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First Speaker
Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri: First Speaker
Data Entry Received and Validated. Personal Memoirs, First Speaker, Gaia’s Landing.
I have finally completed my personal memoirs, written at the request of my friend Lady Deirdre Skye. I now prepare to go my way to the Shining One, since my life upon this globe some call Planet is now drawing to a close. Not all Lady Deirdre’s empathic gifts, nor all today’s rejuvenation and longevity technology, can keep me upon Planet forever.
Prologue
Gaia’s Landing, MY2,264, June 6th, 9 noon
Lady Deirdre Skye sighed as she wandered through the famous White Pine Plantation in the courtyard of Gaia’s Landing. In the years since Planetfall, Planet had never seen a conflict like this. Every faction save the Gaians had taken a side. Ranged against the alliance of the Human Hive, the Lord’s Believers and the Morganites was the University of Planet, the Spartan Federation and the UN Peacekeepers. The Stepdaughters of Planet could be the deciding force behind this conflict - but their pacifistic tendencies decreed that they would take a side only when every other option had been explored. Currently, Lady Deirdre was engaged in an attempt to reconcile both sides, but it now seemed unlikely. A Spartan X Tachyon Rover had met a Hive Missile Artillery unit and had armed its chemical weapons before destroying the paralysed Artillery. Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang had walked out of the peace talks in disgust when this news reached him, and it now seemed unlikely that the Hive and the Spartans would ever reconcile. However, progress had been seen with the Morganites and the University/Peacekeeper alliance, although the Morganites’ strong affiliation with the Lord’s Believers (and above all the fact that the Believers had an outstanding loan of 400 energy credits from the Morganites!) prevented them from talking Truce at the moment.
Deirdre knew she was walking through a potential minefield. Currently the Gaian faction was not at war with any other, and Deirdre had been careful to maintain only two Pacts of Sister/Brotherhood - one with the Morganites and one with the Peacekeepers (the two least violent and least antagonistic factions next to the Gaians) - in the hope that this would be a bridge between the two sides.
Absently, she scanned through her latest reports, until one in particular caught her eye. The report of alien sightings...
Dismissed by many as an interesting but inconsequential phenomenon, scoffed at by others as the delusions of a single denizen of a Sky Hydroponics Lab, taken up fervently by the impressionable as either an opportunity for peace or one for destruction. How, wondered Lady Deirdre, could a single report cause so much dissent and division?
Reaching out with her empathic powers, she began to scan Planet’s neural net - and gasped at the turmoil she felt. Not since the final dissipation of the Churn had Planet’s distress been this marked.
There was a distinct split of opinion in Planet’s neural net. It seemed as though there were two - dare she call them factions? - one which advocated contact with the aliens, and one which urged caution. The strife was incredible - she felt as though her body would split in two.
Quickly, she withdrew from the net, only to hear a wild scream from somewhere to her left. The Centauri Preserve!
She raced towards it. Hordes of mindworms were lashing against the dome with all the strength they had. Tendrils of fungus thrashed as they sought an exit from their imprisonment.
Planet was rising...
* * * * *
UN Headquarters, 9 noon
Commissioner Pravin Lal was at that moment overseeing the military preparations for the latest Peacekeeper offensive against the Human Hive. The two factions were the first to exchange communications frequencies, and from the start there had been mutual distrust and dislike. Lal abhorred Sheng-ji Yang’s social experiments and his vicious and brutal dictatorship, and Yang in his turn was horrified by Lal’s democratic policies and his trust in diplomacy to right all wrongs.
Consequently, Yang had been the first to open hostilities, by accusing Lal of harbouring traitors against the Hive - actually escapees from one of Yang’s more barbaric social experiments. Lal had not dignified this accusation with a response, and so in MY2,250 the first shot was fired. Three outlying Peacekeeper bases had been captured before Lal’s troops could make it to the Peacekeeper/Hive boundary. However, Lal’s forces had quickly recaptured these bases, and then pressed on into Hive territory. Two Hive bases had been annexed before Hive reinforcements arrived, and battle was joined.
Pacts of Brotherhood and Sisterhood had been activated without delay, and the comm channels had fairly buzzed with threats and Vendetta declarations. Within the space of a few hours, three factions had joined battle with another three. The University, Peacekeepers and Spartan Federation were now engaged in a pitched battle against the Lord’s Believers, Hive and Morganites.
Lal sighed. His pacifistic tendencies screamed at him every time he gave the order for more troops to be recruited or a base to be assaulted, but it must be done. The evil Hive must not be allowed to terrorise their defenceless subjects any longer. Together, the three factions loyal to the UN Charter for this mission would liberate the citizens from social experimentation, religious fanaticism and blatant wealth-grabbing. Together...
* * * * *
Outskirts of Gaia’s Landing, 1.34 p.m.
Prime Function Aki Zeta-5 of the Cybernetic Consciousness closed her eyes and concentrated. Within a split-second, her mind achieved uplink with every single other member of the Consciousness. Finally...
She breathed deeply, her human side revelling in the power, her cybernetic implants revelling in the prospects. Quickly, she sent out the rallying call which would bring every single Consciousness-controlled body to her current position.
With one mental command, she opened her communication implant, and asked for an audience with Lady Deirdre Skye. Soon, the Consciousness would acquire its first base...
University Base, 1.50 p.m.
Academician Prokhor Zakharov’s fist made a loud crunching noise as he brought it down upon his datapad. Damn Yang to the lowest reaches of Hell! Another two bases lost! If Santiago did not send her troops soon, his people would be eliminated, wiped off Planet’s surface forever.
One by one, his bases had fallen before the might of the Hive’s armies. Now only two - Bibliothek Letters and University Base - remained to him, and these were poorly-defended.
Zakharov snorted. Where had all his technological research, all his quest for knowledge got him? Here, stuck in a hell-hole of a headquarters, in the middle of a mish-mash city, with only a few defenders staffing the defensive perimeter. All his technologies, so carefully saved up, were now all in the hands of the enemy, and his one tenuous advantage was gone, dissipated without trace.
He realised he was thinking to himself in rhetoric. Should he give in, and surrender to the Hive, or placate them with everything he had and hope against hope to hang on until Corazon Santiago’s armies arrived? Or should he attempt to procure a base within the environs of one of his allies’ territory, and hang on to his tenuous hold on life that way?
Sighing, he reached over and activated his commlink...
