The Euclidian: When Worlds Collide (uncut) Read online

  Pico concentrated on all of the stones jointly until he could feel them all in his mind. He then commanded them all to jump up. They wiggled, but nothing more than that. That annoyed Pico. He crouched toward the stones in a threatening pose, increased his concentration, and once again ordered the stones to rise up all together. The stones vibrated violently and then one solitary stone popped up, glowing a brilliant blue. Pico fell backward in surprise, his eyes wide with elation as he stared at the glowing orb. Pico released his concentration and plucked the stone from the air as it fell toward the ground.

  Pico stood up holding the stone tightly in his hand. He looked at it as if he expected it to speak. He walked around the grounds staring at his newfound stone. As he walked, he levitated it just a few centimeters above the palm of his hand. He returned to Shaman Nene and let her know that he had selected a stone. She clapped her hands with excitement.

  “Now,” said Shaman Nene, “I want you to spend the rest of the week just practicing connecting with your stone and using that connection to amplify your powers. Keep it simple, Pico. I will show you how to use your powers properly later on.”

  Pico happily did as she requested. He spent time using his stone to talk to his parents, chat with his friends, and levitate multiple large objects. He was surprised at how well the stone amplified his natural abilities. He enjoyed being able to speak to his parents who he missed dearly. After his week was over, he was happy to see Shaman Nene to start his formal line of study. He sat in her place of solitude on a stone bench, surrounded by red curtains attached to the stone walls. Shaman Nene sat next to him in preparation for his next lesson.

  “Before we begin, Pico, I want you to try to levitate this boulder,” she said, indicating a large stone on the floor that was heavier than both of them put together.

  Pico first tried without his stone, and then with his stone, with the same result. “I can’t budge it,” he said.

  “I’m not surprised, Pico. It is pretty heavy. If you are ready, I will instruct you in the proper way to connect to your shaman stone.”

  Pico nodded.

  “Okay, hold your stone in front of you. Feel it with your mind. As you increase your concentration on the stone you will feel it start to vibrate and glow. Now concentrate your thoughts at the stone, using the same rate of vibration. There! See how not only does the stone glow, but your connection to the stone glows as well. Now pull the power from the stone back into your mind. See how a new connection has formed from the stone to you?”

  Pico nodded with astonishment.

  “Now try again to lift the boulder.”

  Pico focused and this time he was surprised at how easily he lifted it off the ground. “Wow!” he exclaimed.

  Figure 5. Pico lifts stone with Shaman Nene

  “Now that you have learned to properly connect to your shaman stone and use it for levitation I must caution you to be careful about how much force you use with this new ability. Using the full force of the shaman stone before you have mastered it could harm you or those around you. It would be great if initially you didn’t practice levitation on boulders, okay?”

  “As you wish, Shaman Nene.”

  “Let’s continue your lesson with a deeper look at telekinesis. Anything with mass can be manipulated with your mind. Objects, certainly, but also dust, water, and even air. To move something using telekinesis first feel it with your mind. Then think about where and how you want to move the object. More importantly, think about what should happen to the object once you have finished moving it around and released your connection with it. Let’s start with the air in front of you. See if you can make it spin around.”

  Pico concentrated on the space between him and Shaman Nene and tried to make the air spin. He made it spin clockwise and then counter-clockwise. It wasn’t much, but he was happy to see that he could do it. Shaman Nene then taught him to spin sand, water, and a few pebbles.

  “Be sure to control where the objects land when you release them. If you forget this rule, the objects could shoot around the room or farther away and hurt someone. By concentrating on specific types of objects you can separate them from other objects. For example, separating sand from stone or red stones from a pile of many-colored stones.”

  The rest of the week she taught Pico how to use his telekinesis with and without his shaman stone. Then she sent him off to practice on his own for a week, encouraging him to push beyond what he thought were his limits.

  When Pico returned Shaman Nene chose telepathy as the next lesson. The Cerebrans normally communicated by telepathy, but that only worked when the two people conversing were in close proximity. Using his stone, Pico could contact his parents because he knew them, and he could also contact friends, but not people he didn’t know. Shaman Nene taught him three ways to contact people at a distance that he did not know, using telepathy and his shaman stone.

  “Firstly, Pico, if you can see the person, try to feel their vibration the way you do with your stone. It doesn’t matter how far away they are. The stone will help you connect with the person. Once you feel his or her vibration you can just start communicating. See the shaman way out there by the rocks?” Shaman Nene pointed to a shaman about a kilometer away.

  Pico nodded.

  “He’s our island shaman. See if you can get him to wave to us.”

  Pico concentrated on the shaman’s vibration. Once he felt it he said, “Greetings, shaman.”

  “Greetings, Pico,” the shaman replied.

  “Will you please wave at me and Shaman Nene?”

  Pico saw him lift his arm and wave at them.

