Deity

Meanwhile the masters continue to mingle in the temporary dimension they have created for this meeting.

  ‘How are you darling? So good to see you’ Psi says.

  ‘Fine, yes fine…and you?’ replies Ana.

  ‘Oh, yes, you know, alwaysbusy neverstopping. I’d also noticed something amiss but for the life of me I didn’t know what it was’

  Ana began to murmur an agreement but Psi carries on regardless and Ana is soon silent.

  ‘…Yachialwayswasacleverone. Andthoseapprentices, verypromising. Doesntmissabeat. The old fox. Neverhas. Ahh, there he is now, must have a word. Mustn’t dawdle’ and by the end of the conversation she is all but talking to herself. Though she still says goodbye as she leaves Ana. While Ana is no stranger to the unusual, having spent her life telling fortunes amongst a gypsy community but Psi has her bewildered. Her friend Zhani is now by Ana’s side.

  ‘Hi, looked like you needed some saving?’

  ‘Oh, Psi, no. She’s OK, bizarre but we can’t all be normal can we?’

  Zhani smiles and nods as he continues, ‘It’s very tense, isn’t it? Reminds me of the sacred rituals of chiefs from home. In fact, I recall a time involving a weird woman much like Psi. She was disliked by much of the tribe and one year when crops were poor she was a convenient scapegoat.

  As was our custom we went to the astra. In this way much of our village life was directed- marriages were blessed, the site of a season’s crop was determined, disputes within the village settled.’

  Ana’s attention returns to Psi, who has moved to another quarter of the crowd. She catches Yachi and begins another verbal tirade, as she speaks concern wrinkles onto Yachi’s face and he places his hands upon her shoulders. He begins speaking to her and while the words are indistinguishable, Ana can see he is placating her, trying to reassure her. While both are masters of the astra, unlike Yachi and many others here, Psi is far from well rounded. She sobs now, Yachi offering her his shoulder as she tries to compose herself. Ana blushes at her nosiness and looks away, back to Zhani who continues his story.

  ‘It seemed they already made up their minds, But I was steadfast against their threats. I would not have my art misused for their petty desires. After much arguing we returned to the astra. But I was prepared this time, making a special brew and ceremony in the manner my predecessor taught so well. Methods specially devised to induce guilt,’

  Out of the corner of her eye Ana notices Psi and Yachi again, while she tells herself to look away she is transfixed and can now hear their raised voices.

  Other heads in the room also turn their way and noticing this, Yachi stops abruptly. He leaves Psi but not before fixing her with a final glare. ‘What could they have possibly been talking about? It was obviously a touchy subject to cause all that commotion’ Ana thinks to herself.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Zhani asks.

  ‘I’m not sure’ she replies and Zhani shrugs his shoulders unconcerned. She envies him, the way he can just ignore something obviously so important. He wasn’t born under civilizations overbearing influence and is a truly free spirit. She thinks while he continues. Yet it’s funny how tales of his home, his village isolated deep in the Amazon are similar to others. She secretly wished they were different. That maybe outside civilization people could be different. She wasn’t so sure, while she wished it was society rather than people that forced so much hardship upon her life and her people. It seemed that human nature no matter how it was structured was not always pleasant.

  Her thoughts are disrupted by a noisy crowd to her left. It could only mean one thing, they will soon be taken into the new realm. As she joins the fray Ana sees Psi take centre stage. Someone from the crowd sniggers, ‘Typical, look at her- “Pick me. Pick me”’

  It’s true, Ana thinks, Psi is always eager to demonstrate her considerable talents in the astra. Though she also noted no-one else is particularly keen on playing guinea-pig. While they are all excited about the new discovery, the first of its kind any of them have personally encountered, her colleagues, like her, are still apprehensive.

  Yachi begins informing them of what to expect. He has been finalising the network set-up with Peta in the physical world and is now showing them the modem port they will be entering, emphasizing the physical nature of this cybernet and the stresses it places upon the planar.