* * * * *
Gaia’s Landing, 1.56 p.m.
The commlink bleeped, and Lady Deirdre reached over to turn it on, then hesitated. Usually, when the leader of another faction contacted her, a hologram of their emblem would be displayed, floating in the air above the commlink. This time, however, she had never seen the emblem which manifested itself before. It was in the form of a black-bordered, light green triangle with a darker green point at each corner and a green circle in the centre.
With more than a little trepidation, Deirdre activated her commlink. As usual, the emblem melted into the commlink base and a hologrammatic figure of the caller formed.
Deirdre didn’t recognise the figure. Although she was only one-eighth her normal size, the woman radiated calm confidence and serenity. She had shoulder-length white-blonde hair, unusually tightly curled, and the silver diamond-shaped implants which identified her as a member of the Cybernetic Consciousness. Her skin was pale and slightly waxen, and her eyes, light blue in colour, were expressionless and cold, but deep with knowledge.
She spoke.
"Lady Deirdre."
Her voice was strangely flat and emotionless, yet still it resounded with wisdom.
"We come before you today to offer you a deal. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Prime Function Aki Zeta-5."
Aki...Aki...Finally the name clicked. Aki Jaydo, one of Brother Lal’s most favoured Talents, thought dead at the Battle for Sparta Command. Lal had held a Day of Mourning throughout all his bases in her honour - only for her to turn up at UN Headquarters, seemingly reincarnated and now in the persona of Aki Zeta-5, self-styled Prime Function of the newly formed Cybernetic Consciousness.
Aki Zeta-5’s voice broke through her thoughts.
"We have received word that your territory is being slowly appropriated by the Lord’s Believers. We have come to the conclusion that Sister Miriam Godwinson will not cease from her efforts until you have been eliminated."
Deirdre started. It was as though this woman was reading her thoughts. Barely an hour before, Sister Miriam Godwinson had called her and declared Vendetta upon her. Instantly, her troops had boiled out of the xenofungus where they had been hidden, and had overwhelmed three of the seven Gaian bases left in existence. Even now Last Rose of Summer and Gaia’s High Garden were being fortified against the Believer threat, which was already proceeding towards those two bases at an alarming rate.
Miriam had begun her southerly encroachments at about the same time as the Cult of Planet broke through her forward lines and began taking her bases. The Believers were terrified of the Cult, whose fervour matched their own and whose mind worm boils were overrunning Believer bases faster than they could be defended. As a result, Believer holdings were diminishing at an alarming rate in the south, and Miriam had turned her attentions north, to the Gaians’ southern domains, desperately conquering bases as the tide of the Cult of Planet eroded her defences in the south.
If this river of Believing troops could not be dammed, the Gaians would quickly be eliminated - they had few energy credits to spare on defences, and their armouring technology was not advanced enough to defend satisfactorily against the might of the Believing weaponry.
Deirdre leaned forward.
"Consider negotiations begun, Prime Function Aki Zeta-5."
* * * * *
Chiron’s Worship, 4.30 p.m. (approx.)
The explosion threw Daphne to the ground, almost knocking her unconscious. She scrambled groggily to her feet, and kept running. Further, faster, anything to get away from the dreaded Believers. She had come face to face with one of them, and had recoiled from the ghastly light in his eyes, which filled her with unspeakable, chilly horror. That terrible fanaticism, that complete intolerance of anyone who did not Believe, sickened her.
She could hear them chanting now. "Death to the Unbelievers! Death to the Unbelievers!" Over and over and over, working themselves into a frenzy.
She’d seen what they did to anyone they encountered. Struck down and killed, right there where they stood. No mercy, no quarter given. Even now the laser burn in her shoulder seared her with pain, a screaming testimony to their savagery.
She rounded a corner, and almost ran straight into a group of Believing infantry. Their lasers blazed in a beautiful, terrible display, destroying buildings and people alike as their crazed wielders screamed aloud,
"Death to the Unbelievers!"
As Daphne stumbled back the way she had come, she wondered how the situation had ever got this bad. Economic sanctions had done nothing against this type of atrocity. Pleas to heed the UN Charter by Brother Lal, amongst others, had been completely unsuccessful. Even the threat by the Morganites to break off their Pact of Brotherhood with the Believers had fallen on deaf ears. In the end, Morgan had abandoned his 400 energy credits in disgust and broken off the Pact. Within hours, the Believers and the Hive had declared Vendetta upon him, and the Spartan/Peacekeeper/University alliance had begun to stretch the hand of friendship towards him, quickened, obviously, by the promise of energy credits from Morgan’s vast store.
Of course, Miriam herself had lost out on this. Many of her followers had refused to participate in these horrific actions, and had deserted, fleeing to join the Peacekeepers or the Gaians. However, many more, lulled by the promise of Chiron-wide domination, or threatened by the descent into a fiery Hell, had remained, enough for Miriam to justify pressing on with this terrible ‘crusade’.
Daphne stumbled again, and almost fell. She halted, gasping, leaning against a crumbling building, heated almost to the point of melting by Believing lasers. Luckily, they had long since passed on to look for fresh targets, and the heat had mostly dissipated.
What has Miriam done? thought Daphne, as the full extent of the devastation penetrated her horrified brain. Chiron’s Worship would never look the same again. All around her, people lay screaming in their death throes. Corpses littered the ground. Blood mingled with the rain, which scythed down from on high to turn the ground into a thick, glutinous soup of mud. What had been some of the most beautiful buildings in the Gaian nation crumbled in silent, twisted anguish.
Coughing and gasping for breath, Daphne kept running, far beyond the broken Perimeter Defence, beyond the carefully cultivated farms, now smashed and pillaged, beyond the furthest sensor arrays, heading for Gaia’s Landing.
Chapter 1: Emancipation
Gaia’s Landing, 7.32 p.m., June 7th
Lady Deirdre leaned back, satisfied by the progress of the negotiations. Aki Zeta-5’s proposition had been most intriguing. The Consciousness had no argument with the Believers, so they had offered Lady Deirdre and her most trusted Talents sanctuary in their first base. The catch? The Gaians had to supply that base. In exchange for control of Last Rose of Summer, to be renamed Consciousness Central, the Consciousness would designate a small area of that base to be left for the Gaian Federation. In this manner, even if Deirdre’s worst fears were realised and the Believers captured her remaining three bases, the Gaian civilisation would live on, flourishing in the safety of Consciousness Central. Then, when the danger had passed, the Gaians would re-emerge, to be given on of the Consciousness’ new bases in order to ensure their survival.
