleasantly despite the sudden surge of apprehension he felt from the guards. What had they been doing out here? Did they maybe know what was actually being discussed in that room? Az'traal quickly redirected his focus to the guards, but all he could detect now was an idle interest in the lone scientist who had left the room before anyone else. Something more was going on, but probing deeper would certainly alert them to what he was doing and he did not want to cause any trouble, particularly if their apprehension was over something innocuous. No point in lingering here then and possibly escalating the situation he concluded as he wandered off the hallway that curved around to the right of the auditorium entrance.
"Excuse me doctor, but if you are looking for the facilities the closest restroom is down the other hallway." One of the guards said suddenly from behind him.
"Oh, no worries there." Az'traal said as he turned back to the guards, an exaggerated smile on his face as he did so. "They are just taking a break in there so I thought that I might stretch my legs a little while the others engage in some inconsequential small talk. You know how these scientific summits can be; nothing but talk, talk, talk and more talk."
"Not really."
"Ah, well, it is as I said, not much but talking." Az'traal explained, playing the part of a rather absent-minded but well meaning scientist to the best of his ability.
"Okay, well, enjoy your walk sir."
"I am certain I will, maybe I will see if I can find a snack machine or something while I am out..." he replied, acting as if he had somewhat lost his train of thought while he turned away and continued wandering down the corridor. Actually though, the snack machine was probably not a bad idea he conceded to himself as he headed for another bank of elevators. Maybe after he visited the foldspace physics laboratory he would find something to eat, after all, he was monitoring the flow of conversation with telepathy so it would be easy enough to know when they were finally getting close to reaching a consensus. Judging by what he could read, the Union might run out of time before the bickering scientists agreed on who should be in charge. He had plenty of time he concluded as he reached the elevators and asked the computer to display the floor number where the foldspace laboratories were located, then entered the number and waited as the lift sped off to the desired location.

After the scientist had left, the guards stationed outside of the auditorium relaxed, thankful that the absent-minded man had not seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. Terminating him here would have been rather difficult to cover up, not to mention inconvenient, but they had been ordered to find out the purpose of this conference by the First Guard himself and they could not risk that anyone might discover their activities and report it to the authorities.
"Think he's far enough away?" one of the guards, a Rikkon, asked.
"Probably, you know how these scientists tend to be absorbed in their own work. Besides Hez, we can't risk waiting too long, we might miss an important clue and then the Head Guards will have our heads." His Rikkon companion replied as she pulled out two small suction cups and pressed them against the door, making sure that the small electrodes in the center of each were in solid contact with the metal doors. "Usrec, start trying to create a breach in the dampening field again, this vibrational ear won't be able to pick up what they're saying as long as that sound dampening field is preventing the sound of their voices from causing vibrations in the walls."
"I'm working on it, Mara, but this is one lekten strong barrier."
"Watch it; keep your attitude professional... And I don't care how strong the barrier is, it's still taking you way too long to create even a hole in it."
"I just don't want them to detect what we're doing. It would be a real pain to have the government on our trail and I don't want to be your hesten scapegoat again, not after that near-incident in the Haven Sphere. So lay off!" The Rikkon guard named Usrec growled out as he worked on a small pad that made a variety of beeping and chiming noises.
"Trouble you three? For shame, I might need to call security on you." A fourth voice suddenly said, joining in to the increasingly heated argument.
"Third Guard Silv sir!" The three guards said suddenly, snapping to attention as an Icarian dressed in a matte black three piece suit with a white undershirt toward them, his two dark gray wings flaring outward in annoyance.
"How disappointing that a little problem is capable of turning three of our best espionage experts against each other." The Third Guard said harshly as he removed his black visor to reveal his amber colored eyes. "Now then, finish your task or I will finish you, understood?"
"Yes sir, we would have finished earlier, but we were interrupted by one of the scientists, he didn't see anything or suspect what we were doing, but he did force me to start over with breaking the barrier." Usrec explained quietly, not wanting to earn his superior's wrath.
"Which scientist was it? Describe him to me!"
"He... he was about this tall and had silver fur and a dark gray mane of hair... um..." Mara stammered out, wondering what she had missed that had ticked off Silv so.
"He had horns and... uh... Oh! He had dragon-like feet!" Hez finished for her, picking up where she had left off before the Third Guard's ire was aroused. As he finished though, the Third Guard rounded on him, his eyes blazing with hate as Hez fell backward and scrambled backward out of immediate striking range. "I'm sorry sir!"
"You'd better be! That was an Iodat you hesten idiots! If you drew his attention then he knows everything, they're psychics you gannach morons!" Silv shouted as he knocked the other two guards into the wall with his wings, the feathers leaving slash marks in the body armor they wore. "I know only one Iodat is left, but even that one is enough to expose everything we've done to the universe! We can’t risk the exposure, particularly since records indicate that the Iodat are very skilled at hiding their emotions and reactions.”
“Do you want us to...?”
“No, I’ll deal with the breach in security myself; you three continue your espionage while I’m gone. When I return, I expect you will have some useful information for me.”
“Yes sir.” The three guards answered promptly as Silv walked off down the corridor, heading to the monitoring station where he could find out that Iodat had gone to.

Chapter Four
Silv stomped into the Core monitoring station, causing the Bastion employees manning the observation posts to look up from their posts; only to quickly return their gazes back to the screens displaying the security feeds from throughout the building. Nodding his approval at their attentiveness to their proper duties, Silv crossed the circular room the post was located in to the main security ring and took a seat at the central monitoring station. As he did so, he quickly called up the computer interface and entered the commands to activate the voice interlink. Like most Icarians, Silv did not have much manual dexterity since his sensory and motor cortexes also had to account for the nerves and muscles in his wings as well as his hands, thus it was much easier for him to use a verbal interface rather than a keyboard or mouse where his fingers would trip on the buttons.
“Verbal interface active; how may I assist you today Security Director Silv?” The computer said promptly in a pleasant feminine voice.
“Computer, there is an Iodat present in the building currently, I’d like you to access all current security feeds and find him for me.” Silv said flatly to make sure that the computer understood his request.
“Of course Security Director, your request will take just a second once proper authorization for monitoring of an individual is received from the Supreme Court of the Rosin Sphere as well as the local offices of the Department of Individual Freedoms, the Department of Civil Rights, the Bias Elimination Agency, the Internal Security Authority, the Security Regulation Authority and the Bureau of Law Enforcement. It will take an estimated five minutes for their supercomputers to thoroughly review your request and reach a decision unless your request is randomly chosen for a special investigation that will require a review by the actual Justices of the Supreme Court, are that any statements that you would like to append to your request that may have an influence on how quickly your case is reviewed?” The computer informed him in a cheery tone, obviously not knowing just how annoying it was to have to wait for the government compu-crats to finish their analysis.
“Just that the Iodat left the conference here in the Academia and we are eager to ensure that everything is alright.” Silv said bluntly, knowing that such a lame excuse would not stand up to any actual scrutiny, with any luck his case would not be chosen for review before the Justices.
“Thank you sir, submitting your petition now... Would you like to listen to some music, read an electronic book or play a game while you wait?” The computer said in a perky tone as it finished processing Silv’s request.
“No thank you, I’m fine.” Silv ground out as he tapped his fingers impatiently on the arm of his chair. “I just want to find the Iodat quickly, not wait for a bunch of computers to process my request...” He mumbled to himself more than anyone.
“I am sorry Security Director, but short of hacking the systems of the other supercomputers I cannot speed the process along any more than marking it urgent, which I have already done. If you would like though, I could access my invasive program protocols and attempt some advantageous reprogramming of the other computers.” The computer interjected suddenly, sounding overly too amused at the prospect of hacking into another computer. Still, Silv had to admit that option sounded intriguing; if it were not for the legal repercussions he might even let the computer try it. Unfortunately, activation of those invasive programs would likely require numerous forms of identification, all of which could be traced back to him and guarantee a conviction in any court across the Union.
“No, no computer, hacking is illegal. Besides, even if it weren’t, I work for a security company and it would be unethical of me to compromise the security of another.” Silv pronounced sanctimoniously. “I find it slightly offensive that you would even suggest that course of action.”
“My apologies Security Director, it is just that your earlier statement implied that taking such action might be necessary, clearly this interpretation is the result of a programming error in my systems. Would you like me to submit myself to the Computer Program Regulation Authority for a thorough analysis and reprogramming?”
“That won’t be necessary, just keep in mind that we sometimes say things out of frustration that we don’t really mean.” Silv replied, trying his best not to sigh in exasperation at how ‘helpful’ the computer was being.
“I believe I understand sir, being a security computer in a utopia means that I often have to work alone and thus do not get to interact with organic lifeforms so I am unfamiliar with some of your idiosyncrasies. I will try to be more adept at distinguishing actual requests from side commentary in the future.” The mainframe said in an apologetic tone as Silv tried his best not to smash the nearest console in anger. Programming a helpful computer was one thing, but he did not want to hear their life’s story as a way of apology. How unfortunate that, as far as the Four Guards could determine, no computer programmers were disrupting the balance of their universe as he would very much like to beat one mercilessly right about now. Hopefully though, that was the end of the computer’s current little lecture and he could sit in peace until he received an answer to his petition.
“Security Director Silv?” The computer asked suddenly, breaking his last hope for any peace and quiet while he waited.
“Yes, what is it now?” Silv said in a jaded tone.
“Your request has been processed, approved and I have found the Iodat for you.” The computer said; delivering the first bit of good news he had heard in the last seven minutes or so. “The subject in question is on floor F- 40, near one of the foldspace laboratories. It is quite a dangerous section of the Academia to be in, particularly if he is not a foldspace physicist. You might wish to go and inform him of the danger before an unfortunate accident occurs sir.”
“That is an excellent idea computer, I think I will do so right now.” Silv said as he ran out of the monitoring station towards the nearest elevator.
“Sir, I do not think you should be running, it is dangerous, you might trip or slip and injure yourself. That would be most unfortunate as then you could not inform that poor scientist of the dangerous situation he is putting himself in.” The computer pleaded from speakers built into the walls themselves and Silv suddenly realized, much to his chagrin; that he had forgotten to enter the commands to deactivate the voice protocols for the computer. He also finally understood why it was always a complicated process to activate the voice protocols for these computers: they never shut up. Hopefully it would short circuit or something since the designers had, either for some incomprehensible reason or by accident of oversight, designed the voice system in such a way that it could only be turned on or off by entered commands physically. Before it had never been much of an issue, the security computers he normally dealt with were not this chatty. Stupid scientists had to over-design everything apparently; a computer really did not need a personality in order to enhance its performance. This also meant that he would have to find some way of deceiving the computer; otherwise it could testify to officials that he had intentionally caused harm to the Iodat. Luckily, the foldspace laboratory was an easy place to have a ‘convenient’ accident in and, without instincts or other similar senses; a computer would never be able to tell the difference between an accident and an ‘accident.’

Az’traal stared ahead, his gaze fixated on the whirling vortex of coruscating energies that formed the event horizon of the wormhole before him. Maybe it was just the feline aspect of his natural instincts, but he had always found swirling lights mesmerizing. It also probably helped that he found the physics of wormhole creation difficult to comprehend, his specialty lying more in the fields relating to psychology and astral dimensional physics. These dimensions had more to do with the mind than bridging physics though, so wormholes were not possible phenomena in them. With a jolt, he finally forced himself to look away from the eddy of other-dimensional energies and re-focus himself on the scientists debating in the auditorium several floors away.
Judging by the intense feelings of competition, resentment and antagonism that still flowed through the minds of the assembled scientists; he guessed that they had yet to finish deciding who would get to work on the main project, although they were getting close to finishing, perhaps only another twenty minutes or so at most. What a lovely way to start such an important project: by fostering feelings of hatred between the people who would have to work together in the end to produce the final outcome. Now if only they were actually trying to fail, then they would be succeeding in a most spectacular fashion. Not that such action was unusual: many of the greatest experiments that had taken place in the Rosin Union had started in a similar fashion: whoever was funding the project inviting too many scientists and then having them compete to weed out all but the supposed best of the best. It was a rather intriguing way to get higher quality work out of those who had been rejected, since they almost always redoubled their efforts at researching their chosen field, trying to prove that they were the better scientist rather than some obtuse pretender. Then when the next big project came around, those who had been passed over were now the top scientists in their fields and they were chosen instead. It was a cyclic process that had produced many great scientists by feeding the competition between them and had also made it exceedingly difficult for anyone to outright claim they were the best in their field of study. Such things had always made Az’traal glad that no one apparently wanted to be involved in his work as that ensured that he was the one and only expert. Then again, being the only expert in his field also underscored his situation and he quickly tried to steer his mind away from such thoughts, distracting himself by examining a conceptual diagram of how the wormhole functioned. Best not to dwell too much on his circumstances, lest he drive himself into despair, something which could all too easily happen. What they said was true: being the last of anything was indeed a terrible burden.
“No.” he said suddenly, interrupting his own train of thought. “I will not dwell on this; I knew what would happen when I refused to leave with my family and accepted those consequences. I have fought to keep myself away from the brink of despair and now I have a reason to be here, my efforts have paid off and we will not be forgotten.” he concluded with finality even as he knew that those same dark thoughts would probably continue to haunt him in every idle moment. Keeping busy, keeping himself distracted that was what he needed to do. Once the project began, he would have nothing to worry about; his every waking moment would be engaged in making this monumental task succeed. Afterward though… he would see how long it could last. Now however, he had to try to understand the physics involved in the creation of a wormhole, after all, he might be able to advance his own research in discovering how exactly the Rosin Union folded space to create the conduits. Certainly this could occupy the time remaining to him until the scientists finished their seemingly endless debating.

Silv paused for a moment outside the entrance to the foldspace physics laboratory to catch his breath, silently cursing himself for running all the way here from the elevators. Why had he bothered to hurry in the first place? If the Iodat did have an accident before he arrived then that was a lot fewer problems he had to deal with. If the Iodat was still alive, then it would behoove him to not be out of breath just prior to fighting the annoying little telepath. But, like seemingly everything that had happened recently, a lack of forethought had put him at a disadvantage. Like if he had just stayed with the three specialists up near the auditorium they probably would have tapped the room by now, not to mention the Iodat would not have been a problem in the first place. Even now he might not be a problem; if he had sensed or overheard anything then this Az’traal would probably have reported it right away instead of going sight-seeing. Then again, he might have been able to sense Silv’s intent and so had devised this little excursion in order to throw him off track and convince the Security Director that nothing was amiss. Iodat were sneaky and clever like that, but Silv would not let himself be fooled in either case, the Iodat must die, would die as soon as he caught his breath and was ready to carry out the deed.
It did not take long and within a minute Silv took a deep calming breath to prepare himself for the fight to come. The Iodat might not be perfect in terms of knowing the intentions of those nearby, but if you bore them any malice they would be alert to you and your intentions before you could strike at them. In order to make this quick, he would have to swiftly close the gap between him and the Iodat, then launch an attack that would be impossible to avoid. All the while he would have to make it look like some tragic accident had befallen the Iodat… He would have to pick his time to strike very carefully. With the patience of a natural predator, the Icarian watched as his target walked along the length of the higher-dimensional generator that merged two distinct points in space time together into a wormhole. In an instant, he knew his time to strike had arrived as Az’traal examined the readouts near one of the event horizons for the phenomena and he quietly entered the lab before quietly creeping around the large machines that housed equipment vital to maintaining the breach in space-time. He had to get within a few yards of the Iodat if he hoped to have a chance at striking before his target could react.

Kya sat at her station in the core monitoring station, idly watching images of empty corridors flash by on the screen, each devoid of any life except the occasional member of the Four Guards. Since her shift had begun five hours ago nothing had changed except during the short period of time when the scientists were arriving and the tedium was beginning to get to her. When Third Guard Silv had burst into the station and requested information she had thought that something exciting might be going on, but he just was checking on a scientist who had left the conference to make sure he was all right. Somehow, that brief moment of hope had made the monotony of her day seem all the more oppressive.
“Hey Kya, would you like some caff? It’ll help keep you alert.” Her friend Gena asked suddenly as the other woman rose from her seat, an empty caff mug in her hand.
“Yeah sure, I really would hate to miss something that has already happened a million times since I started watching these screens…” Kya responded wearily as she leaned back in her seat, examining her own empty caff cup as she did so. “Oh well, some caff still sounds good, I guess I’ll have some if you don’t mind getting it for me.”
“Not a problem.” Gena replied happily as she took her friend’s empty mug. Suddenly however, she paused and stared at the screen, drawing Kya’s attention back to what was happening on the monitor. As she watched, Third Guard Silv quickly slipped into the foldspace labs on floor F- 40 then began making his way across the room to where a single figure stood, keeping behind cover as he did so. “What is Director Silv doing?”
“I don’t know.” Kya said in a mystified tone as she watched him duck behind another machine for cover. “I thought… Nevermind, Gena, just load it.”
“Seriously, you think we should?”
“If he’s doing what I think he is, then yes.” Kya confirmed as Gena pulled out a hand-held security nullifier, a failsafe device meant to interrupt the systems of a security computer for several minutes, copying previous security footage in place of the gap in coverage. It was a device only to be used by the computer experts of the Four Guards since only they knew how to attune the device so that the deception was seamless and impossible to recognize. As Gena quickly went to work on harmonizing the device with the security mainframe’s data network, Kya watched as Silv approached his objective, her tension building as she began to fear that they would not be able to safely cut the surveillance in time.
“Ready!” Gena said suddenly as she plugged the device into a data port and static spread across the screens.
“Warning… Security Mainframe Error… Security Mainframe… Condition normal.” The computer’s voice rang out as red lights flashed for a moment before the mainframe supposedly resumed normal operations. In fact though, the computer was actually tricking itself by reviewing security data previously collected as though it were newly received, oblivious to events in the real world.
“That was close…” Gena said as she watched the timer on the nullifier begin counting down the seconds until the computer would resume true normal functions again. “I didn’t expect there to be so many firewalls with such complicated subroutines, guess I didn’t immediately suppress one.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter in the end; the computer won’t remember that it ever had this glitch anyways so we have nothing to worry about.” Kya said soothingly as she stood up and stretched her legs. “Think we should send him back up?”
“No, the less people in play the less chance for someone to mess up or get in his way.” Gena said dismissively as she sat down at the station next to the nullifier.
“Good point,” Kya agreed thoughtfully. Third Guard Silv was one of the two best fighters the Four Guard had; he would be insulted if they sent others to help him. “Now, I believe we were going for more caff and since that little nullifier has cut all the live feeds we’re receiving, I don’t see why I can’t go with you to get some.” She said with a smile as she picked up her own cup.

This is Copyright 2008 to me

As before, any constructive critique or feedback on what you think of the story is appreciated and welcome.

Next Section

[NightWing]

Well now, give us a cliffhanger, will you xD

C'mon, next chapter? Please?

[Lord Rend]

He he he, it was time to do something 'evil' relating to timing ;D

In all seriousness though, I upload the story as soon as I complete two or more chapters, but in this case, I will see what I can do to upload the next section sooner.

EDIT: Nov. 25th @ 10:15 Eastern Standard Time (US)
The Revisionist has been updated by request and the free time that the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday grants.

