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Split Infinity
MY2374
I sat on the couch in Pravin’s office, fungal gin in my hand, listening to the Commissioner’s rationale. For two Planet years now we had been pouring resources into a Special Project that we had codenamed Threshold to Transcendence, which was an attempt to lay the groundwork for a push to the ultimate goal - Ascent to Transcendence. I had diverted energy, and converted most of our mineral collecting crawlers to energy collectors, and we anticipated in these next few days completing the project. The Commissioner, however, was troubled.
“Tazeem”, he began, “I am concerned about Lady Deirdre and her followers “. My heart skipped a beat – this was not what I was expecting. “Go on”, I encouraged.
“Well, they have been so supportive of us over the past 100 years or so, particularly when Yang was threatening us, and were close allies in the Spartan war. We have become close to them, and they to us, with many intermarriages and personal relationships”.
I almost dropped my fungal gin glass – did he know, I wondered?
“You yourself have a deep relationship with the Gaians” - he knew, how? – "which is why I have turned to you for advice.”
How did he know – my mind raced even as he continued. Jamie Fraser, or more correctly Lord Fraser, and I were lovers, clandestinely I thought. (Jamie is the Gaian ambassador to UN Headquarters Base). Only my brother, Javed, knew, I thought. (It is hard to keep things from Javed, telepathically linked as he is to Planet itself through the mindworm net). Then I remembered: Jamie’s sister, Sheila, is the mindworm commander for the Gaian Mindworm Corps, so she too would know, and Sheila was one of Lady Deirdre’s closest friends. Aha..
“If you have understood Transcendence , Tazeem,” he said, “you will know that we intend to become one with Planet, and leave our bodies, joining together for an eternity among the stars. No physical being, but pure thought. I would like to invite the Gaians to share the journey with us, as they share our values and beliefs, but I need proof of their sincerity and commitment – the depth of their friendship for and trust in us.
I want you to devise a test before I take the final step of inviting the Lady and her followers on this journey with us.”
I left his office and went to Jamie’s quarters. Together we devised the test, and made our preparations.
******************************************
I called the Planetary Council to order. For an issue as important as this, we met in virtual session, in our Executive Boardroom at UN Headquarters. Physically present were the Commissioner, General Gupta, both my Mother and father, and both my brothers, and the ambassadors of the other factions including Jamie. Present via hologram were the other planetary leaders. I looked across the room at Jamie, nodded to him, and depressed the green button on my commlink.
Motion: “To elect Commissioner Pravin Lal as Supreme Leader. How do you vote?”
As was customary, the motion presenter voted first. I cast the 818 votes of the peacekeepers in favor.
As was to be expected, Chairman Yang and Colonel Santiago voted against – 439 combined votes. Sister Miriam and Provost Zakharov , both minor factions, voted in favor, adding 103 votes. CEO Morgan surprised us all, voting in favor even although he was in vendetta against us. This added another 67 votes.
The tally was now 988 for and 439 against. The magic number (3/4 of the total votes available) was 1678 (out of 2238 available). All eyes were now on Lady Deirdre.
She gently smiled at us, from the hologram. It seemed to everyone present that she was looking directly at each one individually, and talking directly to each.
“Pravin,” she began, “let me say that of all of us it has been you who have so steadfastly upheld the ideals of our original mission, through adversity and victory. You have remained Noble throughout these years, Magnanimous in your dealings with us all, and now Unsurpassed militarily. It would be a privilege and an honor to unite behind you as Supreme Leader.”
I heaved a sigh of relief, and glanced over at Jamie. I nodded slightly and he acknowledged. She had passed the test. We each surreptitiously depressed the red button on our synchronized commlinks.
****************************************
High above Planet, the 28 Peacekeeping and 11 Gaian orbital satellites acknowledged the command, and powered down the stasis generators and adapted blink displacers that had created the temporal timewarp. Planet resumed its revolution around its axis. I deactivated my personal stasis field, as did Jamie.