But there was another catch. In exchange for the continued defence of her and her followers, and to allow closer communication between their peoples, Deirdre had to choose one Talent to have the surgery and become a member of the Cybernetic Consciousness, to have a new personality and new memories downloaded into their cerebral cortex. One Talent would change forever, his or her character and disposition irrevocably altered by the insertion of their new ‘resident’.
Lady Deirdre was caught between her desire for continued existence, and her love for her Talents. To see one ‘overwritten’ and...she could think of no better word than defiled...would be terrible.
She had to make her decision soon...
University Base, 7.54 p.m.
"It’s over, Zakharov. Your programme of unethical research is at an end."
"Never!" The Academician threw himself at Chairman Yang, his hands reaching for the throat, to squeeze the life out of this upstart, inhuman insect who had no understanding of the true quest for knowledge.
Yang side-stepped neatly, and motioned almost imperceptibly to one of his aides. The burning lash of the psych whip hurt so much that Zakharov cried aloud in pain and anguish. His Punishment Sphere would hurt far more than this...
He was dragged away, head hanging from limp shoulders, to meet his fate.
* * * * *
Outskirts of Gaia’s Landing, 3 a.m., June 9th
Daphne lurched and almost fell. Finally, she had arrived at Gaia’s Landing, first base of the Gaian faction. She had been running solidly for almost two days, and had reached here just in time, for she was at the limit of her strength.
She stumbled over the threshold of the gatehouse, and collapsed at the guard’s feet. She heard him cry out something about ‘bring help’ and ‘medical team’, but she was too far gone to perceive more than that.
Gratefully, she let the dark waters of unconsciousness engulf her...
New Jerusalem, 5:25 a.m.
Sister Miriam Godwinson looked up from her morning devotions to hear a loud cry ring throughout this high spires of New Jerusalem, raised as a reminder of the beautiful cathedrals back on Earth. The cry reverberated, drowning out the chanting of the priests.
"Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiroooooooooooonnnnnnnnnn!"
And with that, the Cult of Planet attacked.
The battle lasted more than three days. Hundreds of Believing Plasma Sentinels were ranged against the invading Cult. Most of the Cult's armies were composed of native life-forms - mind worm boils for the most part, and some captured spore launchers. Also, since New Jerusalem was located on a coastline, two captured Sealurks initiated shore bombardment. The air was thick with psi attacks, the horrific mind-warping assaults that the native life-forms generated. Flame guns swept blazing fields of fire across the landscape, causing mind worms to shrivel and dissipate beneath their burning touch.
It couldn't last, however. The Sentinels began to fall, one by one. They dwindled from hundreds down to a few score, then down to about twenty. Eventually, the last one fell, and the Cult rushed forward and into New Jerusalem.
Throughout these three days, Miriam had been praying for salvation, for victory, but as the sound of the final charge echoed throughout the vast, vaulted building, she finally snapped. Grabbing a psych whip from one guard and a force pike from another, she leapt forward and through the massive doors which guarded her cathedral.
They slammed shut behind her.
Some last sane part of her mind registered that now there was no turning back, but now the fanaticism and religion-induced rage was surging through her brain, forcing her onward.
Every Cult member she met, she slew. Bodies littered the ground, crumpling and dying in her wake. With the strength of ten men and the speed of a hundred dervishes, she carved herself a path through the encroaching hordes, straight towards the diminutive figure of Cha Dawn, the self-proclaimed Child of Planet.
His four bodyguards fought like demons, but one by one they fell, writhing in agony at the sting of the psych-whip. Psi attacks from the countless mindworms around her bombarded her brain, but the by now incandescent fury sweeping though her mind protected her from the worst of their effects.
Suddenly she was through, and silence fell around her. The psi storms raging everywhere vanished from her perception, and the air was still and calm...
And before her stood Cha Dawn, a short golden dagger in one hand and a Unity pistol in the other.
She raised the psych whip and the force pike, intending to strike down this abomination with all the strength she possessed...and then paused.
The boy looked up at her, and his eyes began to burn. Not just the iris, but the entire surface of his eyes, began to coruscate with red flames. They burned with a strange brightness, boring into the depths of her very soul.
Slowly, their colour brightened, going from deep red to orange, to yellow, and finally to a blinding white.
She fell back before this blazing onslaught, taking one step backwards, then two, then three, faster and faster as this boy's fury burnt into her. She knew she was looking straight into the eyes of a boy possessed by Planetmind, a conduit for all the pent-up resentment and anger against the invading humans.
Deliberately, the boy began to walk towards her, stiffly, like an automaton, holding his shining golden dagger high. With a whimper of fright, Miriam dropped her weapons and fled, deserting the arched cathedrals of New Jerusalem in her terror.
She would never return...
Gaia's Landing, 8 a.m.
The five messengers reached the door to Lady Deirdre's chambers almost simultaneously. No-one knew which of them should knock first, nor which of them carried the most pressing news.
Luckily for them, the Lady herself had at that moment decided to take a walk in the Grove of White Pine, planted soon after Planetfall as a reminder of the ecological mistakes of Old Earth. She swept out of her quarters regally, and almost collided with the first courier, who in turn stumbled back into the second, and so on.
When the tangle of limbs finally resolved themselves back into five messengers and one by now very irate Lady Deirdre, she had regained at least some of her composure.
"Well?" she rapped out.
All the messengers suddenly began to talk at once. Lady Deirdre sighed, and reached out with her empathic powers, funnelling all her irritation and annoyance into one single burst.
As one, the messengers fell silent.
"Now, perhaps we can have a civil conversation," she said pointedly. "What news do you bring?"
The envoy to whom she pointed leaned away from her finger as if afraid of her empathic powers.
"My Lady, the University of Planet has been eradicated! Academician Prokhor Zakharov has been captured by the Hive and led away for interrogation!"
All the blood drained from Lady Deirdre’s face, and she flinched as though she had been struck.
After a few seconds, she gathered herself with an obvious effort of will, and she motioned to the second messenger to begin.
"Lady, Chiron’s Worship has fallen! The believers have captured it, and are even now fortifying it against the Cult’s continuing advances!"
Once more the Lady swayed, and nearly fell. The third courier caught her, and gave her his news.