  “Very good, Pico,” said Shaman Nene. “The second way to connect with someone is to listen for a specific phrase that the person is thinking at the time you want to connect. This way is harder because multiple people can be thinking the same phrase, or the person you want to contact may not be thinking the phrase when you want to connect. Now, each island has an island shaman like the one who waved at us. Each is thinking the phrase ‘Island x shaman’ where x is the number of the island. I want you to try to connect with the island-one shaman. Just relax your mind and use your shaman stone to listen for the phrase, then feel the shaman’s vibration and connect.”

  Pico connected with his shaman stone and tried to focus on the thought phrase. After several minutes he had not made a connection to the shaman. Noticing his frustration, Shaman Nene decided to introduce him to the third method.

  “Pico, let’s try another method. I’ll connect to the island-one shaman, and when that happens, his vibration will be noticeable by you when you connect to me.”

  Shaman Nene connected to the island-one shaman and then asked Pico if he could feel the new vibration.

  “Yes, I can feel it.”

  “Connect with that vibration and listen for the phrase the shaman is repeating.”

  “I can hear it now.”

  “Great! Now I want you to try to connect directly to the island-two shaman by listening for his phrase.”

  Pico relaxed his mind and listened for the phrase, remembering his experience with the island-one shaman. “I hear it!”

  “Now try to feel her vibration.”

  “Got it.”

  “Say you are completing a task for Shaman Nene.”

  “She said to say hello. She misses playing Gong Long with you.”

  Shaman Nene smiled. “Tell her I said hello.”

  “That was great. What’s next?”

  “Amazing job, Pico. Now go to your place of solitude and don’t return until you have connected with the island shamans from the other forty-five islands.”

  Shaman Nene may have made it sound like a punishment, but Pico was excited by the challenge. It took him a couple of days, but he accomplished the task with delight.

  Pico’s next lesson was on healing.

  “Pico, healing is about giving energy to good cells and taking energy from bad cells, remembering that all things eventually die and healing can’t
stop that.”

  Cerebrans rarely died from disease or injury, though there were the occasional mountain climbing accidents or falls into the acid sea that could hurt or kill them. Everything else could usually be healed if the person wasn’t alone and a shaman could be found in time. Healing oneself typically took too much energy to be effective. The cells in all life on Cerebra only split a certain number of times before they just died off. Cerebrans generated new cells only until they became full grown.

  “Pico, with your unaided abilities you can feel when someone is hurt and apply energy to the area in pain. With your shaman stone you can see the cells that are hurt. Communicate with them as you would a person. Give them the energy they need and take away energy from invading cells. Come with me into the field around the enclave so we can practice on the plants and insects that we find there.”

  Shaman Nene and Pico spent a couple of days practicing healing on damaged plants and injured insects. On the third day they came upon an injured animal with a broken leg and decided to heal it.

  “Pico, first we need to make the animal unconscious so it doesn’t suffer. Consciousness comes from the brain’s ability to carry on higher thought in the center of the bran, by passing signals via synapses. When a blow to the head or exhaustion or lack of nutrients disrupts this ability, consciousness can slip away. We are going to induce unconsciousness by blocking the animal’s critical synapses’ ability to communicate.”

  Shaman Nene pulled out her shaman stone. “I’m going to perform the healing on this animal and I want you to connect with my mind so you can see what I see.”

  Shaman Nene placed the animal in an unconscious state and worked on healing its leg. She repaired the bone, stopped the bleeding, and healed most of the area around the wound.

  “Were you able to follow what I did, Pico?”

  “Yes, Shaman Nene. That was fascinating.”

  “We’ll spend another couple of days wandering the fields out here and hopefully you will get an opportunity to perform a major healing.”

  Two days later, Shaman Nene and Pico ended their trip and returned to his place of solitude.

  “Pico, that was a very productive trip. The next thing I want to teach you is astral projection. That is the ability of your mind to leave your body and travel. Communicating with people is an example of your mind reaching out beyond the confines of your body.”

  Pico looked at her in puzzlement. “Why have I never heard of that?”

  “Only shamans and specially gifted people can do that. Now let me teach you how to do it. First you place yourself in an unconscious state the way I did that animal before healing it. Then try to travel somewhere. Your body will try to move but won’t be able to, and your spirit will break free from its physical containment and float free.”

  Pico was still confused. “I don’t understand what you are saying.”

  “That’s okay. Let me show you. Take out your shaman stone and connect with my mind so you can see what I am doing.”

  Shaman Nene pulled out her shaman stone and lay down on a stone bed. “Lay next to me, Pico. I don’t want you to become disoriented and hurt yourself falling down. Watch as I start to shut down the synapses in my upper brain, being careful not to disrupt the central lobe. I should now look unconscious, but I can still communicate with you.”

  “Yes, your body looks unconscious.”

  “Now I’m going to attempt to visit our island shaman who is about two kilometers from us and let’s see what happens.”

  “Oh my,” Pico exclaimed. “We’re flying!”

  “Sort of, Pico. My mind is floating toward the island shaman and you can sense that since our minds are connected.”

  Shaman Nene reached the island-seven shaman. “Greetings, Island-Seven Shaman.”

  “Greetings, Shaman Nene. Practicing your astral projection?”

  “Yes, and I have my student Pico with me.”