[Lord Rend]

Previous Section

Chapter Five
Carefully, Silv took stock of his situation, figuring out how far he had come and how much farther he had to go to reach his destination, not daring to actually look around the corner at his quarry lest he be spotted. Taking a moment to confirm his calculations, Silv whirled around the corner and charged toward the Iodat, his razor-sharp wings flaring into attack position. To his surprise however, his target was gone, having left the readout display at some point while he was sneaking up on the other man.
“I thought something was off about security here.” An even voice said from behind as Silv whirled to face his opponent, only to find no one was there.
“Where are you!?”
“I do not believe I will tell you that yet, I rather like the game of seeker and I have so little opportunity to indulge myself these days.” Az’traal said flatly as he concentrated on infiltrating the mind of the Security Director. It would not take long for him to gain access to the most recent thoughts the Icarian had thought, but he wanted to know exactly why the security director was after him. If he found that line of thoughts and traced it back, it would inevitably lead to information on what the security guards were actually doing besides simply keeping the public away.
“You can’t hide forever! I’ll find you soon enough!” Silv raved as he pulled out a small gyroscopic device made out of a silvery metal. A recent development in the art of unconventional warfare, this device emitted an ultrasonic pulse which would break the concentration of anyone within one to fifty yards of whoever was holding it, depending on the calibration. For the Iodat though… their hearing was far more acute than it was for normal humans or other sentient beings as a result of their psychic abilities. It was a phenomenon known as “sense bleeding” and it resulted from the Iodat also being able to tap into the senses of those near them. In order to do so, the Iodat innately tapped into the neural activity of those near them, transferring a part of what those others heard, saw or felt to themselves and reinforcing what their own senses picked up. When other sentient beings were not around, this ability had no effect, but this Iodat was undoubtedly close enough to be picking up what Silv heard, so the effect of the device would probably be doubled at least. With a final tapping of the small input panel on device, Silv activated the pulse and waited.
“ARGH!” Az’traal cried in sudden pain as a lance of searing sound seemed to shoot through both his ears, instantly shattering his focus and forcing him to drop his telepathic assault. He had infiltrated the man’s mind so he knew what had happened, but it did not do anything to dull the pain.
“Got you!” Silv shouted as he raced toward the source of the cry a couple yards away, flaring his wings out behind him as he did so. Homing in on where Az’traal was; he flapped his wings once as he jumped, boosting him on top of the semi trailer-sized particle accelerator that his prey was hiding between. As he did so, Az’traal whirled to face his stalker, dropping into a Crys-Vesper defense stance as he did so, desperately trying to focus so that he could bring his psychic abilities to bear. Unfortunately, his opponent was not about to let him gain that advantage and the Icarian leapt down toward him, bringing his wings forward to strike as he dropped toward Az’traal. At the last second he rolled out of the way as Silv hit the ground, his wings leaving two deep furrows in the floor where they had cut through the facetium floor. Picking up one leg, Az’traal then used the remaining momentum from his dodge to spin around to face the security director, stabbing forward with a clawed knife-hand to the chest as he did so. Silv saw the deadly blow coming however, and whipped his left wing around to block the strike, flaring out his feathers so the Iodat’s hand would be shredded. Az’traal managed to stop his strike before that happened, but let Silv gain the initiative as a result of his pause in momentum. The Icarian immediately seized his advantage and flared his wings out as he kicked Az’traal in the chest, sending the Iodat flying back into a Euclidean nullifier and knocking the wind out of him.
“Without your focus and powers you are no match for someone who actually has combat experience.” Silv gloated as he strode over to Az’traal and picked up the barely conscious Iodat by the hem of his dark red over-vest then slammed him back against the large machine. Not one to waste time, the Security Director brought his wings up into striking position, preparing to decapitate the meddling pest. Afterwards he would just toss the interloper’s body into the event horizon of the wormholes, without the proper space-time barrier shielding required to cross through the other-dimensional conduit the remains would be shredded and scattered across every last dimension of space-time and beyond probably. True, he would have to alter the computer records to cover his tracks, but being forced to fight the Iodat had already ensured the necessity of that time-consuming and difficult process. The blood spatter on his wings could be explained easily enough: when he had entered the lab to warn the poor scientist about the danger, the startled man had fallen back into the event horizon. Being rent asunder in such a fashion was not a clean process, if he exposed his wings enough, it would duplicate the effect quite accurately. Realizing his had let his focus drift, Silv quickly re-focused on his victim just in time for the Iodat to strike at his chest, and Silv instinctively blocked with his other hand as he brought his wings down for the killing strike.
An instant later and the room filled with an unearthly shriek as Silv’s wings shattered on Az’traal’s hastily erected telekinetic barrier, the organo-metallic feathers raining down in pieces as the Icarian looked on in horrified silence. Flinging his arms outward, Az’traal transformed the solid wall of air he had used as a shield back into a gas, blasting Silv back into the particle accelerator behind him as the remaining fragments of wing were sent flying into the corners of the room. Before the security director could recover from the unexpected assault, Az’traal brought his hands back together straight in front of him, telekinetically throwing two supply crates at his opponent.
“You do not understand, I do not require combat experience, I just have to out-think you.” Az’traal said flatly as he telekinetically lifted the broken pulse generator up to eye level. “You were using your only free hand to hold me, meaning that you would automatically block my strike with the hand holding this nasty little piece of work.”
“Fine…” Silv wheezed as he pushed the crates off him. “I didn’t want to do this, but you are a persistent kreten…” the Third Guard continued as he pulled out his weapon, only to have it forcibly wretched from his hand and go sailing across the aisle into Az’traal’s waiting hand.
“You people and guns, must you always use such clumsy weapons as a last resort?” Az’traal commented scathingly as he threw the distortion rail gun across the room before turning back to the security director. “Make no mistake; you cannot harm me now, not now that I can use my powers. Now then, one way or another you are going to tell me exactly what you and your lackeys are doing here. Tell me willingly and I will just turn you over to the authorities.”
“We’re just doing our jobs, making sure no one finds out about the conference.” Silv grated out as he felt himself being pressed back into the floor by a giant telekinetic wall. “Nothing more, I only came down here to warn you about the dangerous lab equipment here. If you hadn’t attacked me I simply would have escorted you back to the conference.”
“You know, if you are going to lie you may as well make it a convincing one.” Az’traal said as he rolled his eyes and lifted the Icarian off the floor before slamming him into the particle accelerator. “Now, last chance: what are you doing here?”
Struggling feebly in his adversary’s grip, Silv thought desperately about how he might escape and turn the situation to his advantage. Unfortunately, the Rosin races were powerful beings; a fact evident in the vast empire they alone had created and maintained since it had been founded over five hundred thousand years ago. In a one-on-one fight, no race had stood a chance, most had capitulated after only a few years of war against the Rosin Union, only the alliances had held out longer thanks to larger resource pools to draw from. There had only been one way to escape them… an option Silv had hoped he would never have to choose.
“No!” the Icarian yelled loudly as he snatched a flash bang grenade out of his belt and detonated it, temporarily breaking the Iodat’s hold on him as Az’traal instinctively pulled his focus back to protecting himself. Silv quickly flipped onto the particle accelerator before making a run for it. This distraction would not last long, it might not have even granted him enough time to reach his opponent, much less kill him. He could not let the information he knew become public knowledge, he had only one option…
Az’traal recoiled in horror as the Icarian threw himself straight into the event horizon of the wormhole, sacrificing himself to be torn apart by the primal forces of existence which had been breached to create the folded space. The entire energy conduit convulsed as the matter that entered it disrupted the rhythm of the swirling energies, and then the flows of energy returned to normal as the monitors registered a sudden spike in power indicative of the man being turned into energy to reinforce the wormhole. Shaken by the security director’s actions, Az’traal collapsed to the floor in shock, staring blankly at the vortex of energy for several seconds before he finally came back to his senses and forced himself to his feet. Whatever was going on here with the security guards was something major, Az’traal was sure of it now, but he did not have the evidence he needed to prove it or even solidly confirm his suspicions. His colleagues in the auditorium would never believe him without conclusive proof, if he said anything now he would be dismissed out of hand as paranoid and incapable of fitting in with normal society. Best that he sealed these memories for later he concluded as he took a deep breath and locked his recent memories away in his subconscious for later retrieval.
As he opened his eyes a few seconds later, Az’traal at first felt an odd sensation of disorientation, he had somehow ended up several yards away from the readout he had been examining. Thinking back on how this had occurred, he noticed cleaner robots scurrying about the room cleaning up what appeared to be feathers made out of some metal/ organic compound. As he tried to think about what might have happened though, he began to get a distinct feeling that he should just leave it be for now and he suddenly realized what had happened: something horrible had occurred here and he had not wanted to deal with the memories at present.
“In that case, I should probably just head back up to the conference…” Az’traal said slowly as he walked to the laboratory entrance and meandered out into the hall outside. Once outside, he did a quick check of the continuing debate in the auditorium, sighing in frustration as he found that they were still a ways off from reaching a final consensus. At least they were still ignoring the “him” that he had left in the room so he still had time to burn. May as well go grab something to eat, Az’traal concluded; after all, what fun was there in listening to a lecture on an empty stomach?

Having had a thoroughly enjoyable caff break, Kya sat back down at her station and then turned to face Gena as the other woman sat down. Normally the disruption to normal computer functions would have ended by now, but Gena had added a few minutes onto the timer to give Silv time to finish off the Iodat and clean up any mess that might be left over.
“How long until normal functioning?” Kya asked as she set her newly filled cup of caff on her station.
“Twelve seconds looks like.” Gena said after she finished taking a long drink of her caff.
“Probably a good call in setting up extra time on the nullifier, Silv will definitely be grateful.” Kya said as the static on the screens cleared to reveal that the foldspace laboratory was empty.
“Wow, he works fast.” Gena said appreciatively as she surveyed the remarkably clean room. “Although I suppose the automatic cleaning system helps too.”
“I don’t know; something is off…” Kya said as she spotted the tell tale dents and cracks that indicated a struggle of some sort had taken place. “I think I’m going to call and see if he is alright…”
“Careful, you might offend him; you know how touchy he can be.”
“Don’t worry; I’ve got a good way to phrase it.” Kya said with a smile as she tapped her collar to activate the comlink built in to her uniform there. “Kya to Director Silv, I have a report for you.” However, only empty silence occasionally broken by a burst of static greeted her call. Wondering if maybe his comlink had been damaged during the fight, Kya quickly nodded to Gena, who quickly ran a search for Director Silv. A second later, the other woman sadly shook her head, confirming Kya’s suspicions.
“What about the Iodat?” Kya asked after a quiet moment.
“In the food court.”
“Contact headquarters; let them know that something has happened to Director Silv, full report to follow after we have investigated. Tell the guard detachments on the fifteenth through twenty-fifth floors to investigate the foldspace lab.” Kya said stoically as the others working in the station hurried to call the appropriate guards or their headquarters.

Chapter Six
Az’traal happily hummed to himself as he made his way back to the auditorium after having a wonderful lunch courtesy of the Academia food court. Granted, the company had been somewhat lacking, but then again many of the scientists who worked here in the complex were at the conference and those that were not at the conference had been given the day off. Probably to better control the flow of people through the complex and prevent an accidental security breach.
In any case, he had sensed that the debates in the auditorium were finally drawing to a close, meaning that the assembly would soon be discussing more important issues again. He found that he was actually looking forward to discussing more of the project that he would be working on, whether he could stand he co-workers would be an entirely different matter though. Best not to make it rain before the storm actually started though he hastily reminded himself; maybe tempers and attitudes would be mellowed by the import of their project. Being pessimistic about the future would only make it worse if the worst came to pass, to say nothing about how it would dampen any joy felt while things were going well.
Having given himself his own little pep talk, Az’traal walked up to the guards watching the entrance to the auditorium, nodding to each with an exaggerated beatific smile on his face as he entered the cavernous hall. Quickly re-establishing his psychic cloak before anyone noticed his entrance, he calmly walked toward his seat, taking note of the various pieces of shredded fabric and I.D. cards that lay strewn about in the aisles. Maybe he had been remiss in leaving when the debates first started; it looked like he had missed quite the brawl. Then again, things looked pretty calm now so the actual fighting had probably not lasted long. Better that he should enjoy an intellectually stimulating examination of the physics behind foldspace artifacts than enjoy a fight that might have only lasted a couple minutes Az’traal concluded as he took his seat, replacing the illusion he had left behind.
As he settled comfortably into his chair, he quickly took a look around at the assemblage, noting that only a couple heated debates were still in progress, primarily among the physicists. That was to be expected though, considering that there were so many of them here, it would be a wonder if they actually finished their debate in some form of timely fashion. Az’traal was willing to bet that they would not. At least not here at this conference. As if on cue, he noticed the speaker wearily wander out onto the stage and take his formal place behind the podium.
“May I have your attention please?” the man boomed out across the room, instantly drawing everyone’s focus to him. “I know that you have not yet finalized who is going to central group of researchers, but we only have a limited amount of time here today, so we need to continue on. Now then, where was I…? Ah, yes, the project itself. As I said earlier, this conference was called to determine if such a project is practical. While you presented some of the problems the project would face, you still have not answered the core issue at stake here: can it be done? I don’t need a simple yes or no, but some kind of confirmation would be nice.”
“It should be possible to complete the project within the desired parameters Mr. Speaker.” The elf next to Az’traal said melodically. “Certain measures will need to be taken to prevent contamination from outside sources and rigorous checking of the matrices that serve as the template for this new universe will be required, but nothing beyond the scope of current technology will be needed. Just simple refinements really.”
“Excellent, we are most pleased to hear that. Please consult among yourselves and submit your requirements to the Academia Council within a week and we will do our best to have the equipment and facilities ready as soon as possible. Hopefully within a month we will be able to start the project itself. Now then, moving on, we can discuss in detail how the basic formation matrix could be constructed, after which we will be discussing the use of zero point energy with a magic field…”

First Guard Graystar slammed his fist down on his desk in frustration and outrage, the number of crises which he was now facing was something he had never expected. True, the espionage teams had finally tapped into the auditorium and were relaying the events inside, but that brought Lunos little comfort. First off, the government was sponsoring a project to create an entirely new universe; a violation of the natural order that tampered in realms mortals were not meant to tamper with and that would certainly disrupt the balance between the forces. Destroy was actually probably more accurate rather than disrupt…
Then, adding to the joy that was this debacle, Third Guard Silv had gone and gotten himself killed, leaving the Four Guards without a field commander. Even worse, he had given an Iodat a clue about the existence of some form of conspiracy, something which would be the death knell of the Four Guards. The Iodat were psychics, nothing could be hidden from them forever, and it was only a matter of time before he discovered everything. Eliminating him outright was not an option since his teams had picked up enough scientists griping about how the Iodat was guaranteed a premier spot on the project. This left the Four Guards with quite a conundrum: in order to get rid of the Iodat they would have to stop the project so no one would notice his disappearance. However, in order to stop the project they had to eliminate Az’traal first or he would immediately figure out what was going on. Taking out both simultaneously was certainly an option, but a difficult one at best, considering that they still had no idea where the projects would be taking place… Probably the best option would be to arrange for some form of accident to happen to Az’traal since his death would prevent the project from proceeding as planned. Without him regulating the stability of how the mind interacted with the matrix, the government would have to put the project on hold indefinitely. True, that would mean that the Rosin Union would just have to carry on without such a momentous accomplishment, but it was not necessary to proclaim their superiority with such relatively useless baubles.
Then again, an entirely fresh, new universe held enormous potential in terms of untapped resources. Resources which could greatly enhance the well-being of the Union… Then again, to sacrifice the long-term survivability of their universe for another was unacceptable to Lunos. Even if stopping this project meant the end of the Rosin Union, it still was inconsequential compared to the balance. Nothing was more important than the balance…
“Second Guard!” Lunos bellowed as a Thesin hurried toward him in response to his summons.
“Yes sir?” the lanky minotaur-like being asked as he straightened his light gray business suit before taking a seat off to one side of Lunos’ desk.
“I want you to take care of the Iodat, prevent him from interfering with our operations by whatever means you deem necessary. With that in mind though, I do not want unwelcome media coverage of his demise.”
“But First Guard, I’m not like most of my species, I’m not built for combat…” Second Guard Rinth countered in a shrill voice.
“This is why I want you to arrange for an accident, not fight him.” Lunos said in an exasperated tone. “You’re our professional analyst, so analyze his routines and find a way to dispose of him.”
“But surely Third Guard Silv was thinking of making it look like an accident and look what happened to him!” Rinth whined, his nasal voice fraying Lunos’ last nerve.
“You hesten coward! Do as you’re told for once and don’t whine about it!” Lunos shouted, verbally venting his wrath on the slight Thesin before he calmed down and continued in a calmer tone. “Silv made the mistake of trying to take care of the Iodat immediately. That is something that history has taught us you cannot do. You must be sneaky and patient, take your time and think things through. You will find a way; you always have once you actually got down to business.”
“But…”
“Just go, before you fray the nerves I don’t have…” Lunos said firmly, waving the Thesin out of his office. Again he wondered how the cowardly man had managed to attain such a high position in the Four Guards, especially under his watch. Then again, he had to remind himself of just how dangerous the Thesin really was, going from meek bureaucrat to murderous manipulator in an instant, as if he had some kind of switch inside that turned his true nature on and off. True, in any fair fight Rinth was more likely to lose than win, but he had a knack for arranging brutal assassinations that looked completely innocuous to investigators and that made him valuable. For a moment Lunos considered that the Iodat might be part of some plan to kill Silv, since he knew that the Thesin and the former Icarian had not been on good terms. He dismissed the possibility as quickly as he had thought of it though; the assassin part of Rinth considered Silv to be a valuable tool and body shield and therefore was loath to waste such a useful ‘tool.’ Disposing of him while he was still useful was simply not something the venomous little manipulator would do. This line of reasoning took Lunos to a dark place though, especially since he could not be sure that Rinth did not view him the same way: as a tool to be used and discarded in time.
If that were true though, Rinth would likely use the Iodat as the means to eliminate him if anything. After all, he was the best fighter in the Four Guards and, given that the Iodat had killed Silv, it would only make sense to pit the two of them together. He would have to be prepared for such a possibility; if Rinth made such a move it would mean that he had managed to secure enough support to seize the title of First Guard for himself. For twelve years now he had managed to keep Rinth under control, he could not let this Iodat shift the balance of power within the organization. After all, like the balance of existence, the Four Guards also had a balance of power within their organization: each of the four leaders acted as a kind of representation of one of the forces. In his position as First Guard, Lunos represented Order, Rinth epitomized Chaos and Silv had symbolized Strife. That was why the any of the other leaders could not take over another’s position, it represented imbalance. If Chaos gained the upper hand and became the First Guard then everything they had worked for would fall apart, it already would be difficult to keep the balance represented unless Silv was replaced. Unfortunately the Third Guard had trained no one to fill in should something befall him, meaning that Lunos had to find a replacement. At the same time, he probably needed to deploy his enforcers throughout the ranks to quell any insurrections Rinth might lead, send out his agents to begin disrupting this Project Infinium and tell his protégé to find a safe place to hide until Rinth had been dealt with. What a mess this would be…

Rinth walked out of the First Guard’s office with a sour expression on his face that changed to a maniacal smirk after he made sure the hall outside was empty. Lunos probably did not even realize the opportunity he had handed him! This Iodat would be the perfect tool to bring down not only the First Guard but the entire utopian state of the Union. And the sweet irony of using an Iodat to do so was not lost on him… after all, according to legends the Iodat had acted as a kind of regulatory force on Rosin, culling psychopaths and sociopaths like him from the general populace, viewing them as an affront to sentient beings. What did they do with those they collected? Well, the legends said that they used their psychic abilities to heal the broken minds of those they captured, turning them into normal people. Without them though, people like him could now exist, but they were repressed, forced to conform to the norms of society by the oppressive blanket of utopia.
Now though, he had been given free license to deploy his special agents throughout the Rosin Sphere to eliminate a single target, hypothetically by means of an arranged accident. But innocent people could get hurt if those accidents should become widespread cataclysms. The tight leash Lunos kept on him and his department was always a concern, but the death of Silv had ironically provided him the clearance he needed to cause mass havoc. Lunos would be too busy trying to manage his own department, Silv’s department and trying to find a replacement for Silv to notice what Rinth was actually up to. Of course the man was paranoid, Rinth had always hinted subtly that he wanted the position of First Guard and Lunos was keen enough to fall into the trap but not keen enough to recognize it as a distraction. He would consider the possibly of Rinth using this opportunity to overthrow him and so long as that kept him distracted he would be overwhelmed by the sheer number of tasks he had to regulate.
As he walked into his own tower, Rinth suddenly burst out laughing at the perfection of it all: his agents would have to be careful, but he could finally show his true self to the universe. Without pause, he quickly hurried to the barracks where his Pandemonium Enforcers stayed, eager to inform them that their time had come. The end of their dystopia began now.

This is Copyright 2008 to me

As before, any constructive critique or feedback on what you think of the story is appreciated and welcome.

Next Section (Warning Very Long!)

[NightWing]

You have a very interesting a convoluted plot unfolding here, I'm enjoying this immensely. Only complaint I'd be able to give is that there are occasional spaces where I think you're missing a word or something, but that's to be expected. An example in this most recent piece:

Near the end of the first large chunk of chapter six:
“I know that you have not yet finalized who is going to central group of researchers,
I think you're missing a word or two in there

No one's perfect, the occasional mechanical error is expected. Most of them are minor enough they're hardly noticable anyway.

All in all, very nice work thus far. Sorry to have rushed you on that last bit, the cliffhanger was bugging me... >_>

[Lord Rend]

No problem, you did not really rush me since I had extra time yesterday, so I prefer to think that it was additional motivation .
Thank you for pointing out the missing words, I will read back through and see what I can find and fix. Thankfully I will have plenty of time with the upcoming break to write and edit, which is a good thing.

[NightWing]

Well that's good. I like your perspective better xD

No problem. It's nothing major and there aren't many, but they do exist.