"I bring news that New Jerusalem has been captured by the Cult of Planet! Sister Miriam has fled to Loaves and Fishes. Believer morale has dropped amazingly, and the Cult are encroaching ever faster on their territory. It will not be long before the Believers are completely eradicated, and then it will be our turn!"
At this report, Deirdre’s mouth compressed into a tight, thin line, and she brushed off his supporting hand.
The fourth messenger gave her his news quickly.
"Lady, a Talent who escaped the capture of Chiron’s Worship has just arrived at the gates of Gaia’s Landing. She is even now being given medical care and treatment for her advanced nitrogen narcosis, but she wishes to speak with you as soon as possible."
The fifth herald cleared his throat and took a deep breath.
"Great Lady, it is imperative that you come to the Centauri Preserve at once!"
* * * * *
It was not far to the Preserve, its great dome shimmering silver in Planet’s noontide sun. Inside, scarlet tendrils of xenofungus writhed in a macabre dance, waving in time with the waves of distress emanating from the Planetmind. Boils of mindworms formed and broke apart, undulating and contorting as the two factions of Planet warred against each other.
The messenger, who had accompanied Lady Deirdre to the Preserve, led her carefully through the xenofungus, avoiding all mindworm boils. Although their combined empathic powers were considerable, it was unlikely that they would be able to defend themselves for long against a series of direct attacks from a boil.
Eventually, they reached the centre of the Centauri Preserve, and there Deirdre stopped, her hand flying to her mouth in surprise and alarm.
Approximately twenty mindworms were laid out in a circle like the spokes of a wheel, their bodies expanding and contracting. Deirdre could feel the power pulsing through them, focusing on the centre of the circle.
In the centre, one mindworm reared its head, swaying backwards and forwards as the energy coruscated around it. It seemingly gathered its strength...
...and a bolt of blue lightning shot from its head, to shatter in a gelid flash against the silvery dome of the Preserve.
Mustering all her strength, Deirdre desperately projected a feeling of peace, serenity and friendship towards the worm. She saw its resolve falter at the touch of her mind, and then it toppled, and lay still.
Within seconds, the lashing tendrils of fungus were stilled, and the worms wriggled quickly away into the scarlet growth.
The worm which had been at the focus of the circle raised its head once more, and began to squirm towards Deirdre.
Terrified at the prospect of a psi attack, her messenger had long since fled. The Lady herself remained, frozen to the spot at the sight of this intense power.
As the worm began to move towards her, she gathered the snaking tendrils of Planet’s power together and projected the same feeling of calm friendship into its rudimentary mind.
She felt it touch her thoughts, but instead of the searing pain, fear and disorientation which came with a psi attack, she felt reassurance, and with it a gentle probing of her thoughts and memories.
Forcing down the automatic recoil response, she opened her mind, and let the worm read her thoughts and intentions.
Finally, after what seemed like hours (but which was, in reality, a few minutes), the worm’s probe withdrew, and it collapsed.
Deirdre leapt forward, probing with all her powers to try and find a spark of life. There was one, but it was very faint.
This was the first non-hostile contact between an Earthling and a Planetling. If this mindworm could be saved, it might be persuaded to act as a conduit between Planet and humankind...
Chapter 2: Betrayal
Sparta Command, MY2,269, April 8th, 5 a.m.
Colonel Corazon Santiago rejoiced silently as the news came over her private commlink. In the five years since Vendetta had been declared against Yang by herself and Brother Lal, the war effort, mostly funded by the generosity of CEO Morgan, had been massively successful.
"Colonel, another of Yang’s bases has fallen to us. We and our Peacekeeper allies are now in possession of almost half his bases, and we are ready to begin the assault on The Hive, his headquarters, as soon as you give the word."
Santiago’s thin, dark lips twisted upwards in a cold smile. When she spoke, her voice was soft as silk, hard as ice and utterly, completely emotionless.
"Attack."
Consciousness Central, 6.30 a.m.
Prime Function Aki Zeta-5 relaxed, closed her eyes and sighed softly as her mind achieved uplink and melded with every single mind in the Cybernetic Consciousness.
The sensation could never be described in crude, simple words, but the closest anyone had ever come was ‘swimming in quicksilver’. It really did feel like that - as though her mind was being bathed in all the knowledge of the entire Consciousness.
In this state she could access any knowledge held in the massive datastores of the Consciousness, distributed throughout the subconscious minds and deep memories of her every subject. She could see through any pair of eyes, hear anything the shell heard, experience every thought and emotion, by simply uploading a part of her conscious mind into the shell’s neural implants.
This time, the subject was a shell currently residing in Iota Station, on the continent where, even now, Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang’s forces were being slowly pushed further and further back by the combined might of the Spartan/Peacekeeper Alliance. The shell’s designation was Dianna Pi-Seven, an operative in one of the Consciousness’ relatively few probe teams.
Aki Zeta-5’s senses melted away, and were replaced by those of Dianna Pi-Seven. The sensation never failed to induce in her an emotion which, if she didn’t know better, she would call amazement. It was like a merging of two minds, as though Dianna Pi-Seven simply receded into the background and allowed Aki Zeta-5 to materialise in the foreground. The Pi-Seven node would still receive all sensory data and so on, but would not be in conscious control of any motor functionsssssssssss...
The mental upwell caught her off balance, and then light streamed in through the eyes of a complete stranger, straight into the mind of Aki Zeta-5.
She could still sense Dianna Pi-Seven in the background, quietly resigned to the temporary helplessness and disorientation induced by this transfer of consciousness. Not long ago, Aki Zeta-5 had been compelled to force a transfer onto a rebellious member of the Consciousness in order to prevent him from destroying the Command Centre in Uplink Outpost, one of the Consciousness’ bases. She had had to fight every step of the way, but eventually he had been subdued.
From her vantage point, here at the highest point of the topmost tower of Iota Station, she could see for miles in every direction. To the south, she could just make out the captured Hive bases which marked the edge of the Spartan and Peacekeeper territories, and there to the west was Yang’s closest base, The Teeming. Not much of it showed above the ground, but a few comm towers spiked into the morning sky.
Although the Spartans and the Peacekeepers continually threatened Aki Zeta-5 over the comm channels if she refused to go to war against Chairman Yang, they had so far shrunk from using the force at their disposal. For, in the five years since the establishment of the Consciousness’ first base, they had grown and multiplied tenfold and more.
