The fire rekindled in Sharr's heart in a moment of personal revelation – September 11th. The rise of the Falcanian Khanate followed slowly after as old members returned to the fold in time to watch the world collapse.
Personal memories became abstractions. Language and scripts streamed into her mind. The Skora filled her awareness. Like an internal Rosetta stone, her language center converted German, English and the myriad other languages that she spoke over into the Falcanian verbiage. Both the Trikash and Kaliburn scripts surrounded her and she understood them and saw the lines as if she had always known what they had meant.
Philosophical precepts took shape in metaphor via the Telchar Shanral. The concepts of tairlok and karlok entered her mind as well as a number of attendant philosophies. She came to understand the primal, the animal drives and their relation to the higher being coalesced in the understanding that the 'Transhuman' was rooted as much in the basic drives of the lesser creature as it was the god-like and the Falcanian was a reconciliation of these two poles. The animal and Transhuman were poles of the same concept both called for expression in the human animal and this was embodied in the Falcanian.
In a heart beat Frederika not only witnessed the events of the Telchar Shanral, but she experienced them and in doing so they changed her very nature.
Three days had passed since Frederika entered the Rashalon Engine. Frederika slept in a great green egg as her body and soul underwent the Rashalon. Valküri and Tahru looked on and tended to the being which reformatted inside the shell.
Only a few hours ago, Sharr Khan learned he would be a father yet again. His Queen was pregnant with the son he had asked her to produce. Still, Nadia did not speak to him and only remained by his side during the bulk of the ritual. She mastered the ability to present a united front. He knew Nadia would not tolerate rumors of trouble in their marriage.
Aria was left in the care of Atar Kran. She hadn't been pleased to be left behind at the palace, but Kran was the only person Sharr knew he could trust with Aria's safety, besides himself. The Shotar understood Kvaltar and Shuriken's thoughts about her and neither cared for Aria. She also was pregnant with his human child and that changed everything. Better to keep her out of the reach of his court for the time being until things became more tranquil.
Attendants had already begun to prepare the chamber for Frederika's emergence out of her shell. Tables of food and drink would be brought forth. Frederika would be hungry. In fact she'd ravenously crave food once she hatched. Just as a baby chick needed nourishment when it broke forth into the world, so did the new Falcanian.
Crack!
The shell began to fall apart. Fissures in its outer layer spread out like a spiderweb. Nearby a Valküri waited, she signaled to the gathered Falcanians that their new brethren was about to hatch into this world.
Queen T’Kara stepped closer, a look of anticipation on her exotic face. She felt very proud of handiwork, curious to see how The Phoenix Heart and the AI Falcania reformatted Frederika. At a certain level, the heart was no more than a randomness generator which brought out interesting genetic traits in a Falcanian, such as displayed in a Falcanian's unique Garuda and wing color.
More pieces of the green shell broke away. A female form crouched low within the shadows of the eggshell. Slowly, she crept naked from the fragments of her kryla and into the center of the room. For a brief moment the bright light blinded her, yet nictitating lenses flashed green over her eyes and allowed her to see in the brightness. The lenses enhanced and protected her eyesight as well as kept a Falcanian’s eyes moist in-flight.
Wet, honey-colored hair clung to her full breasts. The new Falcanian reached up; tentatively touched her right ear and discovered it was now a delicate pointed oval. Opalescent wings, the color of mother-of-pearl spread out from a streamlined golden Garuda merging onto her back, her matching tail swaying with life. A silver pincer clicked and clattered, probing the air.
Over the girl he stood, Sharr Khan flexed his wings his tail lashed out. The Shotar took three shards from a pouch on his belt. The angular fragments of metal dropped with a clang onto the tiled floor.
“Geihva!” Sharr demanded, calling forth the names of the puzzle pieces his voice boomed in the silence of the chamber aided by the built in acoustics. “Geihvat? Geihvar?”
Who are you?
What do you want?
Where are you going?
Still not fully aware of herself, the new Falcanian took up the shards to study them. They were three fragments of a blade. The largest piece had three dimples drilled into it. Both the other smaller fragments only had one dot. She knew them to be a puzzle. She turned the puzzle over in her hands the new Falcanian looked closer, found that the shards were to be double sided in design. Her curiosity had become aroused.
She still had not found her awareness. Frederika’s mind processed all the data that had been programmed into her. Slowly, who and what she had become began to trickle into her consciousness.
“There’s a riddle asked of every Falcanian.” the Shotar told his newly born Falcanian.
Sharr allowed himself a smile. He had done this so many times that it was now habit.
“Ask your riddle,” the blonde murmured. At last she located her voice, though it was small and quiet.
“From the tallest peaks men seek to learn what they think they do not know. It lays at their heart and cries in their blood. Sometimes, the Wise-Ones are lead astray by it while the Middle-Wise grasp it and are put on the long road. It has no frontiers, but the one's man places there for himself. Of what do I speak?”
She knew she was not supposed to speak the answer to the puzzle or riddle out loud. To do so was forbidden and she was conscious of each Falcanian who stood here with her was aware of the proper response. She studied the fragments with interest, considering what to say as answer.
“Who are you?” Sharr prompted, forcing her attention back on him and preventing her from drifting back into herself. There was a danger, though small that the over-soul could overwhelm her sense of individuality.
Her lips parted. “I am your Falcon, the huntress who wields the arrow plucked from Irkrath's bow of instinct. I am Arshira T'Lani Hol.”