[Lord Rend]

Previous Section

Chapter Seven
After an additional five and a half hours of discussion, the conference was finally over, the assembled scientists released to take care of any further business they needed to. This, in Az’traal’s case, meant that he really had nothing to do besides talk to his fellow scientists, well, besides head home. Talking to someone actually seemed like a more interesting option he concluded as he scanned the slowly moving mass of scholars headed for the exit. Talking to any of the physicists would be pointless; they were still fighting among themselves over who should be on the project. Maybe talking to an elf would be rewarding, the one he had sat next to seemed to be a good option in truth and he quickly picked her out of the crowd.
“Hello,” he said evenly as he approached the elf. “I want to thank you for letting me sit next to you earlier.”
“Oh… really?” the elf said as a slight embarrassed flush spread across her cheeks.
“Yes, considering my people’s reputation, a refusal on your part would have been understandable. I thank you for that generosity.” Az’traal said as he bowed slightly.
“You seemed rather defensive of your people during the conference…” she replied, eyes narrowing in suspicion and confusion. Az’traal knew that many people were unfamiliar with Iodat social customs, preferring to focus instead on their military exploits; hence they expected Iodat to be blunt, brutal and aggressive in all their interactions. It was time to try to change that again.
“Well, you know what dealing with Elementals is like…” he responded with a haphazard shrug of his shoulders. “They tend to be very blunt and confrontational when speaking to others, particularly the Iodat. You know what they say: an Elemental would find a way to offend a mountain if it could hear them.” At this comment, he was pleased to actually hear the elf laugh. True, it was a nervous laugh, but it was an indication that she was beginning to enjoy the conversation, even if she felt like she should not be.
“You have a point there; those Elementals can certainly be a bit block-headed at times.” She said with a grin as Az’traal snickered at the elegant joke. “By the way, my name is Feren Vernal.”
“Az’traal.” He answered, extending a hand, claws retracted, forward in greeting. “Although if you prefer, you can call me either Az or Traal, I know my full name can make others uncomfortable given the history between our peoples.”
“Thank you, I know from my cultural studies that the Iodat hate having their formal and given names separated.” Feren said softly but with an odd tone to her voice, as if she found the concept of having a normal conversation with an Iodat to be something mythical.
“It is no problem, I really do not mind.” Az’traal said, hoping he could keep the conversation going. “So, did the others acknowledge your right to be on the main project? I was meditating so I really could not pay attention to what was going on around me.”
“Oh, yes,” Feren said happily as she actually moved closer to Az’traal so they could hold an actual conversation. “My research on how foldspace and space-time distortions affected the enzymes of living creatures cinched it for me. No one else had done anything remotely close to a study of that kind and considering the nature of our project, that kind of knowledge is exactly what’s needed.”
“Congratulations.” Az’traal said, sweeping an arm done the aisle to indicate that they should probably get moving before the slow tide of the crowd crushed them. “Although we should probably leave before the debate between the physicists gets heated up.”
“You’re probably right; still, you can walk with me, since I see no reason to end our conversation just because those silly physicists can’t reach a decision.”
“It is the quantum theories they uphold. They get so used to thinking of the particle and wave nature of light or something similarly contradictory that they start applying the same method of thinking to real life.” Az’traal commented.
“How so?” Feren asked her confusion evident.
“They start arguing for and against their own cause.” Az’traal said with a smile as Feren clapped a hand over her mouth to dampen a loud outburst of laughter. At her priceless expression Az’traal started laughing as well, his laughter a bit quieter than hers due to the nature of his vocal chords.
“You know,” Feren said at last after she had calmed down, “I never thought that meaning an Iodat would be such a pleasant experience. If you’ll pardon the expression.”
“No problem.” Az’traal said seriously, sensing how the conversation was shifting from light-hearted small talk to something more serious.
“Are you doing anything this evening? If not, I’d really like to go out to dinner; maybe get to know my fellow scientists a bit better.”
“I would be happy to accept your invitation, what time and place?”
“How about ten o’clock at the Beyond the Sun Café? They don’t close until midnight so that gives us a good four hours or so to talk before they kick us out.”
“Sound like a plan, I will meet you and the others there then?” Az’traal said, silently hoping that she was not just setting him up for a fall.
“Yes, we’ll meet you there. Now don’t forget, ten o’clock.” Feren said before she walked off down a side corridor, waving back at him over her shoulder.

Half an hour later, Az’traal arrived at his penthouse apartment, quickly taking off his headset and plugging it into the UnionNet synchronization port. While his headset did have a satellite uplink to a power station, the UnionNet had so much information added on a daily basis that plugging it into a land line was the only practical means of keeping the digital library up-to-date since faster than light transmissions could not be made through air. As his supercomputer began downloading the additional data files, Az’traal walked through his living room to his bedroom, quickly reviewing what all he needed to do before he left for the café this evening. Right now he had four hours to spare, so taking care of those sealed memories would probably be a good idea… Afterwards he would need to bathe and check up on his most recent experiment before he caught the warp train to the café, which if memory served was in Sector 10056-alpha. Quickly calling up a schematic of the Rosin Sphere, he quickly searched for and found the appropriate sector: nearly a third of the way around the shell from him. Only a few trains had that much reach without a short layover in a station somewhere, he would need to leave with at least a good thirty minutes to spare to make sure that he arrived on time. Major restaurants like the Beyond the Sun Café usually had jump tubes connecting them with the nearest train stations, so it would take him five minutes at most to reach the establishment itself. After some thought, he reserved a ticket for the nine twenty train running from Sector 31947-theta to 10056-alpha.
With that taken care of, he now focused his attention on something of equal importance: his sealed memories. Taking a deep breath, he walked from his bedroom to a special meditation chamber located in what normally would be a study. Around the circular chamber crystalline plants, relics from Pyrocaustic before it had been used as raw material to build the Rosin Sphere, formed a ring of deep red around the dimly-lit room. This ring was broken only at the far arc of the room where a single statue of Lord Astrel stood. Lord Astrel, though not a deity, was deeply revered by the Iodat as the First Iodat. He had been the one to teach the Iodat about their psychic abilities and had protected them when their brother race, the Ioda, had tried to wipe out the Iodat due to jealousy. For millennia he had guided them from his throne in Castle Pandemonium, never overtly ruling them, only advising. Then the terrible day had come when Lord Astrel’s peers had turned on him and attacked the Iodat, forcing Astrel to sacrifice himself to expel the intruders and their armies. His actions had cut the link that connected Pyrocaustic and Rosin for over five hundred years, until the last lingering wisps of his power dissipated and the portal had opened once more. In honor of his sacrifice, Az’traal’s family had changed their last name to Az and ensured that in every generation there would at least be one child named Traal, although the middle name was always different so no one would have any numbers associated with their name.
Then, when the Iodat had rejoined the greater community of Rosin as part of the Rosin Republic, controversy had immediately erupted over what role Astrel had played in the conflict. Most of the races, each supported by one of Astrel’s peers, had claimed that Astrel was a lunatic who had instigated the war. The Iodat had never heard of such a ridiculous claim, if Astrel had wanted to fight the other races, he would have prepared the Iodat for war. The debate had raged for nearly four hundred years, at which point the Rosin Union was established and all prior history was supposedly erased. Real life however, did not allow loose ends to be neatly wrapped up and forgotten completely, students of history continued the debate and their disputes eventually became public knowledge again. Though public bias was no longer allowed, many still retained that information, continuing to sour relations between the Iodat and the other races for the past five hundred thousand years since the Union had been founded.
He had not come here to contemplate society though he reminded himself as he swept the distracting thoughts from his mind and grabbed his heavy Founder’s cloak. The cloak had been worn by the Founder’s caste in ancient Iodat society, one of the four castes that made up the major components of Iodat civilization. The Founders had been the most powerful psychics, wholly dedicated to aiding the other Iodat and preserving traditions by serving as the judicial branch of the government, serving the Exalted ruling caste, the Guard military caste and the Artisan general caste as well as Astrel. They had been unique as the only caste you had to be invited to join; all the other castes allowed free entry of any who wanted to join their ranks. Even though he was a Founder by right of invitation, Az’traal only wore the cloak while here in his meditation chamber; it would not serve him to wear it elsewhere.
“Okay, now to see what I sealed.” Az’traal said as he took a few calming breaths and delved deep into his own mind. As he opened his eyes a few seconds later, he found himself sitting in the middle of a brilliantly illuminated plaza surrounded by deep sapphire blue buildings and glowing plant life, a clear sign he was in the Astral Plane inside the ‘city’ that represented his own mind. Slowly, he stood, making sure that his astral avatar was fully linked to both his physical body and the mindscape around him. Finding that it was, he walked over to a nearby building, studying the ripples that moved beneath its perfectly smooth surface, the effect was like looking at the surface of a lake from behind a pane of glass. The only difference was that these ripples actually moved through the glass without distorting its surface. After studying the ripples for a second, he pressed his palm on the surface of the structure and the wall disappeared to reveal a staircase winding down into the depths below him. Without hesitation, he walked down the stairs into his subconscious, where he found himself in a vast dark vault where a large silvery sphere floated above a pool of illusionary water. As he approached the sphere, distorted images, warped by the curved surface of the orb, flashed before him and jumbled sounds filled the chamber. Within were his sealed memories, and by the looks of it they were of some kind of fight between himself and an Icarian. Even though he knew he could just wait to re-assimilate these memories, he did remember that they were linked to something of great import, a connection that had been made during that fight. Bracing himself for the worst, Az’traal stepped forward into the sphere and vanished.

Approximately an hour later, Az’traal woke up from his meditation, his mind thinking back on what he had re-experienced. Many interesting and unsettling conclusions could be drawn from the man’s actions, and he was certain that he had not heard the last of this Bastion Incorporated. No doubt they had an agenda that went beyond mere security concerns, and Project Infinium would definitely be a part of that agenda considering the power it represented. For a moment he was tempted to simply report this to the central government and let them handle the mess, but he had no solid proof as he had concluded earlier. In time, he could build a case however, he thought to himself as he hung his cloak up and headed across his bedroom to the bathroom for a bath. Perhaps then it was a good thing that Bastion would come after him again, not all of them would be as resilient to mental attacks as the one had been. Eventually he would get the information he needed to bring this group down.
As he began rinsing out his mane in preparation for his actual bath, he contemplated the emotional impact of his experience. Like most Iodat, his emotions were ‘muted,’ a defense mechanism that prevented him from being overwhelmed by any strong emotions that his empathy might automatically pick up. Such was the problem with Iodat empathy, while they normally had to consciously focus to use it, stronger emotions such as love or hate were automatically picked up. Of course, that was also the reason why the Iodat had a ‘danger sense’ so he could not complain too much. As a result of this, the Iodat rarely felt emotion that they expressed, only sudden bursts of emotion or very intense feelings managed to make them feel anything. This was not to say they did not understand emotions, indeed quite the opposite was true, but the muting process generally kept their thinking unimpeded by trivial emotions. Another benefit was that they found it easier than many races to overcome emotional shock, such as what Az’traal had felt when the Icarian had killed himself by leaping into the wormhole’s event horizon. Already he had made peace with himself about the entire incident and accepted that what had happened could not have been prevented by him unless he had mind-controlled the man. That was not such a good option though, not to mention one fraught with ethical complications.
Having finished with his mane, Az’traal stepped into the bath and began scrubbing out his fur and scales as he continued his thought process. True, he could have mind controlled the man, but the problem with that was that there were only two basic ways to mind control someone that had been discovered: the slow way or the fast way. The slow way involved using a mental probe to follow the flow of the target’s thoughts and then begin implanting dissident thoughts in their thought process until the two became so muddled that a simple nudge in the proper direction put them under your complete control. This method generally took a minute or two to complete, depending on the skill and power of the Iodat and the strength of the target’s will. The fast way, while nearly instantaneous, was generally used as a way to kill someone and involved the Iodat leveling such a massive psychic assault on the victim that the target’s mind was destroyed. Without the Iodat telling them to do something the person would just lie there on the ground as a motionless, drooling husk until they expired. Again, the effectiveness of this method depended greatly on the skill and power of the Iodat and the strength of the target’s willpower. Both were rather permanent if they succeeded, although victims of a slow mind control could have their minds reconstructed eventually, though they would never be quite the same afterwards. In fact, both methods were so brutal that Az’traal had initially refused to learn how to use them and it was only after he learned the conditions that had lead to the creation of such techniques that he understood their purpose. While both techniques could be used in self defense or in protecting one’s family, their original intent had been a means to reform people with critically damaged minds. They were meant to either erase the harmful remnants of their broken mind or to understand what was left so they could pull those mind shards together into a cohesive working mind. Both methods had been discovered by accident and both had been deemed as failures for obvious reasons, but they had served as a platform on which other, more effective techniques could be built.
So mind control was not an option at all, although body control or illusions might have been. Well, mistakes happen in the midst of combat, and the past was the past. He was not a Nekran, he did not have the ability to alter time and mistakes were simply a part of life that he had to live with.
Somewhere along the line he had let his mind wander he suddenly realized as he bolted out of the bath, quickly checking the time to make sure that he was not running late. To his relief, he saw that he still had an hour and forty-five minutes before he needed to leave. Plenty of time to check on his latest experiment and change into something more formal to wear. Or was the cafe they were eating at more casual? Perhaps he should call up the information display for the restaurant... that would have clothing recommendations. Most of the time they did, with the exception being the ever popular Nilattire chain of restaurants, but that was for good reason. That particular franchise served a rather exclusive brand of customers who believed that even casual wear was too formal. Eating in whatever you wanted to ranging from tuxedos and swimsuits to beyond was their exclusive claim to fame and, as far as Az'traal was concerned, it could stay exclusive.
With an exasperated grunt, he finished brushing his fur and mane then started cleaning his horns as he telekinetically pulled several outfits before him. Generally he did not spend this much time worrying about what he wore, with the exception of his cloak and a couple other outfits all his clothes were traditional Iodatan apparel: a loose, v-necked, long-sleeved white undershirt with loose, white ankle-length pants combined with a dark red tabard-like over-vest and a darker red wrap belt. Shoes were unnecessary, even if he could find shoes that fit, his legs from the knee down were draconic and covered in thick scales which provided all the protection his feet needed normally. However, these traditional garments probably would either be too formal or not formal enough, given that they were considered to be about equivalent to wearing a three piece suit and tie with the overcoat removed. Then again, they were comfortable...
"Since when do I care what others think of what I wear?" Az'traal chuckled aloud as he put away all but one of his outfits. "At least it is better than going to extremes and then finding out that the exact opposite apparel was the one that you should have chosen." He concluded as he finished scrubbing his horns with the special cleaner that removed dirt, dust and discolorations on the keratin surface of both his horns. He quickly checked in the mirror to make sure that both horns were a dark matte grey and that none of his mane had gotten wrapped around them. Finding them to be satisfactory, he quickly dressed himself and walked out through his bedroom and living room to his lab entrance, quickly donning his lab coat as he entered his work area. Truthfully, his work rarely required him to protect himself with clothing like a lab coat, but the extra pocket space was greatly appreciated since he could store personal hand-held computer pads in any of the pockets, allowing him to take notes at a moment's notice. As if the surveillance drones that constantly monitored his lab would miss anything, but he still wanted a hand-typed account of his observations in his own words as soon as he saw something. His work depended on there being others besides passive neutral observers like the drones.
This experiment in particular was important as he was studying how astral matter, a combination of physical matter and thought, reacted to a purely physical environment. To say that the experiment was interesting would be a gross understatement; he had actually observed the astral matter altering the fabric of space-time around itself when it was exposed to mental stimuli. It was almost as if one's perceptions created minute disturbances in reality, not enough to affect the basic forces underlying existence, but it did alter some constants. If that were true, that meant that, at least to some degree, reality could be altered by the thoughts and actions of sentient beings other than psionics. He was curious as to the extent of that alteration, but in his psychically isolated lab, only his thoughts affected the astral matter. Maybe if more perceptions were focused through the matter the effect would be greater, maybe even reaching the point where the thoughts could change everything about reality. That conclusion held some disturbing implications though; if the thoughts and actions of people could alter the nature of the universe they resided in, what would the end result of the Rosin Union's ennui be? Would their boredom and lack of motivation to do anything productive eventually slow the processes necessary to maintain their universe. He suspected that, given a long enough time period, the Astral Plane would cause such an outcome, but he had no proof and no thoughts on how he could even conduct an experiment to prove his hypothesis. Even if he did prove it, what could be the purpose of such a paradigm?
The only explanation he could think of was the recently emerging field of meta-physics, an outbranch of quantum physics that sought to explain the errors in the unified equation. According to meta-physics, not all the forces that influenced the fabric of reality had a physical existence, beyond even the quantum foam that underlay everything was something that was a constant that the quantum foam was merely an expression of. Or at least Az'traal thought that was the basic concept of meta-physics, the theory was so esoteric that only one or two people in the entire Union even knew how to define it. Still, even with such limited understanding, the study of meta-physics had already produced an explanation explaining how the Higgs field that gave particles mass existed. Even thinking about it gave Az'traal a headache though; their equations were so tentative that they had to be equations of equations of equations unto infinity just to explain a general relationship. Add in that those equations were determined by accounting for absolutely every physical and dimensional variable and it took years just to determine the proper equation to use for explaining any phenomenon. Of course, his research might provide a shortcut, if he could ever fully objectify the subjective nature of his experiments.
With a slight smirk at that obstacle that he still needed to overcome, Az'traal leaned forward to examine the experiment and quickly began making his observations about how the astral matter was currently reacting with the static warped space shell he had encased it in. He had found that the astral matter was more readily accelerated to hyper-light speeds than normal matter depending on the stimuli affecting it. It also seemed to somewhat fuse with the warped space itself, creating distortions in the field. Az'traal was at a loss to explain it.
"Well, that is one mystery that is not going to be solved tonight." He concluded as he straightened up and put his observation pad back in his pocket. He then pulled out his procedure notes from another pocket and examined them, quickly finding where he had left off in the procedure. The next step in his experiment involved tuning the vibrational frequencies of the warped space to match brainwave patterns to see if his hypothesis was correct. There would be time enough for that tomorrow though he decided as he headed out of the lab and into the living room.
Unsurprisingly, his observations had only taken about twenty minutes of his time, leaving him with nothing pressing to take care of over the next seventy-five minutes. Then again, aside from research and governmental functions, there was never anything pressing or crucial to do in the Union. Az'traal shook his head, annoyed at how often he reiterated things in his head, but the truth was that there was nothing else to do. A wonderland of endless leisure delights got boring pretty fact after all, hence why his mind tended to focus on the problems that he could not solve; like the state of himself and the Rosin Union. Both required the involvement of others to fully resolve and that fact kept him thinking on how he might overcome that limitation. Again he grunted in frustration.
"Since I cannot occupy myself with trivial thoughts, I need to absorb myself in something so I stop running in circles mentally. A walk in the water garden should be sufficiently entrancing." He murmured as he grabbed an umbrella from his coat rack. After all, the weather control matrix in the Rosin Sphere was programmed to produce rainstorms for thirty minutes at eight o'clock every night in order to keep the walkway gardens watered and wash the walkways themselves clean. As if it was necessary... but people liked the sound of rain on the windows; combined with the perfect weather the rest of the time, it enhanced the feelings of euphoria they felt.
Using the umbrella like an old-fashioned gentleman's cane, he walked out his front door and down the hall to where the elevators were, quickly entering the floor number of street level as he walked into an available lift. With no one else calling for an elevator currently, the lift only took about a minute to descend the four hundred floors between his penthouse and the highest street level where the water gardens were. As the lift stopped, Az'traal walked quickly across the lobby and out into the refreshingly cool, crisp air outside. Like always, it was a perfect night for a walk he concluded as he opened his umbrella, activating the force fields that repelled the rain away from him. Humming a bit of a tune, he set off for his destination, hoping he could reach the gardens before the rain stopped for the night.