Data Entry Received and Validated. Personal Memoirs, First Speaker, Gaia’s Landing.
I have finally completed my personal memoirs, written at the request of my friend Lady Deirdre Skye. I now prepare to go my way to the Shining One, since my life upon this globe some call Planet is now drawing to a close. Not all Lady Deirdre’s empathic gifts, nor all today’s rejuvenation and longevity technology, can keep me upon Planet forever.
Prologue
Gaia’s Landing, MY2,264, June 6th, 9 noon
Lady Deirdre Skye sighed as she wandered through the famous White Pine Plantation in the courtyard of Gaia’s Landing. In the years since Planetfall, Planet had never seen a conflict like this. Every faction save the Gaians had taken a side. Ranged against the alliance of the Human Hive, the Lord’s Believers and the Morganites was the University of Planet, the Spartan Federation and the UN Peacekeepers. The Stepdaughters of Planet could be the deciding force behind this conflict - but their pacifistic tendencies decreed that they would take a side only when every other option had been explored. Currently, Lady Deirdre was engaged in an attempt to reconcile both sides, but it now seemed unlikely. A Spartan X Tachyon Rover had met a Hive Missile Artillery unit and had armed its chemical weapons before destroying the paralysed Artillery. Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang had walked out of the peace talks in disgust when this news reached him, and it now seemed unlikely that the Hive and the Spartans would ever reconcile. However, progress had been seen with the Morganites and the University/Peacekeeper alliance, although the Morganites’ strong affiliation with the Lord’s Believers (and above all the fact that the Believers had an outstanding loan of 400 energy credits from the Morganites!) prevented them from talking Truce at the moment.
Deirdre knew she was walking through a potential minefield. Currently the Gaian faction was not at war with any other, and Deirdre had been careful to maintain only two Pacts of Sister/Brotherhood - one with the Morganites and one with the Peacekeepers (the two least violent and least antagonistic factions next to the Gaians) - in the hope that this would be a bridge between the two sides.
Absently, she scanned through her latest reports, until one in particular caught her eye. The report of alien sightings...
Dismissed by many as an interesting but inconsequential phenomenon, scoffed at by others as the delusions of a single denizen of a Sky Hydroponics Lab, taken up fervently by the impressionable as either an opportunity for peace or one for destruction. How, wondered Lady Deirdre, could a single report cause so much dissent and division?
Reaching out with her empathic powers, she began to scan Planet’s neural net - and gasped at the turmoil she felt. Not since the final dissipation of the Churn had Planet’s distress been this marked.
There was a distinct split of opinion in Planet’s neural net. It seemed as though there were two - dare she call them factions? - one which advocated contact with the aliens, and one which urged caution. The strife was incredible - she felt as though her body would split in two.
Quickly, she withdrew from the net, only to hear a wild scream from somewhere to her left. The Centauri Preserve!
She raced towards it. Hordes of mindworms were lashing against the dome with all the strength they had. Tendrils of fungus thrashed as they sought an exit from their imprisonment.
Planet was rising...
* * * * *
UN Headquarters, 9 noon
Commissioner Pravin Lal was at that moment overseeing the military preparations for the latest Peacekeeper offensive against the Human Hive. The two factions were the first to exchange communications frequencies, and from the start there had been mutual distrust and dislike. Lal abhorred Sheng-ji Yang’s social experiments and his vicious and brutal dictatorship, and Yang in his turn was horrified by Lal’s democratic policies and his trust in diplomacy to right all wrongs.
Consequently, Yang had been the first to open hostilities, by accusing Lal of harbouring traitors against the Hive - actually escapees from one of Yang’s more barbaric social experiments. Lal had not dignified this accusation with a response, and so in MY2,250 the first shot was fired. Three outlying Peacekeeper bases had been captured before Lal’s troops could make it to the Peacekeeper/Hive boundary. However, Lal’s forces had quickly recaptured these bases, and then pressed on into Hive territory. Two Hive bases had been annexed before Hive reinforcements arrived, and battle was joined.
Pacts of Brotherhood and Sisterhood had been activated without delay, and the comm channels had fairly buzzed with threats and Vendetta declarations. Within the space of a few hours, three factions had joined battle with another three. The University, Peacekeepers and Spartan Federation were now engaged in a pitched battle against the Lord’s Believers, Hive and Morganites.
Lal sighed. His pacifistic tendencies screamed at him every time he gave the order for more troops to be recruited or a base to be assaulted, but it must be done. The evil Hive must not be allowed to terrorise their defenceless subjects any longer. Together, the three factions loyal to the UN Charter for this mission would liberate the citizens from social experimentation, religious fanaticism and blatant wealth-grabbing. Together...
* * * * *
Outskirts of Gaia’s Landing, 1.34 p.m.
Prime Function Aki Zeta-5 of the Cybernetic Consciousness closed her eyes and concentrated. Within a split-second, her mind achieved uplink with every single other member of the Consciousness. Finally...
She breathed deeply, her human side revelling in the power, her cybernetic implants revelling in the prospects. Quickly, she sent out the rallying call which would bring every single Consciousness-controlled body to her current position.
With one mental command, she opened her communication implant, and asked for an audience with Lady Deirdre Skye. Soon, the Consciousness would acquire its first base...
University Base, 1.50 p.m.
Academician Prokhor Zakharov’s fist made a loud crunching noise as he brought it down upon his datapad. Damn Yang to the lowest reaches of Hell! Another two bases lost! If Santiago did not send her troops soon, his people would be eliminated, wiped off Planet’s surface forever.
One by one, his bases had fallen before the might of the Hive’s armies. Now only two - Bibliothek Letters and University Base - remained to him, and these were poorly-defended.
Zakharov snorted. Where had all his technological research, all his quest for knowledge got him? Here, stuck in a hell-hole of a headquarters, in the middle of a mish-mash city, with only a few defenders staffing the defensive perimeter. All his technologies, so carefully saved up, were now all in the hands of the enemy, and his one tenuous advantage was gone, dissipated without trace.
He realised he was thinking to himself in rhetoric. Should he give in, and surrender to the Hive, or placate them with everything he had and hope against hope to hang on until Corazon Santiago’s armies arrived? Or should he attempt to procure a base within the environs of one of his allies’ territory, and hang on to his tenuous hold on life that way?
Sighing, he reached over and activated his commlink...