I spoke. “Motion: To launch a solar shade. How do you vote?”
Only Jamie and I were aware of the timelapse – to the others, the temporal continuum had not been breached. Jamie had been skeptical at first. "Isn't there some universe Ironman rule or something that is meant to prevent that kind of tampering with time?" he queried. I replied "Our temporal mechanics have found a way of stopping Planet, saving its station in the cosmos through controlled singularity keys, and restarting at that position after we have explored the alternate timeline."
******************************************
That evening, I was debriefing the Commissioner, replaying the vidcom of the blinked council session. His eyes teared over, as he watched Lady Deirdre’s gracious acceptance of his leadership.
“We will invite her to join us in our journey”
******************************************
MY2376
The Commlink crackled. “Come in Delta 4, what is the status?”
Perez swore softly to himself. How could he explain this?
“Colonel, I am standing on a small hill overlooking the central plaza of UN Headquarters. There was no resistance to my entering the base. The base itself is deserted. There is a new edifice in the plaza since our probes last visited, emitting an overpowering energy beam into space that dwarfs even the Space Elevator we saw in the UN Equality Village”.
“Move in”, the Colonel ordered. Perez again swore, and moved into the plaza. Strangely he was not harmed by the energy, instead he felt a sense of wonder, of calm, of togetherness, as though he was a part of something much bigger, the cosmos itself. He jerked to attention. There were bodies everywhere, holding hands, lying at peace all around the plaza square. He could see monolith shapes, reminiscent of old vidshows of Stonehenge, back on old Earth. The energy was flowing from them, all around, and towering into space itself.
“Colonel”, he rasped, “It looks like mass suicide”.
Santiago came on-line. “Exactly the report that Chairman Yang datavised over when his troops entered Gaia’s Landing. What is going on?”
******************************************
If they could have, Pravin and Deirdre would have shared a knowing smile, as they empathed their agreement to Planet's question, “Can we prune the branches now?”
[This message has been edited by Googlie (edited June 03, 1999).]
MY2374
I sat on the couch in Pravin’s office, fungal gin in my hand, listening to the Commissioner’s rationale. For two Planet years now we had been pouring resources into a Special Project that we had codenamed Threshold to Transcendence, which was an attempt to lay the groundwork for a push to the ultimate goal - Ascent to Transcendence. I had diverted energy, and converted most of our mineral collecting crawlers to energy collectors, and we anticipated in these next few days completing the project. The Commissioner, however, was troubled.
“Tazeem”, he began, “I am concerned about Lady Deirdre and her followers “. My heart skipped a beat – this was not what I was expecting. “Go on”, I encouraged.
“Well, they have been so supportive of us over the past 100 years or so, particularly when Yang was threatening us, and were close allies in the Spartan war. We have become close to them, and they to us, with many intermarriages and personal relationships”.
I almost dropped my fungal gin glass – did he know, I wondered?
“You yourself have a deep relationship with the Gaians” - he knew, how? – "which is why I have turned to you for advice.”
How did he know – my mind raced even as he continued. Jamie Fraser, or more correctly Lord Fraser, and I were lovers, clandestinely I thought. (Jamie is the Gaian ambassador to UN Headquarters Base). Only my brother, Javed, knew, I thought. (It is hard to keep things from Javed, telepathically linked as he is to Planet itself through the mindworm net). Then I remembered: Jamie’s sister, Sheila, is the mindworm commander for the Gaian Mindworm Corps, so she too would know, and Sheila was one of Lady Deirdre’s closest friends. Aha..
“If you have understood Transcendence , Tazeem,” he said, “you will know that we intend to become one with Planet, and leave our bodies, joining together for an eternity among the stars. No physical being, but pure thought. I would like to invite the Gaians to share the journey with us, as they share our values and beliefs, but I need proof of their sincerity and commitment – the depth of their friendship for and trust in us.
I want you to devise a test before I take the final step of inviting the Lady and her followers on this journey with us.”