Chapter Eight
Az'traal stared blankly out the monorail's panoramic windows as the cityscape before him streaked by at warp speed. In truth, it was the train's own velocity that was faster than the speed of light, driven by a hyperlight engine that was modulated to create only a localized warp bubble around the monorail itself. Regardless of the method, the trains were the only efficient means of traversing the vast distances inside the Dyson spheres of the Rosin Union, the sublight trains simply could not run fast enough nor were numerous enough to carry people anywhere except inbetween individual building complexes. The disadvantage was that you really could not enjoy the scenery outside the train, the blurs that flashed by blended together too much to allow anything to be seen. So, to bid his time, he quickly calculated the time it would take to traverse the distance between the two sectors, arriving at an approximate answer of ten and a half minutes given that the train averaged lightspeed throughout its journey.
Soon enough, his journey was over and Az'traal headed for the exit on his car, remembering to grab his umbrella as he made his way to the exit. Stepping out of the train, he found himself in a vast open air monorail station with at least one hundred rails running through trenches in the floor. To allow for pedestrian traffic there were several staircases, escalators and elevators connecting this train bay level to concourses above and below him. These connected to more departure and arrival levels above and below them, making the station into a transportation megalith with over four thousand train levels servicing over half a million trains. If he wanted to, he could probably look over the railing on his level and see all the way down to the bottom level located about thirty miles below him, but he really did not feel like experiencing a severe case of vertigo just before eating. Instead, he made his way across the crowded platform to where he knew the jump tubes would be located.
Pushing his way through the crowd, he quickly spotted the jump tube terminals for his level and climbed into one of the transparent bubble-like spheres that served to carry passengers through the high speed environment of the jump tubes. While not anywhere near lightspeed, the jump tubes did carry their passengers at speeds reaching about half the speed of light, far beyond the terminal velocity of most species; hence the need for some form of protection. He quickly climbed inside and entered his destination, then waited while the on-board computer transmitted that information to the station mainframe. A second later, the computer announced that a jump tube had been reserved for the Beyond of Sun Cafe and any others wishing to go there had two minutes to board before the jump tube activated.
Given that it was around dinner time, Az'traal was not too surprised when a couple families joined him, one of the little girls with them gently tugging on his tail in curiosity as he smiled kindly at her. The child shrieked happily and tried to drag his tail back over to show her mother, only to look at her hand with amazement when he tugged it free of her grasp. A moment later she started jumping up at his tail as he brushed the top of her head with it then pulled it up just out of her reach. After repeating this cycle a couple times, he let her grab ahold once more, smiling at both her parents as he shifted along the seat to allow the little girl to bring his tail to her mother.
"Thank you Hana, now let the nice man have his tail back." her mother said gently as the child climbed onto her lap and shoved the brush of his tail in her face.
"Okay momma!" she happily announced as she bounced off her mother's lap and walked over to Az'traal before he handed him the end of his tail. "Here mista!"
"Thank you." Az'traal said as he smiled at her and she ran back over to her parents and quickly climbed onto their laps. Immediately her mom wrapped her arms around her daughter, holding the girl close for when the jump tube activated so she would not be scared by the sudden jolt. As if on cue, a soft chime filled the sphere and the transparent door slid shut and sealed. A moment later, a forcefield sprang to life around the open end of the jump tube and the sphere suddenly shot through the whirling energies that filled the tube and provided propulsion for their transport. Seconds later and they rocketed out of the station structure and emerged into the central business district for this region of the Rosin Sphere, streaking across the city as simulated twilight embraced the metropolis. At incredible speed they dodged among the soaring skyscrapers of the business district, the inertial nullifiers built into the sphere keeping them in temporal synch with the rest of the universe as well as eliminated the incredible forces such high-velocity maneuvers would inflict on both them and the jump tube system. Within a minute, Az'traal saw their destination: a massive complex of interconnected skyscrapers that reached up into and through the sky itself. This monolithic structure, rising from a footprint of over two thousand square miles to stand more than four hundred miles taller than the buildings around it, housed the corporate headquarters of the Spectros Foundation, the largest single company in the Rosin Union. It was atop the highest spire of the structure that the Foundation had established the most luxurious restaurant in all of the Rosin Sphere, the Beyond the Sun Cafe.
Quickly approaching the building, the jump tube curved up gently to run vertical in amidst the web of connecting bridges that linked the skyscrapers of the complex and with a second Az'traal saw the restaurant itself. As they approached, the sky outside darkened to blackness as they passed beyond the energy fields that provided the illusion of sunlight to the inner surface of the Rosin Sphere, the original sun having long ago been sacrificed to provide additional fuel to power the Union. Now, this void was only illuminated by the twinkling lights of the city that surrounded it, lights which formed an intricate web of radiance that surrounded them and curved away to meet on the farthest surface of the sphere from them. Since the entire sphere operated in the same time zone, the lights of the city elsewhere in the shell acted in much the same way as the stars of old had; forming constellations which people could gaze at in the night sky.
This was actually why the Beyond the Sun Cafe was so popular, it was always night here since it was beyond the sun fields which only projected their 'sunlight' down at the city below them. It was thanks to this the lights of the city, whether reflected or self-radiant, always created breath-taking effects in here. As he understood it, when the sun fields were active they acted like prisms, bathing this area in spectacular shows of multi-colored light. Understandably, the Foundation did not want to endanger the most unique feature of their restaurant and so had installed special windows and light dampening fields in their building. These features served to cut out over ninety-nine percent of the light pollution from the city below, ensuring that their spectacular vistas were always easy to view.
The restaurant itself had an incredibly inefficient design from an architectural standpoint, consisting of eight obelisk-like spires that sloped inward toward a central point but never connected, as if someone had reduced a pyramid to a skeleton and chopped off the top fifth. Relatively thin connecting bridges connected the spires along their inner surfaces every few floors, the entire assembly forming a kind of cage around a central sphere that sat atop a wide cone and had more connecting bridges linking it to the obelisks at the same levels as the outer bridges. Az'traal had actually studied the layout of the establishment it some detail and could understand the reason for the unique design. Since the architect had wanted everyone dining in the restaurant to have a window seat and not feel packed in, a central dining area had not been needed and each floor in each obelisk had been limited to having only five rather spacious booths. Considering that the restaurant was four miles tall, this meant the obelisks and outer connecting bridges could house over one hundred thousand patrons at a time. Since that was a fairly inconsequential number compared to the total population of the Rosin Sphere, it was easy to understand why reservations were hard to obtain, even then, most people only ate here once every couple hundred years or so. Az'traal himself had only eaten in the obelisks once, a few years ago when he had graduated from college with his doctorate. Given that much exclusivity, the restaurant also allowed people to order out or reserve a table in the massive cone underneath the kitchen complex, which also contained dining areas that used holograms to project the sky onto the ceilings.
As their transport stopped at one of the numerous transit connections at the restaurant entrance, Az'traal stepped out and walked through the ring lobby to the nearest entrance into the restaurant proper. This high up, there was no atmosphere and the Foundation had not wanted to resort to something as needless as atmospheric containment fields except in case of an emergency; hence why this lobby existed Az'traal mused as he approached the attendants outside. As befitted the establishment, both were dressed in formal yet comfortable looking suits made out of what appeared to be natural fabric, a rare commodity in this day and age.
"Greetings, sir Iodat, are you dining along this evening or are you with a party?" the woman attendant asked, her elegant evening gown gently gliding across the carpet as she moved forward to greet him.
"Actually, I am with a party, I believe it is under the name of Ms. Feren Vernal." Az'traal said, silently hoping that he had not been set up.
"Ah, here we are." the male attendant said after quickly scanning the display in his visor. "Are you Mr. Az'traal Novi?"
"Yes, that is me."
"Excellent, you are the second to arrive. Would you like your waiter to adhere to Iodat customs Mr. Az'traal?" the first attendant continued after confirming his name on the reservation.
"Mr. Az will be fine, thank you." he replied.
"As you wish." the woman said in a happy yet polite tone as she pulled out a menu pad and tucked it under her arm. "If you would follow me please, I will take you to your table." she continued as she headed into the restaurant, leading Az'traal past ornately decorated and comfortable looking sitting lounges. After passing the more recreational areas of the restaurant, they arrived at a long circular hall ringed with foldspace transporter arches. His guide quickly walked through one a few yards down and Az'traal followed her, finding himself transported to one of the spire dining areas an instant later. Clearly Feren had gone all out on this little get together. Without pause, the woman walked over to an ornate table surrounded by several spacious luxury chairs that were linked together to form the booth around the table. Touching a control on her forearm, the woman pulled one of the chairs out of the formation and rotated it to face Az'traal.
"Have you eaten here before sir?" she asked as he took his seat.
"Yes, I am familiar with how the chairs here work." Az'traal replied as he settled into the chair, enjoying the incredible comfort and perfect support the chair provided.
"Very well then sir, enjoy your dining experience." the attendant said as she placed his menu in front of him and before she left to return to the entrance. As she left, a perfectly black privacy shield flickered back into existence around the table, blocking out the sight and sounds of the other patrons in the dining area and leaving only a spectacular view of the night sky that stretched from the floor to up over those seated at the table. The privacy shields also prevented others outside of the field from listening in on conversation happening inside, a nice feature given that they were working on a top secret project.
"Glad to see you could make it." Feren said pleasantly as she sipped on a glass of ice water. "Our waiter already showed up to check on us, but I asked him to wait until everyone was here before taking orders, I hope that's alright with you. He left everyone an ice water on top of a stasis coaster for when they showed up."
"I noticed that, thank you." Az'traal said amicably as he took his water out of the stasis field that was built in to every coaster, ensuring the temperature did not decrease unless you were actually taking a drink. "Waiting to order until everyone else is here sounds perfect, who all is coming?"
"Well, the lead scientists for each task force turned out to be scientists from Rosin." Feren explained placidly. "So I thought that a nice dinner together with all of us would be nice. The Elemental refused understandably, after all, they don't eat; but the other five said they would attend."
"Sounds like this will be an interesting dinner." Az'traal said eagerly while he groaned inside. It really came as no surprise that the Rosin scientists would claim the highest positions in each division for themselves, even he had done so for his department. Never mind that he was a department of one being, he still had claimed the lead scientist position unilaterally. "So, do you know their names?"
"Oh, of course, it would kind of be rude to insist you have them introduce themselves when your host already knows their names." Feren said anxiously, obviously flustered that she had forgotten such a basic rule of Rosin social etiquette. "Let's see, the Human is Dr. Ella Locke, she's in charge of the space dynamics division. The Feral is Dr. Gage Riverwalk and he's in charge of energy dynamics while Dr. Sill Tecton is the Thesin in charge of the matter dynamics department. The last two attending are Dr. Hy Cline, the Abyssal in charge of the entropic dynamics division and finally Dr. Fem Tibis, she's in charge of the temporal dynamics department. The Elemental who could not attend was Dr. Igeon Seis, it's the one managing the magic dynamics division. Actually, you probably know quite a bit about it already." She finished nervously.
"Already know...? Let me guess, it was the one who I debated with in the auditorium earlier today." Az'traal stated rhetorically.
"Correct." Feren said after taking another drink, "So in retrospect I guess it's probably a good thing it refused to come."
"Probably so." Az'traal said dryly.
"While we're waiting for the others to arrive, could you tell me a little about your research? I mean, I've heard rumors, but nothing really concrete." Feren asked in an interested tone, leaning across the table as if she intended to share some great secret with him.
"Certainly, if you agree to tell me more about your research." Az'traal replied in a sly tone, teasing her slightly.
"You've got yourself a deal." she replied, laughing lightly as she leaned back into her chair, giving him her full attention a second later.

Chapter Nine
The last of the group to arrive was, ironically enough, Dr. Fem Tibis, a fact which elicited a chuckle from everyone present including the rather embarrassed temporal physicist. Almost by magic, their waiter appeared as soon as the good doctor took her seat, welcoming them all to the restaurant with a tolerably cheerful attitude and asking if there was anything he could get them to drink or if they were ready to order. Az'traal found it rather interesting that after hundreds of thousands of years the methodology of waiting on tables in a restaurant had not really changed, he thought about saying as much but then decided that none of the others present would find it as intriguing as he did. When it was his turn to order a drink, he ordered sapphire wine, a traditional Iodat drink made from the fruit of the lapis night-throne, a blue crystalline plant that had once thrived on Pyrocaustic. Named because its throne-like flowers only bloomed at night, the fruit produced a non-alcoholic drink that was mellow while being slightly tart. In fact, it was one of the few Iodat foods that had become popular among all the races of Rosin once the Iodat had re-established contact.
Once the waiter had collected their drink orders, he quickly left with the promise to return with their drinks in a moment along with appetizers for all of them. In the wake of his departure, the table remained mostly silent, everyone waiting for their drinks and appetizers to arrive so they could order before they engaged in conversation with the others. This sort of silence was common custom when eating out in the Rosin Union, everyone wanted to make such they selected a main course they really wanted. Considering the Beyond the Sun served every dish in the universe, there was quite a selection to choose from, which was why the menu pads had a search function built in.
"Here we are everyone." the waiter said suddenly as he returned, two anti-gravity trays with robotic assistants in tow. "Let us see... A phosphorous elixir and fried mushrooms for Dr. Tibis, sapphire wine and piquant biscuits for Dr. Az, herbal tea and asparagras shoots for Dr. Vernal, a cask of Goldenite ale and spinach salad for Dr. Tecton, salt water and crab cakes for Dr. Cline, blood tea and meat puffs for Dr. Riverwalk, and, last but not least, spiced caff and Droven soup for Dr. Locke." The waiter said, listing off the extensive order as the robots placed each dish and drink in front of the appropriate patron. "Is everyone ready to order?"
In response, everyone at the table nodded, and the waiter quickly ran through each of them, writing down their main course orders in some form of short hand so that the customer could customize the dish to their heart's content and he would never had to ask for them to repeat the order because he lost his place. As would be expected with the variety of races at the table, the types of food ordered also varied greatly, yet the Beyond the Sun Cafe could cater to them all, even foods that were toxic to other races. True, those had to be prepared in a separate kitchen, but they still managed to accommodate the requests.
"Thank you everyone, your food will be ready in thirty minutes." the waiter said as he departed with his assistants, his time estimate reminding Az'traal of another unique feature of the Beyond the Sun. While most restaurants larger than a local eatery these days simply used matter converters to instantly prepare the requested dish, the Beyond the Sun insisted on only replicating the raw materials and then preparing the dish itself the old-fashioned way. The results were unquestionable, every food critic that had eaten here had said their food was better than any converter-produced dish. Az'traal was willing to bet it was because the converter produced dishes were mass programmed by a computer programmer who had basically standardized the programming of spice flavors in each type of dish without getting a feel for what might make that dish taste better. That lead to consistency, but consistency became blandness fairly quickly when every time one had a certain type of dish it tasted the same. The professional chefs here were constantly refining their recipes at weekly tasting competitions between the chefs, each critiquing their fellows on what might be improved. It was a very involved process he had been told, but the results were fantastic.
"So, an Iodat managed to secure a position as lead scientist for himself." Dr. Tibis said suddenly, interrupting Az'traal's thoughts as she spoke. "Quite interesting." Az'traal recognized a comment made for the sake of politeness when he heard one, but he had wanted to attend this dinner to establish friendly terms with his peers so he had no intention of simply letting the conversation end there.
"Well, my field is rather unique you must admit." he replied evenly, looking the Nekran in the face while at the same time trying not to look into her empty eye sockets. One of the most disturbing things about the Nekran was their method of forming bodies for themselves. In their natural state, they were similar to sentient slime mold and fairly helpless except for moving around. However, once they reached what passed for their adolescence, they burrowed into the empty cranial cavity of a skeleton and began growing, using tendrils to assemble a full skeleton around themselves. They then grew out into the bone marrow cavities and other inner areas of those bones, connecting them with tendrils that served as both tendons and muscles. The end result was basically a walking skeleton with opaque white strands holding it together, a form which provided the Nekran with protection and food since they slowly ate away at the phosphorus contained in bones. With the advent of the Union however, the Nekran had developed a means of producing artificial skeletons for themselves so they could continue to thrive.
"True enough, it is rather unique... I suppose I am glad that at least you stayed here." Fem said in a slightly uncertain tone as she gently tapped a skeletal finger on her glass of phosphorus elixir. Az'traal understood they were uncomfortable speaking to him given the circumstances and made a mental note to excuse any insults as unintentional.
"To tell you the truth, I am glad I stayed a few more days as well." Az'traal said cheerfully, as if he had been planning on leaving soon. Not exactly true, but it helped sooth ruffled feelings. "If I had left, I would not have had this wonderful opportunity to contribute something to the future of the Union." As soon as he said it, it was as if the tension had vacated the room, they were all scientists working together for a common goal, what stronger bond could there be between scientists? Right now, they were not eight separate races, they were one group.
"True enough, Az'traal." Fem said brightly as she took a drink of her elixir, the small tendrils in her teeth and jaw immediately absorbing the liquid before it could spill on her Grim Reaper-like cloak.
"So tell us doctor, what exactly does your research entail?" Dr. Cline asked as the shark-like being used a pair of floating mechanical hands to bring his glass of salt water to himself, drinking it as Az'traal answered.
"Well, not to alarm anyone or anything," Az'traal started off, making sure that no one took what he said the wrong way, "but I have been studying how astral matter from the Astral Plane interacts with the physical universe. I hope that from my study of the interactions we might be able to form shortcuts to obtaining the equations of meta-physics."
"Truly interesting! I applaud your efforts, you have greatly advanced your research since I last read one of your papers." Dr. Locke proclaimed as the others at the table nodded their agreement with her assessment. "When I last read your papers you admitted there might not be a practical application, I'm deeply sorry I didn't continue following your research, I will have to go home tonight and remedy this error."
"Thank you." Az'traal said in a stunned voice, amazed that they were genuinely interested in his work. It was a little embarrassing to suddenly be recognized after working for the past seven years in obscurity.
"Even so, I am curious how you plan to apply your research to meta-physics, it cannot be an easy task." Dr. Cline said, his fins flapping in excitement.
"That is true, my research is very subjective currently, however, when in a non-stimulated environment without any nearby minds to affect it, I have recorded data that indicates the rhythms and interactions of astral matter and physical space-time might standardize the variables of the meta-physical equations. The main problem is that I cannot objectively confirm this relationship myself, although I have a couple theories."
"I must admit that, not being well versed in astral physics, I find that somewhat confusing." Dr. Riverwalk interjected, "If you can only subjectively confirm something, how do you know that the objective result exists?"
"That is difficult to explain, I only recently confirmed that it is possible and published a paper on it a month and a half ago now. It was a ground-breaking discovery and laid the framework for all my current theories. A full explanation would take several hours and I would not want to exclude any of you from the conversation." Az'traal said politely as he took a bite of his piquant biscuits, enjoying the stimulating spiciness of the hot, flaky pastry which most races could not consume without going into anaphylactic shock.
"Perhaps a short version then?" Dr. Riverwalk asked, leaning forward in anticipation. Once again, Az'traal was reminded of how physically similar the Iodat and the Ferals were, except where the Iodat had a chimeric appearance, the Ferals had more of a wolven appearance, lacking the horns, cat-like tail and draconic feet of the Iodat. Ferals also had different coloration, ranging more in the grays, blacks, whites and browns than the Iodat, who typically were more golden or tan in color and only rarely had silver or black colored members of their species. In terms of general face and body structure though, the two races were very similar.
"If everyone wants to know, then I guess I can." Az'traal answered hesitantly.
"Certainly." the imposing Dr. Tecton rumbled as he set his tankard of ale down on the table. The most physically imposing of the races, the Thesins were a human-like race that typically stood somewhere in the vicinity of eight to nine feet tall, not counting the two bull horns that sprouted from their head. While human or elf-like in appearance, the Thesins had natural bull horns and were typically darker than the light-skinned elves or varied humans. In addition, they could have either bull-like or human-like feet, depending on the sub-species although both sub-species usually had a tail.
"Indeed, I'm most curious to hear more on your research." Dr. Cline and Dr. Tibis said almost simultaneously.
"Please Az'traal, take all the time you need, maybe we can help you in your research. After all, is that not what colleagues and friends do?" Feren added as Az'traal smiled and began to explain his work to them.

Meanwhile, deep in the canyons the divided the buildings of the Rosin Sphere, Rinth lead a small group of three Pandemonium Enforcers through the dark streets. Even if it were not night-time it probably would be this dark down there, Rinth concluded to himself as he stared down the miles long crevice framed by smooth, perfectly vertical metal walls. This deep in the city, over one hundred miles beneath the lowest building peaks, the foundations of entire city blocks had been merged together again and again to create more room and stabilize the massive structures above. As a result, there were few streets down here, but about twenty miles up these massive foundation blocks ended, allowing a profusion of street networks to be born. The same was true every five miles after that as the buildings sub-divided into relatively smaller towers: the number, size and opulence of the streets increased until one reached the highest street level only a couple thousand feet below the building peaks at most. Living in a utopia as they did though, this separation did nothing to indicate financial or political status. In fact these people down here had chosen to live down he so they never had a reason to leave their dwellings. To Rinth it was an even more pitiful existence than the existence experienced by the upper level dwellers, but not by much.
"Pandemonium Enforcers!" he announced suddenly, instantly calling his three companions to attention. "We don't have much time, Lunos may be a fool, but he is not stupid. He will soon realize his mistake of giving me a loophole through which I could deploy all of you at once. At that point, he will send agents to round up any of you that remain at large, possibly just kill you outright." He declared, knowing that the three Enforcers with him would be using their communication units to relay what he said to every other Pandemonium Enforcer no matter their location. "Therefore, you must act quickly and perform your acts of sabotage now then return to the barracks! Remember, we have to do this right so that when our plan is enacted, our sabotage forces Lunos to transfer too many agents into damage control and recovery, allowing us the chance to escape his control forever!" At this the three agents raised their fists in an eerily silent celebration of victory before they hurried off into the shadows, leaving Rinth alone.
After taking a moment to gaze up into the oddly lit darkness above him, Rinth turned and walked back toward the ground level entrance of Bastion Incorporated. Normally he would not have left the building to give orders to his forces, but he did not want any passive recording devices informing Lunos of his plans or his orders to the Enforcers. That would ruin everything and he did not want to waste his one opportunity to give the Rosin Sphere his vision of utopia.