* * * * *
Gaia’s Landing, 1.56 p.m.
The commlink bleeped, and Lady Deirdre reached over to turn it on, then hesitated. Usually, when the leader of another faction contacted her, a hologram of their emblem would be displayed, floating in the air above the commlink. This time, however, she had never seen the emblem which manifested itself before. It was in the form of a black-bordered, light green triangle with a darker green point at each corner and a green circle in the centre.
With more than a little trepidation, Deirdre activated her commlink. As usual, the emblem melted into the commlink base and a hologrammatic figure of the caller formed.
Deirdre didn’t recognise the figure. Although she was only one-eighth her normal size, the woman radiated calm confidence and serenity. She had shoulder-length white-blonde hair, unusually tightly curled, and the silver diamond-shaped implants which identified her as a member of the Cybernetic Consciousness. Her skin was pale and slightly waxen, and her eyes, light blue in colour, were expressionless and cold, but deep with knowledge.
She spoke.
"Lady Deirdre."
Her voice was strangely flat and emotionless, yet still it resounded with wisdom.
"We come before you today to offer you a deal. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Prime Function Aki Zeta-5."
Aki...Aki...Finally the name clicked. Aki Jaydo, one of Brother Lal’s most favoured Talents, thought dead at the Battle for Sparta Command. Lal had held a Day of Mourning throughout all his bases in her honour - only for her to turn up at UN Headquarters, seemingly reincarnated and now in the persona of Aki Zeta-5, self-styled Prime Function of the newly formed Cybernetic Consciousness.
Aki Zeta-5’s voice broke through her thoughts.
"We have received word that your territory is being slowly appropriated by the Lord’s Believers. We have come to the conclusion that Sister Miriam Godwinson will not cease from her efforts until you have been eliminated."
Deirdre started. It was as though this woman was reading her thoughts. Barely an hour before, Sister Miriam Godwinson had called her and declared Vendetta upon her. Instantly, her troops had boiled out of the xenofungus where they had been hidden, and had overwhelmed three of the seven Gaian bases left in existence. Even now Last Rose of Summer and Gaia’s High Garden were being fortified against the Believer threat, which was already proceeding towards those two bases at an alarming rate.
Miriam had begun her southerly encroachments at about the same time as the Cult of Planet broke through her forward lines and began taking her bases. The Believers were terrified of the Cult, whose fervour matched their own and whose mind worm boils were overrunning Believer bases faster than they could be defended. As a result, Believer holdings were diminishing at an alarming rate in the south, and Miriam had turned her attentions north, to the Gaians’ southern domains, desperately conquering bases as the tide of the Cult of Planet eroded her defences in the south.
If this river of Believing troops could not be dammed, the Gaians would quickly be eliminated - they had few energy credits to spare on defences, and their armouring technology was not advanced enough to defend satisfactorily against the might of the Believing weaponry.
Deirdre leaned forward.
"Consider negotiations begun, Prime Function Aki Zeta-5."
* * * * *
Chiron’s Worship, 4.30 p.m. (approx.)
The explosion threw Daphne to the ground, almost knocking her unconscious. She scrambled groggily to her feet, and kept running. Further, faster, anything to get away from the dreaded Believers. She had come face to face with one of them, and had recoiled from the ghastly light in his eyes, which filled her with unspeakable, chilly horror. That terrible fanaticism, that complete intolerance of anyone who did not Believe, sickened her.
She could hear them chanting now. "Death to the Unbelievers! Death to the Unbelievers!" Over and over and over, working themselves into a frenzy.
She’d seen what they did to anyone they encountered. Struck down and killed, right there where they stood. No mercy, no quarter given. Even now the laser burn in her shoulder seared her with pain, a screaming testimony to their savagery.
She rounded a corner, and almost ran straight into a group of Believing infantry. Their lasers blazed in a beautiful, terrible display, destroying buildings and people alike as their crazed wielders screamed aloud,
"Death to the Unbelievers!"
As Daphne stumbled back the way she had come, she wondered how the situation had ever got this bad. Economic sanctions had done nothing against this type of atrocity. Pleas to heed the UN Charter by Brother Lal, amongst others, had been completely unsuccessful. Even the threat by the Morganites to break off their Pact of Brotherhood with the Believers had fallen on deaf ears. In the end, Morgan had abandoned his 400 energy credits in disgust and broken off the Pact. Within hours, the Believers and the Hive had declared Vendetta upon him, and the Spartan/Peacekeeper/University alliance had begun to stretch the hand of friendship towards him, quickened, obviously, by the promise of energy credits from Morgan’s vast store.
Of course, Miriam herself had lost out on this. Many of her followers had refused to participate in these horrific actions, and had deserted, fleeing to join the Peacekeepers or the Gaians. However, many more, lulled by the promise of Chiron-wide domination, or threatened by the descent into a fiery Hell, had remained, enough for Miriam to justify pressing on with this terrible ‘crusade’.
Daphne stumbled again, and almost fell. She halted, gasping, leaning against a crumbling building, heated almost to the point of melting by Believing lasers. Luckily, they had long since passed on to look for fresh targets, and the heat had mostly dissipated.
What has Miriam done? thought Daphne, as the full extent of the devastation penetrated her horrified brain. Chiron’s Worship would never look the same again. All around her, people lay screaming in their death throes. Corpses littered the ground. Blood mingled with the rain, which scythed down from on high to turn the ground into a thick, glutinous soup of mud. What had been some of the most beautiful buildings in the Gaian nation crumbled in silent, twisted anguish.
Coughing and gasping for breath, Daphne kept running, far beyond the broken Perimeter Defence, beyond the carefully cultivated farms, now smashed and pillaged, beyond the furthest sensor arrays, heading for Gaia’s Landing.
Chapter 1: Emancipation
Gaia’s Landing, 7.32 p.m., June 7th
Lady Deirdre leaned back, satisfied by the progress of the negotiations. Aki Zeta-5’s proposition had been most intriguing. The Consciousness had no argument with the Believers, so they had offered Lady Deirdre and her most trusted Talents sanctuary in their first base. The catch? The Gaians had to supply that base. In exchange for control of Last Rose of Summer, to be renamed Consciousness Central, the Consciousness would designate a small area of that base to be left for the Gaian Federation. In this manner, even if Deirdre’s worst fears were realised and the Believers captured her remaining three bases, the Gaian civilisation would live on, flourishing in the safety of Consciousness Central. Then, when the danger had passed, the Gaians would re-emerge, to be given on of the Consciousness’ new bases in order to ensure their survival.