  Meanwhile Dean is shitting himself ‘Geez, sounds intense, very intense. Must remember all this, God what have they said so far? Think goddammit! What was that? Ohh shit’

  As Yachi continues he feels many of his colleagues’ minds drifting from the details as he tells them, unlike Dean many display nonchalance towards this challenge. ‘Oh well’ he thinks ‘it seems they will learn the hard way’

  Yachi finishes and Psi moves toward the modem. They hear Peta give the all clear and Psi disappears within. She has moved from one astral plane to the next.

  Dean continues his frantic trail of thought ‘What if it was important. Someone has already died too. Wonder what happened to them, were the physical properties of this strange realm involved in the deaths.’ When he realises that Psi is about to enter the realm, he watches with interest, his worries now about to be tested.

  The other masters look from one another, their thoughts bouncing around the room.

  ‘What is she seeing in there?’

  ‘Has she entered the computer-realm now?’

  Their queries are soon answered by a horrible collection of shrieks and wails from the modem, where Psi disappeared just moments earlier. The masters share worried glances and the psychic link overflows with their thoughts:

  ‘Is she OK?’

  ‘Where is Yachi?’

  Despite many repeated attempts no-one could reach Psi via psychic link. Things were getting desperate.

  Lai moves forward through the crowd. As he reaches the modem he says ‘Yachi, there’s a problem. I’m going after Psi, am I clear now?’

  ‘Just a moment…Yep. Go ahead’ Peta replies.

  Lai enters the cyber-realm. While the spectators’ murmurs add to the tense mood created by Psi’s shrieks.

  ‘What’s happening in there?’

  ‘What have these computers done?’

  Psi’s wails subside and eventually cease. Lai soon comes through the psychic link,

  ‘We are now OK, I think Psi will be fine, she’s just a little shocked. She will rest here and re-assess whether to return or continue later.’

  He continues, conferring with Yachi of the situation. While Lai was affected he is OK and wishes to investigate further. Yachi describe some of what he sees, his first viewing from within the ‘net.

  ‘These long round pathways, they are the cyberspheres you talk of?’

  They decide others, if willing, should follow but there’s little positive response. The wails of Psi still ring in the heads of the masters, an uneasy silence cloaks the crowd. After a long wait Dean comes forward in nervous, uneasy lurches. The desire to test his new toy proves too much. As Yachi and Peta ready the computer Dean tries to contain his nerves.

  ‘Come on. You’ll almost make something go wrong with that shit running around your head. You’re in good hands, Yachi will look after you.’

  He is before the modem now. It reminds him of his youth, being trained by his father, his first introduction to the astral dimension. It was a core part of his inheritance of the family business empire. His father also had the astral talent and helped Dean develop his. Will my involvement with this new realm be as intense or as rewarding as that proved to be?

  He is given the all clear by Peta and moves into the modem. As he enters he tries desperately to relax.

  His movement is slow and difficult, the sensation is horrible but he wills himself on. He can hear Yachi encourage him as the light from the narrow tunnel brightens. Yachi reminds him of the physical properties of the world he is entering as he leaves the confines of his first cybersphere and joinds Lai.

  Happy that Dean has cleared the
first hurdle of the new world Yachi now speaks to Peta, ‘Like so much involved with this new realm, I’m unsure but I feel the presence occasionally, something cloaked within this new dimension but is it any stronger or more common now that we are also here within its home? Does this make any sense?’

  Peta is unsure what to say, anything that comes to mind as relevant is just jargon and techy-talk, none of which gels with what Yachi said let alone his serene manner. But she doesn’t know any other way to put it and after all, her technical knowledge is the only reason she is here.

  She answers cautiously deliberating over each word. ‘Sure it makes sense, at least as much sense as all this other craziness. Ultimately we just don’t know, do we? That’s why we have to piece together all the info we have from both our different fields…and what we’re doing here. So hopefully we can piece together all the pieces of the puzzle’. She decides against mentioning the state of the art routers, servers and networks that now support them.