I left his office and went to Jamie’s quarters. Together we devised the test, and made our preparations.
******************************************
I called the Planetary Council to order. For an issue as important as this, we met in virtual session, in our Executive Boardroom at UN Headquarters. Physically present were the Commissioner, General Gupta, both my Mother and father, and both my brothers, and the ambassadors of the other factions including Jamie. Present via hologram were the other planetary leaders. I looked across the room at Jamie, nodded to him, and depressed the green button on my commlink.
Motion: “To elect Commissioner Pravin Lal as Supreme Leader. How do you vote?”
As was customary, the motion presenter voted first. I cast the 818 votes of the peacekeepers in favor.
As was to be expected, Chairman Yang and Colonel Santiago voted against – 439 combined votes. Sister Miriam and Provost Zakharov , both minor factions, voted in favor, adding 103 votes. CEO Morgan surprised us all, voting in favor even although he was in vendetta against us. This added another 67 votes.
The tally was now 988 for and 439 against. The magic number (3/4 of the total votes available) was 1678 (out of 2238 available). All eyes were now on Lady Deirdre.
She gently smiled at us, from the hologram. It seemed to everyone present that she was looking directly at each one individually, and talking directly to each.
“Pravin,” she began, “let me say that of all of us it has been you who have so steadfastly upheld the ideals of our original mission, through adversity and victory. You have remained Noble throughout these years, Magnanimous in your dealings with us all, and now Unsurpassed militarily. It would be a privilege and an honor to unite behind you as Supreme Leader.”
I heaved a sigh of relief, and glanced over at Jamie. I nodded slightly and he acknowledged. She had passed the test. We each surreptitiously depressed the red button on our synchronized commlinks.
****************************************
High above Planet, the 28 Peacekeeping and 11 Gaian orbital satellites acknowledged the command, and powered down the stasis generators and adapted blink displacers that had created the temporal timewarp. Planet resumed its revolution around its axis. I deactivated my personal stasis field, as did Jamie.
I spoke. “Motion: To launch a solar shade. How do you vote?”
Only Jamie and I were aware of the timelapse – to the others, the temporal continuum had not been breached. Jamie had been skeptical at first. "Isn't there some universe Ironman rule or something that is meant to prevent that kind of tampering with time?" he queried. I replied "Our temporal mechanics have found a way of stopping Planet, saving its station in the cosmos through controlled singularity keys, and restarting at that position after we have explored the alternate timeline."
******************************************
That evening, I was debriefing the Commissioner, replaying the vidcom of the blinked council session. His eyes teared over, as he watched Lady Deirdre’s gracious acceptance of his leadership.
“We will invite her to join us in our journey”
******************************************
MY2376
The Commlink crackled. “Come in Delta 4, what is the status?”
Perez swore softly to himself. How could he explain this?
“Colonel, I am standing on a small hill overlooking the central plaza of UN Headquarters. There was no resistance to my entering the base. The base itself is deserted. There is a new edifice in the plaza since our probes last visited, emitting an overpowering energy beam into space that dwarfs even the Space Elevator we saw in the UN Equality Village”.
“Move in”, the Colonel ordered. Perez again swore, and moved into the plaza. Strangely he was not harmed by the energy, instead he felt a sense of wonder, of calm, of togetherness, as though he was a part of something much bigger, the cosmos itself. He jerked to attention. There were bodies everywhere, holding hands, lying at peace all around the plaza square. He could see monolith shapes, reminiscent of old vidshows of Stonehenge, back on old Earth. The energy was flowing from them, all around, and towering into space itself.
“Colonel”, he rasped, “It looks like mass suicide”.
Santiago came on-line. “Exactly the report that Chairman Yang datavised over when his troops entered Gaia’s Landing. What is going on?”
******************************************
If they could have, Pravin and Deirdre would have shared a knowing smile, as they empathed their agreement to Planet's question, “Can we prune the branches now?”
[This message has been edited by Googlie (edited June 03, 1999).]