But there was another catch. In exchange for the continued defence of her and her followers, and to allow closer communication between their peoples, Deirdre had to choose one Talent to have the surgery and become a member of the Cybernetic Consciousness, to have a new personality and new memories downloaded into their cerebral cortex. One Talent would change forever, his or her character and disposition irrevocably altered by the insertion of their new ‘resident’.
Lady Deirdre was caught between her desire for continued existence, and her love for her Talents. To see one ‘overwritten’ and...she could think of no better word than defiled...would be terrible.
She had to make her decision soon...
University Base, 7.54 p.m.
"It’s over, Zakharov. Your programme of unethical research is at an end."
"Never!" The Academician threw himself at Chairman Yang, his hands reaching for the throat, to squeeze the life out of this upstart, inhuman insect who had no understanding of the true quest for knowledge.
Yang side-stepped neatly, and motioned almost imperceptibly to one of his aides. The burning lash of the psych whip hurt so much that Zakharov cried aloud in pain and anguish. His Punishment Sphere would hurt far more than this...
He was dragged away, head hanging from limp shoulders, to meet his fate.
* * * * *
Outskirts of Gaia’s Landing, 3 a.m., June 9th
Daphne lurched and almost fell. Finally, she had arrived at Gaia’s Landing, first base of the Gaian faction. She had been running solidly for almost two days, and had reached here just in time, for she was at the limit of her strength.
She stumbled over the threshold of the gatehouse, and collapsed at the guard’s feet. She heard him cry out something about ‘bring help’ and ‘medical team’, but she was too far gone to perceive more than that.
Gratefully, she let the dark waters of unconsciousness engulf her...
New Jerusalem, 5:25 a.m.
Sister Miriam Godwinson looked up from her morning devotions to hear a loud cry ring throughout this high spires of New Jerusalem, raised as a reminder of the beautiful cathedrals back on Earth. The cry reverberated, drowning out the chanting of the priests.
"Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiroooooooooooonnnnnnnnnn!"
And with that, the Cult of Planet attacked.
The battle lasted more than three days. Hundreds of Believing Plasma Sentinels were ranged against the invading Cult. Most of the Cult's armies were composed of native life-forms - mind worm boils for the most part, and some captured spore launchers. Also, since New Jerusalem was located on a coastline, two captured Sealurks initiated shore bombardment. The air was thick with psi attacks, the horrific mind-warping assaults that the native life-forms generated. Flame guns swept blazing fields of fire across the landscape, causing mind worms to shrivel and dissipate beneath their burning touch.
It couldn't last, however. The Sentinels began to fall, one by one. They dwindled from hundreds down to a few score, then down to about twenty. Eventually, the last one fell, and the Cult rushed forward and into New Jerusalem.
Throughout these three days, Miriam had been praying for salvation, for victory, but as the sound of the final charge echoed throughout the vast, vaulted building, she finally snapped. Grabbing a psych whip from one guard and a force pike from another, she leapt forward and through the massive doors which guarded her cathedral.
They slammed shut behind her.
Some last sane part of her mind registered that now there was no turning back, but now the fanaticism and religion-induced rage was surging through her brain, forcing her onward.
Every Cult member she met, she slew. Bodies littered the ground, crumpling and dying in her wake. With the strength of ten men and the speed of a hundred dervishes, she carved herself a path through the encroaching hordes, straight towards the diminutive figure of Cha Dawn, the self-proclaimed Child of Planet.
His four bodyguards fought like demons, but one by one they fell, writhing in agony at the sting of the psych-whip. Psi attacks from the countless mindworms around her bombarded her brain, but the by now incandescent fury sweeping though her mind protected her from the worst of their effects.
Suddenly she was through, and silence fell around her. The psi storms raging everywhere vanished from her perception, and the air was still and calm...
And before her stood Cha Dawn, a short golden dagger in one hand and a Unity pistol in the other.
She raised the psych whip and the force pike, intending to strike down this abomination with all the strength she possessed...and then paused.
The boy looked up at her, and his eyes began to burn. Not just the iris, but the entire surface of his eyes, began to coruscate with red flames. They burned with a strange brightness, boring into the depths of her very soul.
Slowly, their colour brightened, going from deep red to orange, to yellow, and finally to a blinding white.
She fell back before this blazing onslaught, taking one step backwards, then two, then three, faster and faster as this boy's fury burnt into her. She knew she was looking straight into the eyes of a boy possessed by Planetmind, a conduit for all the pent-up resentment and anger against the invading humans.
Deliberately, the boy began to walk towards her, stiffly, like an automaton, holding his shining golden dagger high. With a whimper of fright, Miriam dropped her weapons and fled, deserting the arched cathedrals of New Jerusalem in her terror.
She would never return...
Gaia's Landing, 8 a.m.
The five messengers reached the door to Lady Deirdre's chambers almost simultaneously. No-one knew which of them should knock first, nor which of them carried the most pressing news.
Luckily for them, the Lady herself had at that moment decided to take a walk in the Grove of White Pine, planted soon after Planetfall as a reminder of the ecological mistakes of Old Earth. She swept out of her quarters regally, and almost collided with the first courier, who in turn stumbled back into the second, and so on.
When the tangle of limbs finally resolved themselves back into five messengers and one by now very irate Lady Deirdre, she had regained at least some of her composure.
"Well?" she rapped out.
All the messengers suddenly began to talk at once. Lady Deirdre sighed, and reached out with her empathic powers, funnelling all her irritation and annoyance into one single burst.
As one, the messengers fell silent.
"Now, perhaps we can have a civil conversation," she said pointedly. "What news do you bring?"
The envoy to whom she pointed leaned away from her finger as if afraid of her empathic powers.
"My Lady, the University of Planet has been eradicated! Academician Prokhor Zakharov has been captured by the Hive and led away for interrogation!"
All the blood drained from Lady Deirdre’s face, and she flinched as though she had been struck.
After a few seconds, she gathered herself with an obvious effort of will, and she motioned to the second messenger to begin.
"Lady, Chiron’s Worship has fallen! The believers have captured it, and are even now fortifying it against the Cult’s continuing advances!"
Once more the Lady swayed, and nearly fell. The third courier caught her, and gave her his news.