  ‘Yes, I believe you are right, my young friend. I just hope that we can achieve all this before another does. For, if we do not, the consequences to the realm we have sworn to protect could be very grave’

  Yachi continues to think of the disturbance: Could the power responsible be shielding its own energies? Could they be in our midst now? I have known these guys forever. Surely they wouldn’t, couldn’t hide this from me? Yet how simple would it be? To hide, play dumb amongst this collection of novices. There is no denying they are finding it difficult and frustrating. However there could be one, playing along, lost amongst the crowd who is actually a greater power in this realm than we can presently fathom, a wealth of experience in areas which we see as clouded and unknown. Yet who could do such a thing? These people, my peers, I have known and respected for years. He knew all too well that the collective rarely agreed completely but this is to be expected from such a large, diverse group, particularly when they were brought together by something very complex which they all felt so passionately about. We have shared so much in the physical realm and here in the astra- knowledge, ideas, enthusiasm and experience, if anything Yachi was surprised they didn’t clash more seriously and strongly. Surely I’m jumping at shadows or could it be- I’m being betrayed by one of those whom I trust most dearly. I must discuss this with Lai, the only thing i may achieve by leaving all these thoughts to buzz around my head unsaid will be a headache.

  After Dean, other guardians follow, though more decide to stay. With just over half making the transiition successfully. Many are now tired and dejected, reduced to the role of spectators in the modem, the gateway into the possibilities of the Web. But those within fare little better. The exertion of this new realm and the attrition of their colleagues make their astral presences wane.

  Unlike his colleagues, Lai continues relatively untroubled in the new realm. Yachi speaks to him.

  ‘Lai, many of the others are having problems and my guidance doesn’t seem to help. Do you have any advice for them’

  'I also feel the difficulties of this partially physical realm' Lai's thoughts come across the psychic link between the planars. ‘focus your mind on your astral form and the electric-type shocks and resistance will become background.'

  Many of the guardians having difficulties can’t be distinguished or heard over the psychic link and those who can be heard find the continual battle against these new physical parameters tiring.

  Yachi does his best to placate them, while they were forewarned of the difficulties involved many can’t believe they have been reduced to amateur level so readily, it's a change of status which they do not enjoy.

  ‘It gets easier with practice’ Yachi tells them but it all falls on deaf ears.

  After their previous technology difficulties Yachi had decided to stay with Peta, Jason and Billy in the network room. Though they were currently busy, opening modem ports, monitoring server traffic, registering the location of each specific planar and anything else Peta directed them to do, he wasn’t expecting the astral guardians to have such difficulties. After all, two relative astral novices, Jason and Billy did it without such serious problems. This new realm continued to confound him.

  Peta was yelling at him now with details from the server screen before, confirming there was no technical basis to the problems the guardians were experiencing. They decided to use physical speech here so that Peta could concentrate on the technology and what was happening there rather than try to teach her another new skill when so much of what they were encountering here was alien to them all.

  With Peta's confirmation Yachi returned to his psychic link with the guardians in the cyber-realm. Peta continued jumping between machines, toggling screens and typing commands while the boys continue talking about the High Council meeting although they now focus on a more typical conversation.

  ‘Ana’s a fox, isn’t she?’ Billy asks his friend.

  ‘Wow, you’re telling me! Do you reckon she looks that good for real or it’s just some astral master trick?’

  ‘Mate, when you’ve spent as much time in the eastern suburbs as I have you can spot all the tricks and cover-ups. Sure she might have a little assistance but you’ve gotta have the genuine article to begin with if you’re too have any hope of looking like that’

  Jason laughs, ‘And here I was thinking you were just wasting your life away. Sounds like the mission statement of a purposeful life’

  ‘I’m so glad you noticed, beneath these rugged good looks, beyond this easy-going charm, there’s a mind that’s unravelling mysteries like this that have plagued mankind forever’

  ‘Oh, please’

  ‘Well enough about me’ says Billy, noticing his friend’s gaze drift toward Peta yet again.