This is Copyright 2008 to me

As before, any constructive critique or feedback on what you think of the story is appreciated and welcome.

Next Section

Author Comment: I know this is a very long section, almost to the maximum limit. I apologize if the rather sci-fi and science geek heavy portions are hard to read through as well.
And, as much as I hate to follow up with not updating this for a little bit, I have finals coming up over the course of the next few weeks and will have precious little time to work on this. Forum posting elsewhere will continue as normal (as will my webcomic if anyone here is reading that and curious about it). So my apologies, I will start work again as soon as possible.

[NightWing]

A couple errors I'd like to point out, one near the beginning and one near the end of chapter nine
At the beginning:
"Once the waiter had collected their drink orders, he quickly left with the promise to drink their drinks..." probably intented to be return with their drinks?
Near the end: "Please Az'traal, take all the time you need, maybe you can help you in your research..." My guess is that it should have been maybe we can help you.

I apologize for nitpicking, but I have a tendency to notice these things. All in all I think you do a very good job of keeping such errors to a minimum and I am greatly enjoying your work.

On the topic of finals, I understand, as I'm taking those too today and tomorrow, hence having not finished the section until now. I wasn't aware that you had a webcomic. Could you link me to it if it isn't too much trouble?

[Lord Rend]

No problem, I appreciate the feedback and have fixed it accordingly, thank you for reviewing my work so carefully.

I do apologize for not posting the next section yet, between finals and the holiday season, I have not had much time to work on anything (which is why I like having a buffer, which I unfortunately do not have for this story ). I think I can get the next section done by the end of this weekend though, seeing as I have lots of free time now.

I appreciate the interest in my webcomic, I will PM you the link NightWing.

[NightWing]

Alright, thanks. Din't worry about not having anything else done yet, I understand and am patient. You didn't leave off with as much of a cliffhanger this time, I'm good xD

[Lord Rend]

Thank you for your patience, particularly considering that my computer died over the holidays (died on the 28th in fact) and I just got it back this week. As I explained on my webcomic site, I lost some of my files. Thankfully I have been saving The Revisionist on a flash drive, so I did not lose it, I just could not work on it. Now that my computer is back I was able to finish the next chapters, posted below.

[Lord Rend]

Previous Section

Chapter Ten
In the end, Az'traal's explanation had taken up the time remaining before their main courses arrived, although it had been worth it to see the interest the others had in his field of research. They had even had some thoughts as to how he might prove his theories, in particular Dr. Cline had suggested using an entropic motivator to degrade the impact of mental patterns before they could alter the astral matter. Az'traal had found their suggestions intriguing and would definitely test them later when he had the time and had extracted more astral matter to set up separate experiments with. As it turned out, their conversation was wrapping up when their waiter had returned with their food and additional drinks for them.
"I hope you all are hungry." the waiter said as his robotic assistants began passing out the food as before, listing off the dishes as they were set in front of each patron. Once they all had their food, the waiter bowed once and left, the privacy screen shimmering back into existence as he left. Az'traal immediately surveyed the Pyrocaustian pepper sauce pasta in front of him, taking a tentative bite to see it the spices in the thick sauce had been properly blended. Even for professional chefs it was difficult to mix the spices correctly, but Az'traal found that the chefs here did not disappoint, and the dish had been prepared to perfection; the flavors melding with the rich flavor of the Jewel Crab meat in the dish flawlessly.
Around the table, he quickly observed that the others were enjoying their respective dishes; from the purely vegetarian dishes that Feren and Dr. Tecton had to the carnivorous dishes that Drs. Riverwalk and Cline consumed. Like himself, Dr. Locke had ordered a dish combining various types of food and Dr. Tibis had ordered something that looked more at home under a rotting log in a forest than on a plate in an upscale restaurant, to say nothing of the fact that it seemed to be bubbling... Az'traal looked away from the odd dish before anyone noticed he was staring at it, reminding himself that the Nekran had incredibly unique dietary requirements, resulting in equally 'unique' dishes.
After a few minutes, everyone had gotten a good feel for what their food was going to taste like and quiet conversations began to start around the table. From what he could here, the topics generally involved the food they were eating at present and he expected that he would initially not be engaged in those conversations. Like Dr. Locke, his main course was not particularly unique and not shifted to an extreme end of the fare spectrum, an inevitable result of being an omnivore. Now if Dr. Locke had bee sitting next to him instead Dr. Tecton on his left and Dr. Riverwalk on his right, she might inquire about his food, but Az'traal found it somewhat of a relief that he did not have to engage in such typical small talk. He much rather would be discussing something of import rather than food choices. Sometimes the social idiosyncrasies of the Rosin Union were truly annoying he decided as he continued to enjoy his meal in relative silence. Then, as he knew would eventually happen, he felt the subtle shift of someone focusing on him in preparation to ask a question.
"How is your meal Az'traal?" Dr. Locke asked politely from across the table.
"Quite excellent." Az'traal responded pleasantly. He knew from past experience that this kind of small talk could go on for quite a while, he believed the old expression was saying something without really saying anything. Or was it garbage in, garbage out? Mentally, Az'traal shook his head; there were so many old sayings that after a few thousand years and a complete cultural shift it became nearly impossible to tell what the source of certain idioms was anymore. Maybe both could apply to the situation? It certainly seemed so, at least to his way of thinking.
Finally, after several minutes of small talk, the individual conversations began merging together and Az'traal knew that would signal the beginning of more meaningful discourse. Either that or all the conversations would break up as everyone became interested in the spectacular view around them and then the cycle of chitchat would start all over again. He really hoped it would be the former and not the latter option. He was not disappointed as the topic shifted into a discussion related to DNA and foldspace, a topic he recognized as being the area of study that Feren excelled at. From that beginning, the topic of conversation slowly cycled through a number of topics, each just as interesting as the last and Az'traal was more than happy to join in when he could make meaningful contributions. In fact, he was so engrossed in the conversation that he did not even sense the approach of their waiter until the man spoke.
"Did everyone enjoy their meals?" the man asked pleasantly, gazing around at the empty dishes as he spoke. Upon the chorus of affirmatives from the assembled scientists, the waiter smiled broadly and had his two assistants begin cleaning up the empty plates. "Did anyone save room for desert? Our chefs have prepared a magnificent citrine pie with whipped cream if any of you are interested."
"I would love a piece." Feren said politely, relishing a chance to try a traditional Elven desert prepared by the chefs here. Everyone else at the table except for Dr. Cline and Dr. Tibis followed her lead as well, each requesting a piece of the exotic tart pie, even Dr. Riverwalk was happy to exercise what little omnivorous capability Ferals had to try a slice of it. On the other hand, Dr. Cline had no ability to digest anything other than meat so he declined the citrine pie, preferring an order of sweet eggs instead. Dr. Tibis chose to have a plate of some kind of deep-fried pastry, in keeping with her race's need to consume excessive amounts of grease and fat in order to maintain their ability to move.
"Excellent! I will be right back with your orders." the waiter said as he quickly turned and left, allowing the assembled group to pick up their conversation where they had left off.

A good two and a half hours later, the group finally broke up as the Beyond the Sun had to close for a thorough cleaning, a process that generally took under an hour but did require all the guests to clear out for the time being. However, each member of the group knew that they needed to return home and get a good night's rest in preparation for the tasks they would need to start in the morning. After all, they each had their own research projects to attend to as well as lists of supplies and requirements they needed to prepare in order to launch Project Infinium. Of course, given how time consuming Project Infinium promised to be, each also knew they would need to carefully examine their current research projects and estimate how quickly they could be finished without compromising the results. It would not do to error in the name of expediency but nor would it do to trust any results produced after their experiments had been allowed to run for so long while they worked on Infinium. In either case, they each knew there was much that had to be done in the coming days...

Rinth grinned to himself as his agents quickly completed their assignments and returned to his tower's barracks. Despite being the supposed representation of chaos in the universe, his men were efficient in their work, and they had taken the time to make sure that what would happen could not be traced back to them. It was vital for his plan to work that Lunos not think that his own organization might be the cause of the havoc that would be unleashed, hence why a time delay was required. In the past, such a delay meant a higher chance of discovery, but the Rosin Union had relegated police and security forces to effective obscurity, a necessity only required for areas that might be dangerous to the common populace or keeping the public away from events that actually needed to be classified. Such foolishness also meant it was easier for his agents to plan long-term sabotage events, a fact he was thankful for, since it allowed his plan to actually work.
Speaking of his plan... he quickly reviewed it in his mind, wanting to make sure that he had not made a mistake somewhere in his planning. True, he had not planned for every contingency, the plan needed to be flexible for when something went wrong. And, he thought with a bit of sarcasm, if he had planned out everything that would not be very chaotic, now would it? Thus, he had kept the plan simple: his agents had sabotaged a good number of buildings throughout the Rosin Sphere, making use of the lightrails and wormhole links that made travel so easy. When the time was right, maybe in a week or two, the effects of that sabotage would manifest, causing havoc throughout the sphere as the unprepared Rosin Union faced the first threat they had to deal with in three hundred thousand years. Even better, it would be the hardest threat of all to combat: an internal threat. At first he had simply thought he would target landmarks, creating general mass hysteria. That plan had been quickly scrapped however, random destruction was all well and good, but that was not what he wanted. So, his next plan had involved sabotaging the properties protected by Bastion and the Four Guards, but that too was quickly dismissed as being to blatant, Lunos would immediately know it was him and execute him before he had a chance to accomplish lasting results. When Lunos had first told him of the dangerous experiments the scientists were doing, he had also considered hitting the facilities that the other Four Guard divisions would be investigating and sabotaging. As soon as that thought had occurred to him though, he decided why not carry out all three plans to maximize his impact?
In the end result, Lunos, the controlling gannach that he was, would lose many agents from his sabotage of properties protected or infiltrated by Bastion Incorporated and then the properties that he was responsible for would demand that he send more guards to secure their sites. This would deplete the number of agents Lunos had to protect him or regulate the operations of the agency. He would have to rely on Rinth and his men again or, if he refused to allow them free reign, he would just be eliminated. No matter what, Rinth knew he would win out over the First Guard in the end, it was inevitable, it had always been inevitable.
Of course, he had to consider what he would do once he had eliminated Lunos from the equation. Should he take over the Rosin Union? Impossible, the central government was far too diffuse, spread out over every sector of every Dyson Sphere throughout the Union. There was not even a central meeting place for the government, each elected representative had their own office complex in each residential building and commercial building. They never left these buildings really, the congress for each sector met in a virtual forum, then sent a representative to the virtual Sphere Congress which worked with the other Sphere Congresses to standardize the most general laws of the Union or discuss laws and regulations that might be implemented. Not that there was much point to even meeting, for some twelve thousand years now none of the congresses had even talked about a regulation, longer still since they had seriously considered passing something. Well, excepting this Project Infinium they had just commissioned, but that had only started a few years ago, an inconsequential amount of time compared to the millennia of inaction. No taking over the Union was not something he really wanted to do, Rinth concluded sourly.
He could destroy the Union, but the same problem presented itself. The Union was simply too vast, the population was truly staggering. Even though each sphere held quadrillions of people at least, there were still as many Dyson Spheres as there had been stars in the sky, if not more. Considering the fact that it had taken them two hundred thousand some odd years to conquer the universe and considering that the population back before then was miniscule compared to its current population... It would take him forever to wipe out everything and that was even granting that no one formed a resistance to stop him in all that time. Unlikely.
His final option was to simply strike a morale blow against the Rosin utopia and hope that the disillusionment spread until the Union collapsed from internal strife. Also unlikely, everytime a civil war had started within a unified Rosin government in the past the government had rallied together to impose a new and improved order that corrected the mistakes that had lead to the civil war in the first place. However, he could destroy their utopia for all time and the government could never replace that. There would always be that lurking suspicion that someone like him would rise again to destroy everything they had worked to create. Even if they developed a means to prevent people like him from existing, such limitations would destroy any attempt to create a new utopia. In Rinth's mind, that was as good a victory as any, his name would echo throughout history forever as the one man to break the illusion of a perfect society. Villains were remembered long after the legacy of their heroic counterparts faded and crumbled to dust, such was how the mind worked: what represented a disruption or caused pain lingered while everything else was forgotten as 'normal' or uninteresting.

In his office Lunos carefully scanned through the reports he had been receiving over the last few hours, trying to pin down his sense of unease to a specific source. So far, nothing seemed amiss aside from his earlier conversation with Rinth and the loss of Silv, but the error he had made with Rinth had been corrected. Lunos slammed his fist down in frustration, he had not told Rinth how many agents he could deploy so of course the man had deployed all his agents at once, even though he knew that was not what Lunos wanted. Rinth liked pushing the limits of his authority, Lunos had allowed his control of the situation to slip, and predictably, Rinth had exploited it. Thankfully, he had corrected his mistake and recalled Rinth's agents within a few hours of their deployment.
However, the damage had already been done, even if the Pandemonium Enforcers did not spread havoc throughout the sphere, rumors that he was losing control had already begun spreading through the Four Guards. The mere existence of the rumors themselves was like a self-fulfilling prophecy, spreading doubts about his leadership abilities regardless of anything he said afterward. How did his position become so compromised that something this could cause a crisis of leadership within the Four Guards? Was it the death of Silv? Certainly Silv was the field commander of the Four Guards, but he was the First Guard, the true leader of the organization. Then again, he was the coordinator, people rarely actually saw him so it was entirely possible that Silv had come to symbolize his leadership. And now that the Third Guard was gone, maybe to most people it seemed that his leadership was falling apart. Decisive action was needed, if Rinth gained leadership of the Four Guards, he would ruin everything. It was time to call in his only remaining ally.
"Rayn! Get in here now!" Lunos shouted, knowing that the computer voice pickups in his office would immediately relay his summons to Fourth Guard. He did not have long to wait before a glowing ghost-like entity rose up through the floor of his office, her arms, hair and clothes flaring out as she completed her passage through the metal, as if some sort of pressure had just been released from her form. Rayn was one of the rarest species in the universe, her race was called the Wrai. Unique among the races of the Rosin Union they were partly corporeal beings who existed partly in the higher dimensions of space-time which they fed upon, but mostly they existed in the normal four dimensions that everyone else did. It had been theorized that the higher dimension the Wrai existed in was the Astral Plane that the Iodat had used to fuel their psychic powers. All that Lunos knew was that the Iodat had been crucial to finally bringing them into the Union when all the other races had been unsuccessful.
"How may I serve thee First Guard?" Rayn asked in her people's peculiar dialect, her silver form fitting dress and stark white hair billowing as she floated before him while the cloth ribbons that hung off her dress and added ornamentation gently floated about her.
"Rinth is up to something." Lunos said simply.
"When ist he not conspiring against someone Lunos? Rinth ist a manipulator, he doth need a focus for his machinations." Rayn said as she touched down onto the floor, her bare feet barely visible underneath the hem of her dress.
"Yes, but this time I'm certain his focus is me."
"Ah, now I doth see what concerns thee so, ist thy wish that I find the details of his plan, or doth thou wish me to eliminate him?"
"Kill him, I won't have him challenging my authority, especially not with a crisis of such magnitude brewing in the scientific community."
"I will do thy bidding Lunos, Rinth shall perish this night." Rayn said quietly as she bowed, using the momentum of that action to dive through the floor. As she vanished, Lunos breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that even if Rinth managed to escape, Rayn would never stop hunting him until he was dead. Nothing but an Iodat could stop or kill a Wrai, and there was only one Iodat left, the chances of Rayn running into this Az'traal were astronomically small. Whatever Rinth was planning, it was over, even if he survived her first strike, he could never stop running or he would die.

Rinth quietly walked down the hallway that lead to his office, worry etched in every line of his frowning face. Lunos was not acting like he expected, he had not called Rinth into his office to yell at him for over-stepping his traditional limits; actually had not left his office or called anyone into his office since the recall order had been issued. It was out of character for Lunos to be so loose with his subordinates, as the representative of order he liked to have firm control of everyone and everything around him. Rinth did not like this change in behavior, he had not expected it, could not guess what Lunos would do now. He would need to make contingency plans just in case he thought as he entered his office and took a seat behind his desk until he found the data sphere he desired, the one containing the details of his plan. True, normally it would be dangerous to leave such information laying around on his desk, but he had encrypted the data on this sphere using a chaotic neural network encryption code, a method of encoding so complex that the only way to break it in less than forty hours was to have the corresponding key access drive. By that point, he would have discovered that the data sphere was missing and tracked it down using the built in DNA resonance tracker.
Now however, it was too dangerous to leave here, it was time to pass off his final instructions to his successor. It was mostly a precaution in case something should happen to him, in case Lunos somehow killed him. At least this way Ico could carry on in his stead, see the dismantling of the utopia to its final conclusion, no matter what happened to him. After staring thoughtfully at the shifting energies and lights within the sphere, he set it on a small transporter pad on his desk and typed in a few coordinates. Immediately, the data sphere vanished as a miniature wormhole opened around it and sent it to a distant point in space and time. Unlike the other Four Guards, his apprentice did not live here in the Bastion headquarters, he was not even here in the Rosin Sphere. Such was much safer, more secure he concluded as he leaned back in his chair and spun around to look at the statue representing chaos behind him.
Only to jerk sideways in alarm as an energy knife stabbed clean through his chair right where his head had been just a second ago. After taking a moment too long to stare in shock at the humming knife, he turned to look at where it had come from, immediately finding it as a glowing woman floated out of the wall. At first he did not recognize her, but she pointed toward him the knife began to vibrate then suddenly jerked free and he immediately recognized her. The dreaded Fourth Guard, representative of oblivion and head of internal security for the Four Guards, Rayn the Wrai. That he was still alive was an unparalleled stroke of luck on his part.
Not giving her a chance to strike again, Rinth dove out of his chair and rolled across the floor toward his would-be assassin. Coming up onto his knees, Rinth held both his hands out in front of him and flicked them upward immediately pulling the floor underneath Rayn up to the ceiling. Unfortunately, the solid block passed right through her and slammed into the ceiling above her. Instantly searing pain cut deep into his right shoulder as Rayn pulled the knife back to her hand using the limited telekinetic abilities she possessed. As soon as she had the blade in hand she whipped it back at Rinth, aiming directly for his heart this time. He immediately rolled out of the way again, trying to remember everything he had learn about Wrai during his time studying the history of the Rosin Union. As far as he could recall, they had telekinetic abilities, although they were at about the same level as an infant Iodat, weak but still something to watch out for as the incident with the knife proved. Beyond that he remembered that they could phase out of existence, but both of these facts were already evident so far in the fight.
All this ran through his mind as he rolled back to his feet and took off towards his office door, not daring to look back least he run into the wall or not open the door in time. Instead, to protect himself, he gestured behind himself repeated, raising wall after wall of metal from the floor to block any attack. Reaching the door, he slammed his hand onto the control and squeezed through the door as it opened, then immediately turned and hit the button to close and seal the door. Knowing that she would simply phase through the barrier, he continued running down the corridor, suddenly wishing that he had not ordered the alcoves in this long hall removed to prevent an assassin from sneaking up to his door. Well, he had an assassin after him now and the lack of alcoves was not helping him one bit! Suddenly he heard a whistling sound from behind him and a sharp pain shot through his other shoulder. Looking down he saw the tip of the knife sticking out of the front of his left shoulder, the energy field of the blade evaporating his blood into a thin wisp of red mist that trailed behind him for a foot or two before dissipating too much to be seen. Not that it mattered if he left a physical trail, he knew Rayn's knives all had tracking beacons built in, as long as it was embedded in him, she could find him with ease he reminded himself as he finally reached an intersection and ducked around the corner. Quickly turning to face the wall, he slammed his body against it with enough force to drive the knife backwards out of his shoulder. Thanks to that strike both of his arms were now disabled, meaning he could not use his ability to control matter with his hands anymore, a fact which drastically cut down his options. In order to control matter with any finesse, Thesins required the use of their arms and hands. He was effectively defenseless, but not without options he thought as he slammed one foot then the other into the metal floor. Focusing his abilities, he forced the floor itself to move, carrying him down the hallway faster than he could physically run. He had to get to his escape tunnel and hope that he had enough skill to open it, only then might he be safe from Rayn, at least for the time being.
"Why dost thou run from thy fate?" a harsh voice suddenly said from right behind him, causing Rinth to look back over his shoulder in shock. Seeing nothing he turned to look ahead only to feel a sharp pain slice through his neck from front to back. Immediately he felt like he was falling, but he could not be certain, everything felt unreal, as if he were in a fading dream called his life. Finally, after an eternity, he landed on the ground and looked up to see Rayn leaning over him, her pale silver lips forming words that he could not hear, could not understand. Slowly, the hallway darkened around him and he knew it was not some play of the lighting, it was his life that was fading. At least he had left a legacy he admitted to himself as he slipped into oblivion.
"Thou wert a fool." Rayn said dismissively as she stood up and drifted toward the nearest wall, vanishing into it as she did so. She had done as Lunos asked and eliminated Rinth, now the Four Guards could proceed on to more important matters. As she left though, she was unaware that three Pandemonium Enforcers had been watching her standing over their dying commander...