  “Greetings, Pico.”

  Pico gasped with shock, which broke his connection with Shaman Nene. Moments later she woke up next to him. “Startled you, huh?”

  “How was he able to see us?”

  He couldn’t see us, but he could sense us the way you sense when someone is trying to contact you. This is going to be a difficult lesson to learn, but an important one. I want you to spend the next few weeks practicing this. You will probably make yourself unconscious a few times, scare yourself many times, and drain your energy, but don’t let that discourage you. Once you get the hang of it, try not to go too far. There are limits to how far you can go and how long you can be gone.”

  “What are the limits?”

  “I don’t know, Pico. It’s different for everyone. Unfortunately, going beyond your limit can lead to your death.”

  “That’s a bit scary.”

  “Don’t worry. Just don’t float beyond the boundaries of the island and you should be safe.”

  Pico lay down to practice his next ability, exhilarated and frightened. His first few dozen attempts did not go well. But two weeks later he appeared before Shaman Nene out of body and greeted her. Her eyes sparkled and she returned the greeting.

  “Pico, come to me tomorrow and I’ll start you on your final lesson.”

  Pico responded with “okay” and fluttered off.

  The next day Shaman Nene appeared before Pico as he sat on a stone bench, pleased as punch with his progress.

  “Pico,” she said, “you have done well for yourself. I’m surprised that someone so young has learned so fast. The combination of your advanced abilities and your shaman stone makes you one of the most talented students I have ever met. But you still have a ways to go to perfect your talents, so don’t get too cocky.”

  “I won’t, Shaman Nene. I’m just eager to learn.”

  “Great! This last lesson combines your levitation and astral projection capabilities. In effect, you will learn to fly. It’s difficult because the idea of levitating objects by leveraging one’s own body feels natural. When lifting yourself, against what do you leverage? It’s dangerous because if you lose control or run out of energy while too high above the ground you could fall and die. Let me show you how it’s done.”

  Shaman Nene pulled out her shaman stone, connected with it, and floated a few centimeters above the ground.

  “Wow, that’s pretty cool. Why don’t I ever see anyone flying?”

  “For the most part it’s just not necessary. It’s also safer to just use our other abilities for the things that flying gives us.”

  “I see. Still, I would love to do it.”

  “Before you start flying, practice levitating yourself just a bit above the ground and slowly lowering yourself back down. You must have confidence in this ability before going any higher.”

  “As you wish, Shaman Nene.”

  “The best way to approach self-levitation is to try to push yourself away from the ground instead of trying to lift yourself.”

  “Got it! Thanks so much for your guidance, Shaman Nene.”

  “My pleasure, Pico. Now go practice and be safe.”

  Pico walked toward his place of solitude, but he never reached it and never got to practice that last lesson.

  CHAPTER 8

  HELD CAPTIVE

  Pico lay in his bed and waited until all around him were asleep before touring the ship using astral projection. Pico quickly saw that the ship was enormous. He took a little time to get his bearings before breezing through the holding areas on the deck where he was held captive. The holding areas were full of life forms from other worlds, including the strangest creatures he had ever seen. Some flew through the air, some floated in a liquid, and some were able to sense his presence. As he floated through one of the containment areas, a blue glowing creature started to dance around him. He played with it for a while and then moved on. Some of the areas contained sentient beings. These areas were similar to his, with several levels of floors. Cots by the hundreds covered the floors. Along the walls were replenishment
and waste disposal facilities. There were weapons in the ceiling, as in his cell, but they appeared to be a different style. He saw a couple of beings engaged in a loud debate. When they began to fight, one of the weapons emitted a stream similar to a lightning bolt, unlike the energy wave that was used in his containment area, and the two beings were immediately subdued.

  The air in Pico’s cell was stale and pungent with the scent of all manner of bodily fluids. Pico had to avoid ingesting anything with his senses, to keep them from going into overload. Some of his fellow captives were reluctant to use the waste disposal stations. From depression or indifference, many lay around without making much movement at all, even when food was served.

  Twice a day, multiple troughs were filled with all types of food. Some of the captives rushed at the chance to eat fresh food, while some took their time, and others could not be enticed to indulge themselves. The lethargic and depressed lay where there were in their putrid excretions. Some died, and a crewmember would come in and take the remains away. On occasion there was resistance by fellow captives, which was soon quelled by a blast from the weapons in the ceiling.

  The containment area was quite large, perhaps 100 meters on each side and seven meters high. It was lit by tubes in the shape of long hotdogs that ran across the ceiling and down the walls. Once during every sleep period, giant nozzles at the bottom of one wall sprayed a cleansing liquid from side to side across the floor. The liquid flowed to drains in the center of the room, carrying with it anything found on the floor, mostly spilled food and bodily excretions.

  Pico had almost died when he first arrived on the ship. He was on his way back from his shaman training when a group of frantic villagers came up. They said that shamans from across the planet were reporting that the atmosphere was disappearing, and people were starting to die. He went with them to the assembly hall on Tor Hill where everyone was meeting to discuss the crisis.