  ‘Go talk to her’ he says. Did he not realise that she was performing the same ritual? That all he had to do was fulfil his obligation of the first move and the rest would take care of itself. It seemed Jason would never learn and he had been like that since girls entered their teenage existence.

  While Billy loved these moments, it was the major flaw of his long relationship with Nikki, it seemed Jason was doomed to fumble around with them for some time yet.

  And despite his attempts at assistance apparently there was little Billy could do. He’d tried friendly advice, embarrassment, being forceful, hints from Nikki, even live demonstrations but it was all to no avail. Jason was on his own.

  ‘Yeah, I will, what are you so pushy about?’ Jason replies.

  ‘What are you so blasé for? Don’t you like the girl?’

  ‘Well, yeah. Of course.’

  ‘And how’s she meant to know that? With you sitting here and her over there.’

  ‘Yeah, OK. I’m going over.’

  ‘There we go. Wasn’t that hard, was it?’

  The most peculiar thing about this whole situation Jason thought as he moved to the network room was how it’s such a ‘non-event’, no dramatic arguments nor climatic love scenes. He felt strongly, yes but so confused too. This horrible, gnawing feeling shadowing every day, haunting him wherever he goes. Was it mostly due to unfulfilment? And since he saw her again it had only grown worse, filling him with self-doubt- THIS IS STUPID, I have to do something, at least bloody say something.

  All the lines he had rehearsed so many times before. She was within earshot now, albeit totally focused on the computers in front of her.

  ‘Peta, I’ve-’

  ‘Oh, now’s not the best time.’

  ‘Please let me say something first. Something I should’ve said a long time ago’

  They make eye contact and Jason notices her expression change, his not sure why but he now has her attention and so he continues.

  ‘The whole time we were apart I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I know it’s stupid but since you’ve been back with all this crazy stuff happening I never seemed to have a chance to say what I felt or know how to say it. I wanted to plan dinner. I remembered you liked those Vietnamese spring rolls and I
thought maybe we could have them and you could tell me about America and, and it just never seemed to happen. I dunno what went wrong…’

  ‘Bloody hell! Was that so hard! It took about thirty seconds to say and you’ve been thinking about it for how many weeks’

  ‘I-I’m sorry. Shit, I’ve made such a mess of this. You must think I’m a loser’

  ‘No, ‘course not, Jas. I just wish we could have had this chat earlier. Infuriating, yes but not a loser. So when are you going to make me dinner?’

  ‘Ahh well, whenever you like? Tonight? Tomorrow night?’

  ‘Tomorrow sounds good. At your place, I’ll come around say 7?’

  ‘Yeah, for sure’

  She leant over and pecked his cheek. ‘Gotta go but I can’t wait for tomorrow. Bye’

  Listening via psychic link Billy is shocked by the inability of these ‘astral guardians’, hearing one after another bumble through the new realm. Sure he and Billy had difficulties the first time but nothing like this and they had improved markedly with the handful of additional visits they’d since had. It was embarrassing to watch, if Yachi was genuinely concerned about this new realm and the power within it he surely couldn’t waste too much time waiting for the guardians to acclimatise. Further investigation was required quickly and it looked like Jason and Billy were obvious choices alongside Yachi and, at best a handful of other astral guardians. While there was no doubting the ability and experience of the guardians, this different realm apparently required different skills or approaches. If they were to understand and master it those already comfortable in the cyber-realm needed to further their progress not be held up by those still coming to grips with it.