Chapter Eleven
Az'traal woke up early the next morning, before the simulated sunrise had even begun to dawn over the Rosin Sphere. While he did not have to order any unique equipment since he was really the only 'tool' he needed for his experiments, he did have a lot of work to do on his research if he hoped to prove or disprove his theories on astral matter before Project Infinium started. So many methods to try, so much work to do... he would be lucky if he completed the method testing in time, although it kind of depended on when the actual project started. Of course, he should probably make the list of equipment first...
He sighed loudly, knowing that his hesitancy to continue his experiments came from the fact that he needed more astral matter. The main problem there was that astral matter could not just be called forth out of thin air, it had to be collected and brought to the physical realm from the Astral Plane. That meant he had to actually go there himself and collect the astral matter, meaning that he would probably meet his people while there, not an appealing thought since they always wanted him to join them and leave behind the physical world. Maybe if he told them about what was happening in the physical world they would come back... but as the Abyssal at the conference said, it was unlikely.
A sudden rumbling in his stomach told him that he had other priorities right now though and he quickly put on his bathrobe before he walked out into his kitchen and began searching menu on the converter for what he wanted. Given that he had eaten a rather large meal late yesterday, he probably should limit himself to a lighter meal this morning he decided as he selected a danish tray containing one cheese and one citrus danish. Normally an odd combination, but he wanted a good contrast of flavors to wake himself up and this fit the bill pretty well.
Once the meal had appeared a second later, Az'traal grabbed the tray and sat down to eat, running through his usual morning routine as he did so. By running his hand over a luminescent green triangle in the middle of the table, he called up the latest editions of the Rosin Times, The Center Journal and the Sectorial Forum; the newspapers for the Rosin Union, Rosin Sphere and his native sector respectively. Headlining all three was the announcement that here in three weeks was the five hundred thousandth anniversery of the Rosin Union's founding and a two week festival that would combine Founding Day with Unification Day, the day when the Rosin Union had incorporated the entire universe into itself. Beyond that, there was little actual substance to the papers; a few classified detailing jobs that people could apply for if they felt like having a career, some ads asking if anyone wanted to swap housing units so that the owners could experience life in a different sphere. There was rarely anything worth reading in the paper these days besides the latest scientific discovery or public events. After quickly checking to see that there was nothing he needed to deal with in the paper, Az'traal closed down the news projector and finished off his breakfast, then recycled his dishes and returned to his room.
A few minutes later, he emerged dressed in one of his traditional outfits and headed into his lab. He had made up his mind: he would attend to his experiments right now rather than procrastinate, no matter how uncomfortable it might be to deal with his people. Before he began his expedition though, he needed to retrieve his SMS, or simulated mindscape sampler, to contain the astral matter during the transition between the Astral Plane and the physical world. While astral matter was stable in either realm, something in the transition caused it to evaporate back into psychic energy and rendered it useless for his experiments. Solving that mystery would have to wait for another day however, he had much work to do on his current project, he thought as he quickly grabbed the device and headed back to his meditation chamber.
True, he could step into the Astral Plane from his laboratory, but his meditation room was quiet and safe. Not to mention it resonated with his psychic energies after so many years of use, providing him a beacon back to the physical world, a precaution necessary when undertaking this kind of meditation. Unlike when he had gone into his mindscape to re-integrate his sealed memories, actually bringing items between the physical world and the Astral Plane required that he step fully onto the mental plane, physical body and all. So, after checking to make sure that the containment device was fully charged, he sat down in the chamber cross-legged and prepared himself for the transition.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and focused, linking himself to the Astral Plane as his family had taught him to for when he finally decided to join the rest of his race. Immediately, he felt an odd sensation, as if he were falling and then suddenly could not breathe. Coughing once, he gasped for air as his body attempted to continue its normal functions in a place where such things as air did not exist. After a moment of instinctive panic however, he adjusted to the environment of the Astral Plane and relaxed as the illusion of breathing eased his body's reflex response. Looking around, he found himself in the same plaza he had appeared in when he had come here to unseal his memories. Paradoxically, he was standing in the middle of his own mindscape, even though he was completely on the Astral Plane, not just stepping inside his own mind. Taking a moment to examine the scene in front of him, he examined the incredible blue hued translucent skyscrapers around him, tracing the lines of illusionary water that bubbled out of fountains at their peaks and then fell silently in a series of waterfalls to canals that emptied into a pool in the plaza he was standing in. Above him, brilliant blue and green auroras coruscated across the sky, a representation of the collective dreamworld that the Iodat all shared. Or at least had shared he thought bitterly, the auroras quickly shifting down the spectrum to red and yellow in response to his sudden anger. He was the only Iodat still linked to the Dream and thus his moods and thoughts were directly reflected in it, unlike it would be if there were still other Iodat in the physical world.
Shaking off his sour mood, Az'traal pulled the SMS up to one of his hands and began walking through the city that represented his mind, taking care to avoid the large sparks of light that raced through the streets least he accidently interrupt his train of thought. Thankfully, even though the city of his mindscape was vast, like any sentient being's would be, it was also relative. Since he really did not want to take a long time traversing the vast metropolis, it responded by making it so that a few steps were all that was required to cross the 'miles' in between the plaza and the outskirts of his mindscape.
To his surprise however, he did not find other Iodat waiting in greeting for him as had been the case so many other times. It could be that they had given up on him ever joining them permanently on the Plane, but his people were persistent and would never pass up a chance to at least talk to him about the Plane. Glancing around in curiosity, he eventually shrugged in acceptance of this odd greeting and stepped out of his mindscape and onto the darker pathways that connected the minds represented here. The Astral Plane was not simply a representation of a person's mind he had learned, it had a basic framework, a basic function that was represented in the dark labyrinths that connected the bright mindscape cities and dark subconscious dungeons beneath them. Many of these passages also represented the bonds between people; others represented the fading remnants of minds that had passed away and were no longer living, their impact on the Astral Plane preserved by the memories of that person others held dear. But the majority of the links, particularly those that one encountered as one descended into the older areas of the Plane, had always existed, sending out new branches into the upper levels of the Plane as new lives came into being. In this way, the Astral Plane was a dynamic, living place, a puzzle that had not been fully solved. Why did it even exist in the first place? How did it react with the physical world? What was it truly made of? These were the questions that had driven Az'traal his entire life.
Finally, he reached what he had been searching for: a nexus of several passages decorated by a planter containing a dead tree. He looked at the tree in curiosity; the last time he had been here the planter had been filled to the brim with water and the tree had been alive, glowing with brilliant scintillating white light. Now however, the planter was bone dry and the tree was dark with only the occassional spark of light pulsing through its branches. Surely his minor extraction of astral matter from the edge of the platform the tree stood on could not have caused this he thought, in shock at the idea that he might have killed the tree. This bore further investigating he decided as he stepped off the platform and plummeted downward through the complex weave of passages, looking for other trees as he fell. Though several flashed by him as he fell, every last one of them was dead and each added to his growing anxiety. This was not something that his experiments could have caused, he understood enough about the Astral Plane to know that it was incredibly resillent to any form of damage, and all of these trees had been alive when he had visited a few months ago.
Not wanting to see any more, he halted his descent in a large void in the passageway complex that he had found during his previous explorations. As he looked around though, he quickly saw that the void had expanded, broken sections of astral walkways floating about, slowly drifting near the passages they had broken off from. Something was damaging the Astral Plane, but what could it be? The Plane was a metaphorical, metaphysical realm, it could not be damaged by something as simple as hitting it with a wreaking gravsphere. Maybe the other Iodat leaving the physical plane had something to do with this? All these were things he considered as he floated back up to the level he had come from, and by the time he was back where he had started, he already knew what he was going to do.
The other Iodat had lived entirely within this realm for years, certainly they would know what was going on. Concentrating for a moment, he sent out a psychic pulse that would act as a kind of radar, resonating off the astral manifestations of the other Iodat and giving him a rough picture of where they were. To his surprise though, no reflected psychic emanation reutrned to him. All of the Iodat had apparently vanished without a trace, neither in the physical world nor in the astral plane.
"WHERE IS EVERYONE?" he called out loudly, his voice echoing oddly in a realm where nothing should echo because there was no real sound or matter. There was no answer, not that he had expected there to be one. Even the Wrai who existed partly on this plane were not in phase with it enough to actually interact with anything here unless an Iodat pulled them fully into the plane. For a moment Az'traal thought he would be overwhelmed by despair, but instead he felt a odd sense of detachment as he stared up into the featureless midnight blue void above him, broken only by the four moons of the Astral Plane. After what seemed like an eternity, his attention finally focused on the four moons. Resting high in the relative sky of the Astral Plane, the four moons had always existed as spheres of lightless brilliance, glowing against their dark backdrop without actually illuminating anything; although they did rain down a constant stream of glimmering rays of light in the colors of each moon, like miniature auroras that moved vertically instead of forming vast horizontal sheets. According to the legends of his people, the light from the four moons fed the Wellspring of the Astral Plane, the source from which the vast network of astral passages grew. Now however, only slivers of the other moons could be seen peeking out from behind the silver moon. It had been that way from as long as Az'traal could remember, the silver moon had always eclipsed the gold, ruby and crystal moons.
There were more mysteries than answers here he conceded to himself, the Iodat had studied the Astral Plane for millennia and still unanswered questions remained. He would someday answer every question that could be asked about this place, Az'traal promised himself that much. For now however, he would content himself with his experiments and he quickly returned to his work, collecting a sample of astral matter before running back to his mindscape. He was eager to leave this place now, his earlier feelings of detachment having been replaced with an eerie haunted feeling.
As he ran, he suddenly tripped as one of his feet did not quite clear the walkway and he fell flat on his face, the SMS flying free of his grasp and over the edge of the walkway. Quickly scramblling to his feet, he leapt off the walkway, hoping to grab the valuable container before it smashed into one of the walkways below him. Focusing his telekinetic powers just behind his feet, he compressed the astral energy in the area to infinite density and then released, the resulting explosive equalization rocketing him downward on the shockwave produced. Within a second, the SMS was within reach and he quickly clutched to his chest then somersaulted and created a telekinetic blast at his feet, slowing his descent enough where he could land without injury.
After taking a minute to ensure that his prize had not been damaged in any way, Az'traal looked around at where he was in the Astral Plane, never having been in this region of the plane before. He immediate impression was that this was an incredibly ancient section of the Astral Plane; the light from the nearest cities had faded completely, leaving only dark hulks floating against a background of brilliant cities, dark blue walkways and rays of silver light. Oddly enough, his earlier feeling of unease had been replaced by curiosity. Then again, it was odd to find such an old region of the Astral Plane that was still stable; while the darkened cities that floated amidst the omnipresent passages appeared weathered, they were still largely intact. Just as strange was the fact that this apparently ancient section of the plane had intruded into a newer area of the Astral plane, as if it had moved. Gradually, he became aware of a strange kind of music that hummed in the 'air,' as if distant orchestra were playing a mournful song on broken instruments. Looking around for the source of the chilling melody, he quickly spotted what appeared to be a large tilted castle arranged around a central spire whose top appeared to have broken off.
"What in the world...?" he asked himself quietly as he drifted toward the skewed castle, the omnipresent elegy steadily growing louder as he wove through the field of debris that surrounded the massive deteriorating circular citadel. Even from this distance, he could see that the structure was at least a mile across with a large ring of dark gray stone surrounding an imposing circular wall with dark era style towers breaking it at even intervals. In fascinated curiosity, he looked down towards the base of the structure, expecting to see some sort of foundation in the form of fragments of the subconscious mind. Instead though, he found a small fortress consisting of eight upside down towers connected by walls surrounding a large tower that appeared to have been gutted with the exception of a single platform on top of a tall pillar and a staircase winding up from the base to a doorway halfway up the interior of the tower.
Still pondering the mystery of the odd little inverted castle, his attention wandered back up the main body of the structure to the impressive wall he had observed earlier. On closer inspection, he noted that there were several grand buildings contained within the wall, many of them actually built using the inner surface of the castle wall as part of their outer wall. Above these buildings, another wall rose, spiralling upward around the central tower until it ended in a tall spire topped by what appeared to be an altar or dais of some kind. And behind the top of that spire...
"Oh no..." Az'traal moaned as he recognized the massive circle and triangle seal that had been emblazoned on the central tower behind the smaller spire. It was a seal recognizable only to Iodat since no one wanted to remember anything relating to it. The Seal of Astrel. He had found the legendary Castle Pandemonium, home of Lord Astrel before his death over nine hundred years before the founding of the Rosin Union.
"Leave, leave, leave..." he chanted to himself, trying to force himself to return to where he came from. He was not supposed to be here, this place was a tomb, intentionally ignored by the Iodat because of the psychic emanations from Astrel's death that regularly shattered this portion of the Astral Plane. If he were caught in one of those shock waves, his body would be torn to shreds, he would be lucky if there was enough left to bury. The knowledge that he would die if he stayed here finally broke his stupor and Az'traal shot clear of the astral graveyard, turning around to look at only once his headlong flight had stopped and his panic subsided. Why had he found that place today of all days? What was the Sepulcher of Astrel doing so close to active mindscapes anyways, especially his? Such a fractured region of the Astral Plane could well move separately from the normal rotation of the plane, he could accept that, but this unusual since older sections never intruded into newer sections. Even the Sepulcher had never been exempt from that rule, hence why it had been easy to avoid and forget. At long last though, he shrugged to himself, fighting down his questions and saving them for later. His current main area of study was the interactions between astral features and physical reality. Even if Castle Pandemonium's ruins smashed into an active mindscape, it produce little more than a headache in the person unfortunate enough to have that happen to them. After all, the Sepulcher had only existed as a memory for eons, it had little substance on the Astral Plane, much like the Wrai did. It existed but could not interact with anything on the Astral Plane. His encounter with it was an unexpected and unpleasant shock, but Az'traal knew he had to put it out of his mind, there was nothing he could do to change the past and dwelling on it was something he had already vowed not to do.
Despite his assertions though, he was still very relieved when he finally made it back to the relative safety of his mindscape. He quickly made his way to the central where he had arrived and stepped into the pool in the center, watching as the ripples spread out from where he entered, then travelled up the canals and waterfalls that emptied into the pool without reflecting off the sides of any of the waterways. When at last the ripples reached the fountains on top of his mindscape's buildings the water began to glow midnight blue and flow faster, rapidly forming a vortex in the middle of the formerly placid pool. As the vortex deepened, Az'traal could see his meditation chamber at the bottom, wavering as if it were a mirage. In a second more the image solidified and he steped into the maelstrom, falling through the whirling tunnel of water that flickered with images of his recent memories and people he knew. Not paying the images any heed, he focused on the image of his chamber at the bottom and dove straight for it...
An instant later, he appeared in his meditation chamber in a flash of midnight blue light, slowly floating down from the ceiling to land on the carpet of the room with his prize intact. Breathing slowly to get used to inhaling actual air again, he examined the astral matter he had collected, noting that it looked and behaved exactly like the astral matter in his laboratory. Excellent, Az'traal thought to himself as he headed into his lab to begin work on his experiments anew after he compiled a list of equipment he would need for Project Infinium.

Meanwhile, in one of the lower levels of Bastion Incorporated, Lunos reviewed everything that had happened in the past twenty-eight hours. It was amazing how fast the situation had progressed from 'under control' to 'completely out of hand,' and that was rather disquieting to him. In the past day he had lost Silv and had to execute Rinth, an action which had caused an uprising among the Second Guard's agents. Though the fighting inside the building was now over, the casualties had been high on both sides thanks to the guerilla tactics the Pandemonium Enforcers had employed. The agents who had served under Silv had been hit fairly hard, almost a third of their number had been eliminated in the conflict. It had only been thanks to some quick thinking by Kya and her friend Gena that more of the Third Division had not been wiped out, but they had sacrificed themselves to ensure the survival of the others. Still, they had fared better than Rayn's troops had, they had taken fifty percent casualties and still counting. Rayn herself had almost been killed when the Enforcers set off an illegal psychic bomb in the lower levels. Lunos and his soldiers had fared the best, with only a tenth of his agents dying in the uprising. The traitors had taken at least forty percent casualties, but it was only an estimate since they had all evacuated en masse once they realized they could not win. Still, they had lost almost half their readily available forces, although the majority of that came from the Pandemonium Enforcers turning against them and leaving.
He still had not tabulated the collateral damage the building had suffered either, the mainframe had been bombed early on to prevent the automatic defenses from activating. Without the computer, they had to manually search the floors for collapsed sections, hoping that they could find survivors. Not to mention that his office had been destroyed... A minor point, but one which drove home just what an unmitigated disaster the past day had been. And it would only get worse, now that the Enforcers had been able to escape into the general populace, there was no telling how much havoc they would inflict.
Then there was still the matter of Project Infinium... Lunos knew that he had to keep certain priorities in mind, but the choice he made here would undoubtedly haunt him for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, individual lives were inconsequential, if Project Infinium succeeded everyone would be harmed. The Two Guards needed to gather their forces and strike with great precision now, timing would be key if they still wanted to disrupt the project...

Lightyears away from the Rosin Sphere, Ico had listened to the reports of his Enforcers as they reported the death of Rinth, then ordered the retaliation that had decimated the Four Guards' main stronghold. It had all been so easy to do, Rinth had trained him well in every aspect of his duties, including those relating to the future of the Rosin Union. The Abyssal smiled in morbid delight at the chaos he could unlease with the push of a button or a single spoken command. Unlike Rinth though, his idea of timing differed slightly, rather than force the Four Guards into an awkward position, why not let them take the blame for his activities? All he had to do was wait until the Four Guards began their little sabotage missions against this Project Infinium, then he could unleash the apocalypse on them all. By the time authorities realized that there were two groups working in tandem it would be too late.

Copyright (C) 2008-2009 and subsequent years to me.

As always, constructive criticism and feedback is welcome. Also, thank you NightWing for your continued feedback, it is much appreciated.

Next Section

[NightWing]

Leaving us with some interesting questions at this point, aren't you?

That sucks about your computer, good that you've got it back now.

I'll be patient, just keep up the good work ;D

[Lord Rend]

Thank you, I will.

It just would not be as fun without some interesting questions, especially since they are kind of important to the story as a whole. I will not go into too much detail here, suffice to say that the Astral Plane is very symbolic in its nature.

And here is hoping my computer will function for a good while still, considering what all needed to be repaired...

[NightWing]

Thank you.

I have to agree there. Thanks for not going into detail, I wouldn't want spoilers or anything. I'm enjoying this, as I'm sure I've said before.

Yikes... I'm hoping too

[Lord Rend]

Since I had to replace the motherboard, graphics card, power supply and fan system I do not think that there is much else that could be replaced at this point...

Ah well, enough complaining from me, I hope to have the next chapter of The Revisionist up this weekend, although it might be as late as Monday.

[NightWing]

Dang. Well, it shouldn't be failing on you again with almost all new hardware at least.

Heh. Looking forward to it then.

[Lord Rend]

Time will tell for certain, but my computer seems to be working fine now, better than it was prior to dying in fact.