"I bring news that New Jerusalem has been captured by the Cult of Planet! Sister Miriam has fled to Loaves and Fishes. Believer morale has dropped amazingly, and the Cult are encroaching ever faster on their territory. It will not be long before the Believers are completely eradicated, and then it will be our turn!"
At this report, Deirdre’s mouth compressed into a tight, thin line, and she brushed off his supporting hand.
The fourth messenger gave her his news quickly.
"Lady, a Talent who escaped the capture of Chiron’s Worship has just arrived at the gates of Gaia’s Landing. She is even now being given medical care and treatment for her advanced nitrogen narcosis, but she wishes to speak with you as soon as possible."
The fifth herald cleared his throat and took a deep breath.
"Great Lady, it is imperative that you come to the Centauri Preserve at once!"
* * * * *
It was not far to the Preserve, its great dome shimmering silver in Planet’s noontide sun. Inside, scarlet tendrils of xenofungus writhed in a macabre dance, waving in time with the waves of distress emanating from the Planetmind. Boils of mindworms formed and broke apart, undulating and contorting as the two factions of Planet warred against each other.
The messenger, who had accompanied Lady Deirdre to the Preserve, led her carefully through the xenofungus, avoiding all mindworm boils. Although their combined empathic powers were considerable, it was unlikely that they would be able to defend themselves for long against a series of direct attacks from a boil.
Eventually, they reached the centre of the Centauri Preserve, and there Deirdre stopped, her hand flying to her mouth in surprise and alarm.
Approximately twenty mindworms were laid out in a circle like the spokes of a wheel, their bodies expanding and contracting. Deirdre could feel the power pulsing through them, focusing on the centre of the circle.
In the centre, one mindworm reared its head, swaying backwards and forwards as the energy coruscated around it. It seemingly gathered its strength...
...and a bolt of blue lightning shot from its head, to shatter in a gelid flash against the silvery dome of the Preserve.
Mustering all her strength, Deirdre desperately projected a feeling of peace, serenity and friendship towards the worm. She saw its resolve falter at the touch of her mind, and then it toppled, and lay still.
Within seconds, the lashing tendrils of fungus were stilled, and the worms wriggled quickly away into the scarlet growth.
The worm which had been at the focus of the circle raised its head once more, and began to squirm towards Deirdre.
Terrified at the prospect of a psi attack, her messenger had long since fled. The Lady herself remained, frozen to the spot at the sight of this intense power.
As the worm began to move towards her, she gathered the snaking tendrils of Planet’s power together and projected the same feeling of calm friendship into its rudimentary mind.
She felt it touch her thoughts, but instead of the searing pain, fear and disorientation which came with a psi attack, she felt reassurance, and with it a gentle probing of her thoughts and memories.
Forcing down the automatic recoil response, she opened her mind, and let the worm read her thoughts and intentions.
Finally, after what seemed like hours (but which was, in reality, a few minutes), the worm’s probe withdrew, and it collapsed.
Deirdre leapt forward, probing with all her powers to try and find a spark of life. There was one, but it was very faint.
This was the first non-hostile contact between an Earthling and a Planetling. If this mindworm could be saved, it might be persuaded to act as a conduit between Planet and humankind...
Chapter 2: Betrayal
Sparta Command, MY2,269, April 8th, 5 a.m.
Colonel Corazon Santiago rejoiced silently as the news came over her private commlink. In the five years since Vendetta had been declared against Yang by herself and Brother Lal, the war effort, mostly funded by the generosity of CEO Morgan, had been massively successful.
"Colonel, another of Yang’s bases has fallen to us. We and our Peacekeeper allies are now in possession of almost half his bases, and we are ready to begin the assault on The Hive, his headquarters, as soon as you give the word."
Santiago’s thin, dark lips twisted upwards in a cold smile. When she spoke, her voice was soft as silk, hard as ice and utterly, completely emotionless.
"Attack."
Consciousness Central, 6.30 a.m.
Prime Function Aki Zeta-5 relaxed, closed her eyes and sighed softly as her mind achieved uplink and melded with every single mind in the Cybernetic Consciousness.
The sensation could never be described in crude, simple words, but the closest anyone had ever come was ‘swimming in quicksilver’. It really did feel like that - as though her mind was being bathed in all the knowledge of the entire Consciousness.
In this state she could access any knowledge held in the massive datastores of the Consciousness, distributed throughout the subconscious minds and deep memories of her every subject. She could see through any pair of eyes, hear anything the shell heard, experience every thought and emotion, by simply uploading a part of her conscious mind into the shell’s neural implants.
This time, the subject was a shell currently residing in Iota Station, on the continent where, even now, Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang’s forces were being slowly pushed further and further back by the combined might of the Spartan/Peacekeeper Alliance. The shell’s designation was Dianna Pi-Seven, an operative in one of the Consciousness’ relatively few probe teams.
Aki Zeta-5’s senses melted away, and were replaced by those of Dianna Pi-Seven. The sensation never failed to induce in her an emotion which, if she didn’t know better, she would call amazement. It was like a merging of two minds, as though Dianna Pi-Seven simply receded into the background and allowed Aki Zeta-5 to materialise in the foreground. The Pi-Seven node would still receive all sensory data and so on, but would not be in conscious control of any motor functionsssssssssss...
The mental upwell caught her off balance, and then light streamed in through the eyes of a complete stranger, straight into the mind of Aki Zeta-5.
She could still sense Dianna Pi-Seven in the background, quietly resigned to the temporary helplessness and disorientation induced by this transfer of consciousness. Not long ago, Aki Zeta-5 had been compelled to force a transfer onto a rebellious member of the Consciousness in order to prevent him from destroying the Command Centre in Uplink Outpost, one of the Consciousness’ bases. She had had to fight every step of the way, but eventually he had been subdued.
From her vantage point, here at the highest point of the topmost tower of Iota Station, she could see for miles in every direction. To the south, she could just make out the captured Hive bases which marked the edge of the Spartan and Peacekeeper territories, and there to the west was Yang’s closest base, The Teeming. Not much of it showed above the ground, but a few comm towers spiked into the morning sky.
Although the Spartans and the Peacekeepers continually threatened Aki Zeta-5 over the comm channels if she refused to go to war against Chairman Yang, they had so far shrunk from using the force at their disposal. For, in the five years since the establishment of the Consciousness’ first base, they had grown and multiplied tenfold and more.
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