  Billy sees Yachi across the room, he should approach him and now was as good a time as any but he was uneasy. He had always felt like Jason’s guest rather than Yachi’s since he began planing. It wasn’t anything in particular, Yachi had always been friendly and Jason was adamant that his doubts were unfounded but he couldn’t remove them from his mind now as he approached his teacher. He thought of his recent advice to Jason about talking to Peta as he took his final few steps and spoke;

  ‘Excuse me, Yachi’

  ‘Billy, yes.. just a moment please, as you know things are not going particularly well in there’

  ‘Yeah, that’s what I wanted to talk about actually’

  ‘Ok, just let me open the server traffic window... now, what are your thoughts’ Yachi moved a mouse and his eyes remained on the screen, betraying the apparently interested tone Billy heard from him.

  ‘Well, as you said things aren’t going great for the other guardians in the cyber-realm at the moment and I know how concerned you are about all these changes to the astra and the power involved and the dangers if this was misused and so on.. Well anyway it's obviously important that the new realm is investigated and understood quickly so it makes sense if Billy and I help you with that so no more time is wasted while the guardians get more, ah.. acclimatised here, except Lai and probably Dean and anyone else who wasn’t too bad today and, of course, the others will catch up pretty quickly I guess and then they can join us too? It just seems like we could help you investigate immediately, you know?’

  He sounded like such an idiot, blabbering on pointlessly, what was wrong with him? Billy thought to himself as Yachi replied;

  ‘Thank you Billy, that’s something we should definitely consider – excuse me, Lai is returning to the physical realm and as you already know there is much to discuss’ and Yachi leaves the room abrubtly.

  Billy’s negative thoughts continue, Yachi clearly wasn’t that interested in his ideas he thought as the door closed behind his departing teacher. Peta and Jason were at the far end of the large room absorbed in their conversation, thoughts of his stupidity were now Billy's only company. What was he doing here? Running errands in the computer while those bumbling idiots blocked his path to the fantastic possibilities of the unchartered new realm. It was clear from Yachis brief response and swift escape that he wasn’t interested in what Billy thought or could offer. So, why was he here? To sit in here and play with computers? No thanks, Surely Peta had some friends who would happily help if needed, if they didn’t want him in the astra or the cyber-realm well fine but he wasn’t gonna hang around here and get stuck with all these tedious tasks Billy thought to himself as he followed Yachi out the door and left the building.

  ‘This new astra is a grave concern, I fear it is unstable and has much further development to undergo.’ Yachi says to his newly returned friend.

  ‘It's physical, non-astral characteristics make it far more draining than regular planing. Do you think this is because it involves the full engagement of both physical and astral profiles?’ replies Lai, Yachi nodes as his old friend continues,

  ‘It has been centuries since a new realm was encountered. This is a great challenge to the high council I only hope we can prove to be worthy of our station and responsibilities.’

  ‘That’s true my friend and we also have the users and creators of this World Wide Web to contend with. Peta tells me that much of the world’s affairs and business is increasingly using this medium. What effect will they have upon us? Will they notice us at all? Or us them?’ replies Yachi.

  ‘I’m impressed by these youngsters you’ve found. I’m sure everyone will be, though some will take longer than others’

  Yachi chuckles, ‘I hope you are right we will have to wait and see. He tells of Petas promise of statistical tables and reports for all planars. Says she has already set up the computer network to recognize them. Their user profiles I believe is the term she uses.

  ‘I also feel the entity or disturbance you have spoken of in this new realm. You are right, while it is powerful it is often cloaked by this volatile new plane it inhabits. We must investigate immediately and learn if there is a great power building here and what its intentions are, how it's power has been gained; learn all we can of it’ Lai says.

  ‘Mmmm… It seems very dangerous and will take much to master, I’ve already lost one of my dearest and most talented students, I fear others will follow. However with so much power to be controlled and, of course, wielded we must make haste to assure that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.’

  ‘Most certainly’

  Yachi sighs and says. ‘Obviously there is much to be done. But now is not the time. We will return refreshed and eager tomorrow’

  ‘Never a wiser word has been spoken. Until tomorrow, Peace unto you my friend’