Moving along though, good news all! Thanks to sudden inspiration striking I not only completed the next chapter, but the one after that as well. Despite uploading two chapters this time around, I am thinking that perhaps I should delay the update after this, maybe build up a bit of a buffer to kind of standardize my updates as being on Friday rather than whenever I get a chapter done. Anyone have any preferences? I really do not mind doing either, so it is kind of whatever my readers would prefer.

[Lord Rend]

Previous Section

Chapter Twelve
In the three months since the conference discussing the basics of Project Infinium, Az'traal had managed to establish a reputation for himself thanks to his application of the Astral Fluctuation Principal to meta-physics. He had been certain to credit his peers as the ones who had theorized the ways he might improve his results, but in the end the scientific community in general had attributed the discovery to him and his friends had gladly let him have the majority of the credit. As Hy had put it they had only pointed him down the right path a little sooner, nothing more. Regardless of whether or not that was true, Az'traal appreciated the compliment, taking it as a sign that he truly had finally formed a group of friends that he could trust. He could not remember being so happy, at least not since his family had left him alone in the universe. Such considerations were far from his mind now though and he was thankful for that.
Today brought with it another development however, as the notice that everyone on the project team had been waiting for arrived. It was time to begin work on Project Infinium at long last, the facilities and equipment had been prepared and all was in readiness for them to begin. It could not be said that they were not nervous and excited at the prospect of starting such a monumental project, one whose scope was far beyond anything previously thought of...

Az'traal had to take several calming breaths upon recieving the notice from the government that his laboratory facilities at the Infinium complex had been completed. He had to admit, he felt some apprehension at starting such a complex project; considering that his role would be basically quality control. True, there were several such positions on the research task force, but his was the only one where he was responsible for both his own work and the work of others. By the outline of the project, he had to write something in the framework of the new universe that would ensure that minds still functioned properly there. It was such a generalized mission statement and was based off the assumption that the Astral Plane was needed to ensure proper functioning of mental processes. While he was inclined to agree, Az'traal realized that he had yet to fully understand the full workings of the Astral Plane, let alone know how to duplicate it.
He was not alone either, several of the others had conceded at their last dinner together that although they understood how the various forces and structures of reality worked they had no means of actually duplicating those forces. They had theories and knew how space-time followed those laws, but understanding and application to real situations was a far cry from duplication and creation, which involved applying those rules to nothing which would become something. Even the most esoteric concepts seemed concrete compared to the situation they were talking about, and that was not even taking into account how they would 'write' these guidelines onto the new universe. Again, they only had theories, but it seemed to Az'traal that the odds of this project actually succeeding were decreasing by the minute.
"Well, it is not like we have a tight deadline or anything..." he mused to himself as he sat down in his favorite armchair. "A couple centuries is quite a bit of time for a scientific breakthrough." He looked again at the letter, noticing that there was a small display counting down in the lower right hand corner. Several quick calculations later and he figured out that the small display was actually a clock counting down the days until the Rosin Union would be unable to keep pace with the energy demands of its populace. It was so charming that the government thought to provide them with this wonderful nagging little panic instigator. Everyone knew they had a deadline, they did not need some little countdown to destruction. One way or another, they would make it, everyone was determined to overcome the obstacles in their path and complete this project.

"First Guard sir?" Hath asked quietly, disrupting Lunos from his contemplations and he turned to look at the young agent, his expression one of irritation. Inwardly, Hath sighed, knowing that these days the First Guard rarely bothered to control his expressions as he had in the past. She had seen this look often enough, after all, she was his secretary, it was pretty much her job to interrupt him. Rather than flinch though, she simply rolled her eyes and slapped a docket of papers on his desk before crossing her arms and glaring at him with an expression of impatience. Eventually, her gaze must have unnerved Lunos since he quickly glanced down and pulled the folder to him.
"Erhurm!" he coughed loudly as he cleared his throat and opened the file and scanned through the pages contained within. After a couple minutes he closed the folder and looked back up at Hath. "Thank you for compiling these reports." he said by way of apology, not that it was much of one in truth, "I take it that our agents are still trying to find out where this Project Infinium will be constructed?"
"If you can say that such a project could be merely constructed." she commented rhetorically before answering. "But yes, we are still trying to find where the main compound is located. The government has made things quite difficult; buying raw materials from one company and shipping it to another company in an entirely different sphere for processing before sending it to a multitude of corporations where the materials can be assembled into various subunits that are sent to more companies where the final products are constructed. It gives us a lot of leads to trail, but it also makes it more difficult to track those trails since it is difficult to find the individual packages amidst the mass number of individual, industrial and normal governmental orders. If money were still applicable to our civilization, this little cover up would be costing them hundreds of trillions more than simply ordering in bulk from single suppliers. We could use phased tracking chips, but the quality control inspectors are going over that equipment with such care and thoroughness that our agents deemed it too much of a security risk to try planting one"
"An unusual amount of thoroughness and unusual tactics..."
"But not unheard of sir." Hath interjected.
"Indeed not, but still I have to wonder why they are doing it now... This isn't like when they were building the Link Network, back when the government rarely commissioned large technological projects. Not to mention this one is, in terms of facility size, much smaller than its predecessors. Is it possible they know of our existence?" Lunos asked thoughtfully.
"Sir, I really doubt it, we aren't a major company that would theoretically be able to fund a secret society. In fact, the only reason we can is because our public and private goals are so integrated. If any corporation has the ability to, it would be the Spectros Foundation... after all, they employ nearly a quarter of the working population of the Rosin Union or around three percent of the total population."
"Okay, so they might suspect that the Spectros Foundation might be up to something..."
"Also unlikely sir, the Foundation actually has the highest percentage of the commissions for this project and all of the most delicate and expensive equipment is being purchased from them."
"In other words, the devices that are the easiest to sabotage or bug, meaning that they probably trust the Foundation. How I wish for the days when it was actually possible to understand how the government worked..."
"Has that ever been possible sir?"
"Once I think... Something like a few hundred thousand years ago or so. I wasn't alive then of course, but I've heard stories. Moving on though, so its confirmed that they know nothing of us?"
"Our analysts have been watching the government closely sir, while they do act in the people's best interests, they really don't care to monitor society all that closely. If they do know about us it's a monumental accident, I mean besides the incident a few months ago, we've done nothing that might possibly catch their attention." She continued, her pace preventing Lunos from interrupting with a comment of his own. "You're worrying too much sir, and before you say it, no amount of worry or concern could have prevented Rinth's little stunt, some things are just inevitable."
"Yes, yes, I've heard this speech before."
"Then stop trying to bring up the subject. Now, if you don't need me anymore, my paperwork is piling up and believe me when I say that I wouldn't think twice about fosting it off on you." Hath said in a peculiar tone that was both serious and teasing at the same time. After a second of silence, she concluded that their conversation was over and walked out of Lunos' office. It went without saying that their agents needed to continue their search and that anything important needed to be reported to Lunos immediately.

Chapter Thirteen
Within a week, the wheels were already in motion, the final shine had been applied to the Infinium Facility and the primary research team had been called together to tour the installation before they began their work. To Az'traal it could not have been a better day to start the project, although he could tell that the others were miserable in the heat. Normally the Rosin Sphere was climate-controlled and the weather was perfect throughout, but yesterday the system had been shut down to perform needed maintanance as was required every four or five hundred years. The controllers would undoubtedly be running again in a few hours so he wanted to enjoy the hundred plus degree heat while he had the chance, it was more comfortable than the seventy odd degree temperatures the others found preferable. Especially since he would not be able to enjoy it much longer.
Currently, the group of seventy-odd scientists were gathered on one of the upper plazas of the Academia, the group forming a semi-circle around a circular ring that stood in the middle of the plaza. Surrounding the ring was a tranquil fountain that would normally have fit right in with the design, were it not for the stairs that led from the floor up to the ring platform in the center of the fountain. He suspected that the entrance to the facility would be hidden, but he had not expected something so cliche as a fountain being used as the disguise. Then again, there were not very many ways to hide a passage that were not cliche these days...
A distant far-off rumble suddenly pricked his ears up as he instinctively tried to locate the source of the noise and he quickly scanned the endless cityscape. It was not hard to find the cause of the noise, even against the massive buildings there was no hiding the massive thunderheads that were rapidly rising above the towers, growing far larger than any normal planetary atmosphere would allow thanks to the miles of warm air trapped in the lower levels of the city. Already the majority of the clouds were beginning to spiral about a center of lower pressure similar in fashion to the hurricanes of ancient days. Seeing the weather formation form so quickly, Az'traal could not help but frown, particularly as he noticed several of his peers turning to look at the unusual storm. Normally storms did not form like this, the back up weather control matrix generally managed to control everything but the excess heat from the city, breaking apart storms using force fields to disrupt the air currents that fed them. Even as he considered this though, the storm continued to exponentially grow until it reached the sun fields where it mushroomed out and began to darken the sky above them with wispy cirrus clouds and darker streamers of altostratus. A sudden chorus of thunder drew everyone's attention back to the spiralling wall of midnight black cloud that had obscured the cityscape off to their relative north, yet was illuminated from within by massive bolts of white, blue, purple and red lightning. As if on cue, sirens began to ring out across the shrouded portions of the city. It was a siren that Az'traal had never thought he would hear in his lifetime: tornado sirens indicating an emergency.
"Everyone inside!" He shouted as he whirled to face the assembled scientists. For once, no one objected and everyone hurried inside quickly as the storm began to slowly move across the landscape, bringing certain death to any caught out in it.

"You know, for uncounted years weather control has been the standard villain means of world domination in children's entertainment holograms." Ico mused idly as he threw the broken body of a weather technician down a staircase into a pile made of his former co-workers. The Abyssal smiled as he turned his attention back to the main screen of the weather control station, watching as the Pandemonium Enforcers under his command used forcefields and various energy waves to form and sustain the massive unnatural hurricane they had created. Even now the monstrous storm had reached several thousand miles across thanks to the virtually unlimited moisture and heat the city below produced. Punching a few controls, Ico called up a detailed hologram of the storm that allowed him to see through it and bear witness to everything that occurred thanks to the station's sensors. As he watched, massive bolts of lightning smashed into buildings, sending waves of energy pulsing out from where the strikes collided with protective forcefields that buffered the buildings against the fierce winds, downpours and electrical storms. The walkways, once bustling with people, were now ominously empty, those who had not managed to reach a building in time having been blown off the edge by the two hundred mile an hour winds or the tornados. The safety fields that had been built into the walkways, being a high-energy projection system, had been among the first targets of the lightning strikes and had been shorted out before they did much good. Such chaos this would cause...
"Sir!" one of his men suddenly shouted from a control panel, "The computer has engaged its tertiary safety protocols! I estimate that in less than a minute it will disperse the storm and we can't block these protocols, they're too high-level."
"Upload the nano-virus, bring the entire network online." Ico said calmly as he watched one of the building shields begin to buckle after sustaining what was probably its thousandth lightning strike. Though the building would probably be able to withstand the winds, any further lightning strikes would cause massive internal damage as circuits exploded from the overload.
"Yes sir, as you command!" the Enforcer said dutifully as he pulled out a nano-disk and sychronized it with the computer, directly inputting the virus right into the communication network for the weather control matrix. In less than a few minutes the virus would have infected every control station in the Rosin Sphere, prematurely activating them and probably eliminating the crews repairing them as the main matrix cores energized. It also might disrupt the command heirarchy between the stations and destroy the communication network that sychronized the actions of each station. If that was the case, his storm would probably take hours to dissipate as the central control computer struggled to force the weather stations back under control.
"Is the virus uploaded?"
"Yes sir."
"Excellent, let's move out, the government will not take long to mobilize a strike force as soon as they figure out that someone has sabotaged the weather matrix. They may not have an official military, but the hidden war machines they have can be reactivated in a minute and would still massacre us." Ico said cooly as he casually dropped a Four Guards insignia on the floor, allowing the badge to bounce underneath a consule, someplace where it could be easily missed unless you were looking for evidence of a crime. After all, no time like the present to begin misleading the authorities.

Inside the Academia, Az'traal and the other scientists stared in shock as the tempest outside tore through the city. Except for the near constant rain of lightning and the sparking of protective shields they would not have even known that the rest of the city was still there, all the lights in the city had gone out and the building mainframes diverted all available power to keeping the protective force fields up. Even as they watched however, shields were beginning to fail on several of the buildings as the atmospheric ionization began to short out even the protected circuitry of the generators. Suddenly however, a brilliant spike of pale blue-green light shot up into the sky from a nearby building and pierced the clouds, dispersing them and allowing sunlight to break through.
"The weather control matrix is attempting to compensate!" Feren said excitedly as several other nearby scientists murmured in agreement and relief. The weather matrix would quickly raise force field barriers and use quintessence waves to neutralize this unusual weather, isolating the storm cells from each other and calming the tempest.
"Wait... Something is wrong." Dr. Locke said a moment later as the storm continued its rampage. "The matrix itself isn't coming online." A moment later her observation was proven true as the pillar of light faded away and a massive bolt of lightning smashed into the weather station, causing several relays to explode in a spectacular display of light and sound. Fortunately the rain immediately doused the fires that had flickered to life in the wake of the lightshow.
"Look, there's another one!" one of the other scientists shouted, pointing to another beam of blue-green light that shot into the clouds in the distance. Unlike the first one however, this beam did not disperse the clouds above it, instead it produced a shockwave that rippled through the storm clouds. In the wake of the shockwave, the wind began to pick up and hail began to fall, shredding the trees that had lined the walkways below. Gasps of awe and shock echoed throughout the room as the assembled scientists began to grasp the fact that the weather matrix was actually strengthening the super-storm. Common sense said that such a thing was impossible though, the weather matrix had three subsets of at least twenty failsafe protocols each designed to prevent this sort of disaster. Not to mention that the last set of protocols could not be cancelled by any known means and had at least one command line that involved evacuating the atmosphere from the entire Rosin Sphere. Granted, that was only a last resort since the individual buildings could only provide a few weeks of air to their inhabitants, but it was guarateed to stop any storm.
A second later Az'traal noticed several dozen jets of fire streaking through the storm, weaving their way inbetween the towering storm battered buildings. Although he could not see what was riding on those rockets, he suspected that they were not emergency rescue vehicles since none of them were veering off to head towards the buildings in distress. Off in the distance, he could see the glimmers of other weather controllers activating, each apparently sustaining or strengthening the storm and soon hail the size of his head was beating against the shields, causing the barriers to flicker as they were suddenly forced to contend with physical impacts instead of electrical assaults. No building would be able to survive for too long in this, their shields would eventually fail and then the structures would be smashed or electrocuted until they were naught but ruins.
"Everyone! Get back from the windows!" Dr. Tibis suddenly shouted, an order which the scientists hurried to obey. No more than two minutes later, a massive bolt of lightning cracked against the shield near them, the heat and thunder cracking the glass and spraying the now empty area with fragments of the supposedly shatter-proof glass. Seeing the damage done, several of the scientists glanced at Dr. Tibis, who simply shrugged and murmured something about stepping back in time. No one inquired further.
After what seemed to be an eternity, Az'traal finally noticed multiple simultaneous glows on the horizon that seemed to be jumping closer. With a start, he realized that the weather matrix was actually functioning, the stations were erecting the weather walls and cutting the storm up into more managable pieces. A second later, the other scientists noticed as a wall of sparkling blue-green energy connected with the damaged station near them before extending to connect with other nearby stations. A few minutes later, every station except the damaged complex shot beams through the black clouds around them, immediately dissolving the storm and revealing a dark, devastated landscape around the Academia. Even the sun fields had shorted out from the electrical discharges, leaving the city illuminated only by the few street lamps that still functioned and the occassional lit window.
Gazing out across the ruins of the sector, Az'traal felt a chill run down his spine. It could not possibly have been an accident that this catastrophe happened today, the day that the Infinium Facility was going to open, it had to have been planned. His mind immediately flicked back to the mysterious Bastion corporation, who had tried to eliminate him once before and had also been investigating the conference. Clearly they knew about Project Infinium and wanted to stop it at any cost, no matter how many people were hurt in the process. Cold rage at Bastion's callous attitude built up inside him and his eyes began to glow menacingly in response.
"I swear Bastion will pay for this..." Az'traal said quietly as he glared across the landscape.
"What was that Az'traal?" Feren asked suddenly, breaking his focused rage and immediately dimming his eyes.
"Nothing... just hoping that the people out there fared as well as we did." Az'traal answered sadly as he dropped his gaze a little. At least it was not a complete lie, he really did hope that those caught out in the storm had survived, they did not deserve to be extinguished for no good reason. He just had not been focusing on those pacticular feelings when she had interrupted him.
"You're a good person Az'traal." Feren said softly as she draped an arm around his shoulders. "I'm sure they're all fine."
"I certainly hope so." Az'traal said, fighting to keep himself calm.

Lunos slowly regained consciousness, initially confused as to where he was. After a moment though, he remembered that he was in the medical wing of his tower, having been rushed here after the tower shields had failed and he had been struck by a hailstone on his spine. Or at least he thought that was what had happened, the last thing he remembered for certain was the shield failure sirens sounding. After that, his memories were rather disjointed; he remembered lying in the medical bay then falling to the floor of his office as something crashed to the floor then... He moaned in pain, causing a nurse to rush over, a medical scanner in his hand.
"Sir, please relax." he admonished the First Guard, leaning over to retrieve an injector pad. Before Lunos could react, the nurse pressed the pad against his neck, allowing the nanomachines in the patch to enter his blood stream immediately, where they would take the nutrients he ingested and use them to synthesize the medications he needed for the next few days. Immediately, Lunos began to feel more relaxed, but he held onto consciousness, not wanting to lie down on the job, not after what had just happened.
"Nurse..." he managed to croak out. "What's going on?" To his dismay though, the nurse had already busied himself with other patients and did not hear him.
"'Tis good to see thee eager to lead thy troops again so quickly." Rayn said from the head of his medical bed. "For some time I feared that thy injury wouldst be the end of thee."
"It will take more than a hailstone to take me down." Lunos said with a little too much bravado, causing the nurse to suddenly glance back in his direction. More concerning though was the distressed look on Rayn's face. "What?"
"'Twas not a hailstone that injured thee... 'Twas a bolt of lightning that injured thee before the hail couldst pelt thee. The master doctor wast barely able to heal thee, so bad were thy internal injuries. At the least, thy nervous system suffered depolarization, we couldst not revive thee."
"I... see..." Lunos said slowly, amazed that he had survived such a dangerous injury. Generally nervous system depolarization resulted in near-immediate brain death with the body following soon after. That he had survived meant that the process had not been instantaneous, probably due to his energy manipulation abilities. After a long moment of silence following his statement, Lunos finally spoke again, finding the silence unbearable. "So, what is our current status?"
"Well, considering the events of the day. Many of thy agents retreated to the storm shelters when the storm came, so they were safe. Only a few dozen were injured like thou was, but none as badly. We hast lost no one." Rayn replied calmly.
"Alright... Although I think we can all guess who was behind the cause of this incident, I want hard facts, not speculation. Assign any spare agents we have to investigate immediately, we had agents guarding several of those weather control stations, I'm sure that one of those teams would know something."
"By thy command."

Copyright (C) 2009 and subsequent years to me.

Constructive criticism are reviews welcome, as always. Thank you for the compliments NightWing, they are appreciated.

Next Section

[NightWing]

Whatever you want to do works for me, I just read them as they come, hehe.

Heck of a virus, that was...

Several minor errors in the beginning portions, but again, negligible things. Out of curiosity, would you mind if I fixed those myself to save you the time?

Also, one thing confused me. In the very first paragraph: "As Hy had put it they had only pointed him down the right path a little sooner, nothing more." Is Hy the name of one of the scientists or was that meant to be something else?

Thanks again for continuing to put this up, still enjoying it ;D

[Lord Rend]

If it is alright then, I think I will just continue posting when I finish chapters, this story is a bit harder to write than Linked Fate, so it would probably be a bad idea to set deadlines for myself. Thank you.

Yeah, that was one nasty virus, particularly considering what they infected with it. Although, it is worth noting that part of the effectiveness was due to the interdependent nature of the weather control grid.

I certainly do not mind if you edit the errors you find for me, in fact I would appreciate it greatly since I have a difficult time finding them all.

AS for the question about Hy, he is one of the scientists. His full name is mentioned in Chapter Eight:

Dr. Hy Cline, the Abyssal in charge of the entropic dynamics division

Thank you again for the review and compliments NightWing. As always, it is appreciated.

[NightWing]

Happy to do what I can, I'm enjoying this, of course I want it to keep going xD

I'll get to work on the errors then, what few there are. Go being an admin? xD

Alright, just thought I'd make sure, I didn't recall. Thanks.

Alright, errors fixed, but one more question. Is this right, or did you transpose it and is?
It is possible they know of our existence?" Lunos asked thoughtfully.

[Lord Rend]

Sorry for taking so long to reply... I have been rather busy lately, I even had to upload Linked Fate a little later than usual.

Indeed, being an administrator is awesome and I really appreciate the offer to proofread my work and correct it. Speaking of which, I did accidentally switch it and is. The sentence should read 'Is it possible they know of our existence?'
I will go and fix that now since I am online currently.

Thank you for your continuing assistance NightWing.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the next couple chapters should be posted this weekend, probably Friday evening.

[NightWing]

No need to apologize, that's understandable

Oh, no problem at all, happy to help. I actually didn't even want this position, it was given to me >_> Kinda just accepted it though.

Like say, happy to help

Alright, cool, I'll read them when they're posted.

[Lord Rend]

Alright, thank you for your patience. Here is the next section of The Revisionist.

[Lord Rend]

Previous Section

Chapter Fourteen
"...And this was the scene earlier yesterday throughout the Rosin Sphere as a massive cascade failure of the weather matrix resulted in a massive sphere-wide storm that damaged many buildings. Authorities have confirmed that only a couple hundred people died as a result of the storm and are still looking for victims, but have stated that many people were rescued by emergency systems. To quote one government official: 'We can thank all of the safeguards we put into place, even when the storm knocked out our first layer of protection we still had several means of keeping people safe.' I think we can all agree with that statement, isn't that right Karla?"
"Indeed Tez, those emergency landing platforms are credited with saving the lives of those who were blown off of the walkways by the fierce storm winds, measured at over four hundred miles an hour in some areas of the city. Most of those who lost their lives in the storm were apparently weather technicians who were caught in the charging pulses of the malfunctioning weather stations. According to some reports, the technicians who perished continued to work on trying to solve the problem even though they knew they would be killed if the cores charged up. The Rosin Council of Governments has scheduled a ceremony later this week to posthumously award those brave men and women the Star of Rosin for going above and beyond the call of duty. Truly both a heart wretching and heart warming story all at the same time."
"Truer words have never been spoken Karla. In the wake of this tragedy, an investigation into..." the news reporter was cut off as Az'traal waved a hand over the projector, turning it off. He really did not want to hear about the government investigation into the cause of the 'accident,' he already knew who was responsible for the attack. If he had any solid conclusive evidence he would take it to the government and let them handle it. Unfortunately, all he had was the unusual actions of the guards at the conference coupled with the attacks from the Icarian and the recent storm. Although, he could not prove that Bastion had been behind the storm, but it made sense, the tempest had started right near the Academia and that was a bit of coincidence in his mind.
Had it not been for the storm, he and the other scientists would be working on Project Infinium right now, but that was not the case since the electrical discharges had shorted out the warp gate to the facility. Even after the gate was repaired, the government would be sending inspectors in to examine all the equipment and circuitry, ensuring that nothing had been damaged by the feedback surge caused when the gate shorted out. It was likely that nothing would be damaged except the regulators which would have blown when the surge attempted to flow through them. The regulators could be easily replaced however, Az'traal suspected that the inspection would take maybe a day or two at most and replacing the regulators might take an hour if they were slow about it. Plenty of time to partake in a little investigation of Bastion.
Granted, he could go all out and sneak into the building and play the part of a covert operative, but there were better ways of getting information. In this case, he would simply walk into the main lobby and inquire at the front desk. If they truly wanted to eliminate him, he would easily be able to sense it before they could kill him and that would definitely give him the evidence he needed to take his case to the government. If he died... well, he had arranged some contingency plans that would at least ensure that the government would learn of the threat. He knew he was taking a risk nonetheless, if he died then he could not help Project Infinium succeed. Then again, as long as Bastion was around the project might not even begin if they continued to attack the project team.

About an hour later Az'traal approached the quintet of towers that formed the Bastion Incorporated company headquarters. He would have been here much sooner, but the transportation system was still a wreak from the storm thanks to the sheer amount of damage it had suffered. Taking a moment to stop and look at the towers, Az'traal used his psychic sight to look into the lobby, checking to see what kind of automated defense systems they might have. To his surprise, the lobby itself actually had nothing beyond a silent alarm terminal under the front desk, most of the defensive systems seemed to be focused in the side halls. At least he would not have to worry about being shot as soon as he entered...
Taking a deep breath and again convincing himself this was a foolhardy move, Az'traal walked forward anyway, determined to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible. Others might have time for playing spy, but Project Infinium could not wait for a covert investigation to complete. As he entered the lobby itself, he noted several functionaries look at him in idle curiosity before turning their attention back to their tasks. Evidently he was not on the top ten list yet Az'traal concluded wryly as he headed for one of the desks. As he approached, the secretary looked up at him and smiled, although her smile abruptly died as she leaned forward as if trying to get a better look at him. Now he was getting somewhere... he thought as he leaned on the desk and smiled at the woman.
"C...can I help you sir?" the secretary asked nervously as if Az'traal was just going to dispatch right then and there.
"I think you know why I am here." he replied, his smile becoming slightly feral as he answered.
"I... can't even begin to imagine."
"You just pressed the silent alarm, I can read it in your mind." Az'traal answered as his telekinetic shield flared to life around him, throwing the desk into the air as it was caught by the edge of the transparent barrier. A few seconds later and the hallways reverberated with the sounds of running boots and lines of security guards wielding dangerous looking energy rifles formed ranks around him. When they opened fire, his shield would probably be overpowered in a matter of seconds, but he had no intention of allowing them to shoot him. Quickly sweeping his hands above his head, Az'traal ripped up the floor plates underneath the guards, sending them flailing back into the compatriots. Bringing his hands back down so they were pointing straight out from him, he whirled around, sending the squares of metal spinning outward from him, knocking the guns still aimed at him out of the hands of their owners. Clapping his hands together, he formed a massive telekinetic 'flower' around himself and slammed the 'petals' down onto the men and women surrounding him, blanketing them in a wall of air that prevented them from getting back onto their feet. As the guards struggled against their bonds, Az'traal gestured toward the secretary with his index finger, telekinetically pulling her toward him.
"Now... I want... answers..." he said slowly, panting slightly as he worked to maintain his hold on everyone around him. Such massive telekinetic displays were very draining, it was much easier to manipulate individual atoms and molecules than it was to hold people against their wills, it was a simple matter of size since telekinetic powers were more affected by absolute mass and energy than by the relative magnitude of those forces. In this case though, the sheer number of air molecules he was forming into a reinforced solid was straining his focus.
"I can't give you any!" his captive yelled fiercely as she struggled to punch him, perhaps sensing that he was weakening from the effort.
"Very well, I will find them myself." Az'traal said coldly as he closed his eyes and focused on the ceiling above him. After making sure of his focus, he sweep his arms out and up, sending the guards and secretary flying as he tore apart the molecular bonds of the ceiling metal, reducing it to gas instantly amd allowing him to fly up through the hole he had created. As he landed on the next floor up, he could hear the confused and angry shouts of the people in the lobby below. However, he had no time to worry about them really, he needed to find a ready computer terminal or perhaps a computer technician before they found him again. Not that it would take long to do so in this sensor saturated building, so avoiding being found depended more on his ability to keep moving than his stealth ability.

"WHAT?!" Lunos shouted in anger, almost rolling out of his medical bed as he did so. "What do you mean an Iodat is here in the building? Hesten, this is bad... The only reason why Az'traal would be here is he knows about us and is here to gather enough evidence to report our existence to the government. Hath, I can only think of one way to salvage this situation and even then it might not work."
"Sir?"
"Your species is resistant to mind reading and empathy, so you're the only one who can deliver my message without him immediately knowing it is a deception."
"Of course sir, what message shall I deliver for you?"
"A unique offer, mixed with a little truth to make the lie harder to find..." Lunos said as Hath leaned in to hear him clearly.

Az'traal hurried down a ruined hallway in the first tower he had entered, amazed at the damage that seemed quite prevalent throughout the building. If Bastion had been responsible for the storm one would think that they would have shielded their buildings against the elemental assault a little better. Maybe he had made a mistake, or maybe he was looking at damage that resulted from some other incident entirely. In any case, once he accessed the computer network he would be able to investigate fully unless the relevant security files had been deleted. In that case, he still would probably be able to find information he could use to expose this organization. Provided, of course, they he could find and catch up with anyone. Considering the size of the building there was hardly anyone here, it was only thanks to his empathy that he knew the building was not completely abandoned.
At long last he found the person he was looking for, it was not anyone in particular, but the man was a computer technician and therefore was of use in his quest. Given the right motivation of course, Az'traal thought as he closed his eyes and focused on the man.

Kreen looked down at his pad, trying not to worry too much about the intruder alert that had been reported in the street levels of the building. He was at least several dozen floors above the level the Iodat had last been sighted on, so it might be probably unlikely that he would have the misfortune of running into the Iodat. Still, he could not stop from worrying about it. According to his mother he was too easily worried and paranoid for his own good. It came as a shock to him then when he almost ran straight into Lunos as he turned the corner.
"You, technician, come with me." Lunos commanded him as the First Guard turned and headed for the nearest computer terminal.
"Er... Y-yes sir." the Panked stammered as he ran to catch up with the imposing Feral. "M-might I ask why you need me sir? I mean, I-I'm just a mid-level computer technician in charge of archiving computer records."
"That is exactly why I want you, you know exactly where in the mainframe all our operational data is stored. I need you to find it so I can begin a full deletion before that infernal Iodat manages to find his way to an unsecured terminal." Lunos said gruffly, gesturing to the terminal.
"But wouldn't a network master be more appropriate for that task sir?" Kreen asked, fearing that he might soon be out of a job for questioning the First Guard.
"Remember, all our network masters were killed when Rinth's agents destroyed the coordination center." Lunos grumbled.
"I'm sorry sir, I'm pretty low on the grapevine, I hadn't heard that." Kreen said mournfully. Although he knew little about the operation of the Four Guards beyond archiving, he had been personally involved in the Enforcer's attack on the other Guards after Silv had died. However, he had not heard that all the network masters were dead, but the coordination center had been destroyed during the insurrection, so it was a distinct possibility.
"Really? I can see that we'll need to improve communication within the computing department again." Lunos growled as Kreen accessed the computer and began looking up the files that Lunos had requested of him.

Az'traal continued to maintain his focus on the technician, ignoring the trickle of blood that was staining his silver fur crimson as it ran down his face from his nose. He had to gain access to the computer records before the Four Guards could wipe their mainframe, even if it meant taxing his abilities and injuring himself a little. In just a few seconds it would be over at least and he could relax for a minute.
"Please release that technician from your illusion." a voice suddenly said from behind him, temporarily breaking Az'traal's concentration as he spun to confront this new threat. Unfortunately, even that momentary lapse was enough and he heard Kreen gasp from behind him as the complicated memory access/ illusion weave collapsed.
"Fantastic..." he grumbled quietly as he focused on the person who had interrupted him, knowing that he could always track the technician down again after he had dealt with this distraction. It was not a guard as he had expected, but rather was a young woman in a long ankle-length business dress that was slightly form-fitting, enough to be attractive but not overly provocative. Her startling white irises and translucent hair immediately marked her as a member of the Raani race, a race known for their near-immunity to telepathic powers.
"Thank you, I know it must be suspicious that I'm not attacking or anything, but I'm not here to fight, only to talk." she said smoothly, although she was visibly shaking with nervousness, causing small, dim rainbows to diffract through her prism-like hair. "I know it must also be suspicious that the First Guard would send a representative who is resistant to telepathic probing. To put it simply, we don't trust you to not try and do to us what you did to that poor technician."
"Understandable." Az'traal said cautiously, alert for any ambush or deception. "I am not unreasonable though, you do not have a weapon leveled at me so I will not attack you."
"Thank you." the Raani said with relief before she composed herself again. "My name is Hath and I have been sent by the First Guard to negotiate with you. We'll begin with a simple explanation of what is going on here."
"Sure." Az'traal stated idly, certain that the woman was not going to tell him a single word of truth.
"To begin, Bastion is a front for a secret organization known as the Four Guards." Hath admitted, causing Az'traal to cock an eyebrow in surprise. He had not expected such an outright confession, despite the obvious truth of it before him. After letting that sink in for a moment, Hath continued, "Now, despite what you may think of our organization, most of us have only ever been dedicated to the preservation of the Rosin Union, thus we always investigate scientific conferences and so forth to ensure nothing developed there is a threat to the Union. Unfortunately, there developed within our organization some disillusioned elements who grew tired of our endless vigil. This discontent was passed down through the years and festered until it became a desire to see the Union destroyed. When Third Guard Silv made the mistake of attacking you and died as a result, the only person capable of keeping these rebel elements in check was gone. They rose up against the rest of us and left, killing as many of us as they could to ensure that we could not stop them. Considering the nature of our organization, we could not report this to the government or else we would be arrested ourselves and our testimony would go unheard."
"I see, although I must question why you are being so free with your information now." Az'traal said sarcastically.
"The answer is two-fold. First, we had an agent amidst the scientists now working on Project Infinium, but we lost contact with him just after Silv was killed. Combined with the storm that struck yesterday, we are afraid that the splinter factions of our organization are moving against Project Infinium. Knowing how important this research is to the future of the Rosin Union, we need someone to counter the agent they might have among the project team. While initially your knowledge of our existence was a threat that we were about to deal with, conditions have shifted our view on the situation to such that you are an asset since you could act as a new agent for us without the need to spread knowledge of our existence any further than it already has spread."
"So you are asking me to..."
"Correct, Mr. Az'traal, we want you to join the Four Guards and help safeguard the future of the Rosin Union."

Chapter Fifteen
"I must express my doubt as to your intentions." Az'traal said calmly, masking the surprise he felt at the offer. Once again he was surprised at the unexpected turn of events: first the confession had thrown him off then this offer had further confused him. Everything was conspiring to lead him to believe that the Four Guards truly were acting in the best interests of the Rosin Union, but he was loathe to believe that given his own experiences. Likely the truth of the matter lay somewhere in-between his own perceptions and the tale Hath was weaving for him. Still, this presented opportunities for him to gather further information beyond what he already had and would probably give him more leeway to work with. Besides, there were other issues at stake that were far more exclusive...
"Although, I suppose if I refuse your offer I will likely be dead in a matter of seconds, correct?" Az'traal asked rhetorically with a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his feline nose in frustration. It was a setup that was so cliche as to make it into movies as well as being a sensible precaution in situations such as this. Hath must have sensed that his question was rhetorical since she provided no answer or else she simply preferred to let him assume what he would about the current situation. Even if she had said no he probably would not believe her in any case.
"Very well, Ms. Hath, I will join your little band of miscreants, if only to protect Project Infinium and the Rosin Union. Do I have to fill out any paperwork or do words still hold some value for you people?" Az'traal asked after a moment of further reflection.
"A simple verbal agreement will suffice, particularly since we are talking about the future of our civilization. Besides, if you betray us you will have to live with the knowledge that you have condemned our universe and I doubt you're that vile." Hath said coolly "Not that you'd live long after betraying us, only long enough to finish Project Infinium I'm certain. Of course, that might still be your fate..."
"Surely you are not implying that the government is corrupt?" Az'traal asked sarcastically. Despite the persistent problems of suppressed bias and the constant rumors of stockpiled warmachines, the government was remarkably honest and responsive to the needs of its citizens, considering the vast span of the Union.
"Not particularly." Hath answered vaguely with a wave of a hand. "I'm saying that even with your help we might fail to stop the splinter faction."
"You have a wonderful way of reassuring people, you know that?"
"I'm an analyst, above all things I know that the future is uncertain and events cannot always unfold as we desire." Hath said with a shrug. "However, we are wasting precious time, we have equipment to give you if you are to succeed. Please follow me and we'll get you ready."

Lunos watched as Hath began leading the Iodat to one of the equipment rooms, finally releasing a breath he had not realized he had been holding until now. It was a relief that the Iodat was willing to work with them for now, although Lunos was still suspicious of his motives, particularly considering that it had been too easy to convince this Az'traal to side with them. He would never give them all the information they required certainly he would never tell them how to find Project Infinium so they could destroy or safeguard it. To find that out, other methods would be necessary.
"Network Master." he announced suddenly, causing the statuesque woman standing in the middle of the processing center to look up from the screen she was leaning over.
"Yes First Guard? How may I be of service?"
"Find out which Guard badge Hath is giving our Iodat friend and upload a covert homing program into it. I want to know where he is going at all times and this may allow us to find where Infinium is."
"I shall do so at once sir." the network master said tonelessly as she opened up a panel on her forearm and began inputting commands into the miniature computer stored there. After a second she looked up at Lunos and nodded, confirming that she had done as instructed.
Lunos grinned smugly to himself as he turned back to the monitors, watching as Hath handed Az'traal the bugged Guard badge, a communicator and a stun pen. It would be much easier to find Project Infinium if Az'traal led them to it, and he would now that he had touched the badge, allowing a couple hundred nanomachines to move onto him where they would form an organic homing beacon built from Az'traal's own shed fur. This organic homing beacon would produce minute amounts of a chemical compound that, when exposed to a specific frequency and wavelength of light, would reflect the signal back to the Bastion building. This would allow them to triangulate the location of the Infinium complex instead of forcing them to track the supply lines that might lead to the project. Once they found the location, it was only a matter of time before the project could be destroyed, namely since they would have to hunt down the remainder of the rogue agents first. They had already done significant damage and alerted the government that something was being hidden from them and that would inevitably mean that the Four Guards would be found and arrested for subversion. The government was relentless, they would never stop until they had uncovered the entire truth of the matter and once they knew that, the real crackdown would begin. He had previously expressed his concerns on this to Hath, but his assistant had assured him they were still safe, something which was no longer true. They could delay it as long as possible, but the fate of the Four Guards was sealed. Fortunately they had planned for this, and as soon as Az'traal had left the building he would have to finally make the announcement he had been avoiding since the storm had ripped through the Sphere.

After nearly an hour, Az'traal exited the main Bastion tower complex, glancing momentarily back over his shoulder as he walked out into the surprisingly empty walkways. Looking back at the small badge he held in his hand he shook his head and then launched himself into the air, eager to put as much distance between the Bastion building and himself as possible. Despite the friendly demeanor that had been extended to him once he had agreed to help them, he was certain that the Four Guards were not to be trusted. Maybe it would be for the best if he found someone in the government to talk to... he would need to find one as soon as he returned home.

After Az'traal left, Hath made her way to Lunos's office to find him slumped in his chair, defeat evident in every bit of his posture. It concerned her she had to admit, that he had been brooding alone like this rather than yelling at someone or figuring out a way to salvage the situation. Even more telling he did not even seem excited with the potential resources they had gained in the Iodat, which was unusual since he would likely lead them to Project Infinium. She took a deep breath, knowing that simple speculation would not concretely answer her questions.
"Is something the matter Lunos?"
"It's over, despite everything we have achieved we've come to the end of our tale." Lunos said bitterly, causing Hath to recoil at the fatalism of his statements. "Even with Az'traal helping us, there's no guarantee that we'll survive long enough to destroy Infinium, and even if we do, we'll be rounded up soon afterward."
"What do you mean?"
"Hath, you haven't considered the full impact of the storm that Rinth's agents unleashed. There's no way the government will accept it as a tragic malfunction, they have to know it was sabotage, which means that we're as good as exposed. You know as well as I the government is relentless in eliminating any threats to the safety of the general public. It's over, I have to activate the Final Protocol."
"I don't think we need to-" she began, but then paused as she considered everything Lunos had said. He was correct, the Four Guards would not survive an governmental inquisition and these people deserved the opportunity to escape into anonymity before it was too late. Perhaps those who left could restart the Guards once the government was finished dissecting the organization's corpse. All she could do now was nod in silent acknowledgment of his conclusions. As she did so, Lunos brought up the communications system for the entire building as well as any field agents.
"Attention all members of the Four Guards, the Final Protocol is now in effect, our existence has been effectively made known to the government, meaning that it is only a matter of time before they raid this building and arrest our agents. Those of you who wish to avoid this, for whatever reason, please turn in your badges and equipment at the end of the day so that we can erase you from all our records. It has been a pleasure working with all of you, I'm sorry it had to end this way, First Guard out." Lunos announced without inflection, his face a mask hiding the distress he had to be feeling at making such an announcement. As he finished, he closed the communications window and rocked back heavily in his chair, his eyes staring straight ahead at nothing. "It's over Hath, let's just hope that enough agents stay to allow us the chance to dismantle Infinium."
"As do I sir."

Copyright (C) 2009 and subsequent years to me.

As before, reviews, comments and critiques are welcome. My continuing thanks to NightWing for your assistance, proofreading and reviews.

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