Indeed, she had chosen a solid Falcanian name. Arshira. Starblade. Metaphorically, it could mean a starship, though it carried also the meaning of 'Sharr's Blade'. She chose Arshira in part because of its sound value, aware that Sharr Khan preferred his females to have names with either A or I sounds. The irony of the name had also figured into her selection, certain that he'd appreciate the double connotation.
Arshira stood and walked the few paces across the red tiled floor to Sharr Khan's side. In her unclad elegance, she maintained nothing but pride. She arched her back and fanned out her mother-of-pearl colored wings. Her tail raised cat-like behind her swayed in delight. She whispered into Sharr's ear the answer to the riddle of the Phoenix Puzzle and she knew it to be right. He nodded, but did not tell her if she were correct, but the Shotar seemed satisfied by what she had told him, indicating her deduction was right.
“What do you want?” Sharr repeated the question almost above a whisper.
“To be the best that I can. To serve the Falcanian Khanate, und see our people grow,” Arshira replied breathlessly, brushing against the Shotar with her bare breast.
Sharr Khan looked straight into her emerald eyes. “Where are you going?”
“To the stars, my lord,” Arshira said with no hint of irony in her reply.
The Shotar took a piece of the Rishaak fruit and fed Arshira her traditional first meal as a Falcanian, followed quickly by a scrap of rabbit flesh. A symbol of the first kill, keeping to the primal edicts of D’Har Tarik.
Valküri Sisters rushed forward to attend to her wardrobe and see she would be made pleasant to the eye. They combed her hair, strung a gold tiara into Arshira's honey colored curls, a single tear-drop red jewel dangled at its center. On her pointed ears were placed elaborate earrings made o
f black pearls drooping with silver filigree. Fragrant scents of honeysuckle and jasmine were sprayed on her body. Around her waist they placed a belt on which her trikir, upon recognition of her biorhythms, came to life and reinforced her bond to the Falcanian over-soul. They armed her with vajra and Kraris, befitting a warrior such as she.
Arshira felt her own power and took pleasure in her new form. She became conscious of the molecular changes and the cybernetics at work in her body. Eventually this awareness would pass into second nature, but for the moment it made her feel vibrantly alive to be aware of her own force. She savored this moment. Finally understood what it was like to be a Falcanian. Arshira was cognizant of all those in the temple with her, each one a spark throbbing within her own mind, their very life-force sung to her in a way that she had never imagined before. The effect of the all-pervasive connection soothed her.
They soon dressed Arshira T'Lani Hol in the opulent green and gold vestments of the Sisterhood. The Valküri parted to let the onlookers take in her beauty and strength. She received the rank of Akjang-T'Shaak, a sub-commander in the Valküri Order and a title to go along with it, one that approximated her status as Duchess of Saxe-Coburg. Arshira would become a great leader within the Falcanian Khanate. Both feared and honored by those who spoke her name, Arshira would be known as a bringer of conflagration in the vastness of the Galaxy.
Arshira's wings caught the light of the morning sun. The solar sensitive polychromatic white membrane of her airfoil shimmered with a brilliant multicolored fire. On this day, a Phoenix had achieved her dawn.
Phoenix Project Archive
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Subject: Our Cybernetic Infrastructure And Linear Resurrection. The Debate!
Our intention is to transcend these resilient bodies which we have set out to design for ourselves and our offspring. Procreation lays at the heart of this dilemma that has been argued lately during Jirga, but more on that in a moment.
Let me first outline the infrastructure we’re working with here. Our Phoenix Heart sits as the hub of who we are to become as a people. A great accomplishment of molecular, quantum based computing if I do say so myself. What resides within Char is our repository of collective knowledge. We’ve put into place the Telchar Artificial Intelligences to act as “bosses” (Nadia’s familiar with the term where it relates to gaming) and be impartial regulators of this cybernetic realm which has been based on Sharr’s own mythological writings that we use as a touchstone for our burgeoning societies morals.
From the Phoenix Heart, we must then turn our attention toward the Rashalon Engine now under construction. Each device is dependent upon the other and they are all part of one network that we ourselves are meant to be a biological component of. It is by the Rashalon Engine that we intend to alter our own DNA and produce biological Falcanians. As it has been designed, the engine will, during the transformation, process map out a flashcopy of the occupant’s personality.
Here’s where things become sticky, and moral, never mind metaphysical questions come into play. This personality map, or “cyber ghost” is intended to be an anchor for a Falcanian so while at rest, they can easily journey back into Char and gain access to the collective awareness. This anchor copy is an imperfect thing and it's what necessitates the use of a trikir device to boost the signal and continually update the cyber ghost with a current map of its owner so one remains in-sync with the other as well as to virally propagate the collective. I will not fully delve into the debate often waged among Transhumanists about whether this cyber ghost is simply a replica, or if it’s our “true selves”. For the sake of this paper, let’s concede that the copy and original are close enough to still be considered the same being transferred into a DataStream. Theoretically there’s no reason we can’t just make copies of ourselves and insert those memories into clone bodies. As I understand it, this technique’s being offered to the very rich around some comers of the globe, the term I hear thrown about is “rebooting”.
Life everlasting is at our fingertips. A very seductive choice for us as a young species. We’ve the power to enjoy our extended lives in our new robust bodies and then at our expiration, punch in a code and the Rashalon Engine could very easily expel a rebooted version and we could indefinitely continue on in an unbroken chain of existence. That’s a very appealing prospect and the choice might appear simple and clear. The tools are in place for this type of linear resurrection.
It should be recognized that none among us seeks or desires oblivion. If we did, we would not pursue the Phoenix Project. The premise of which is to extend our lives and integrate ourselves into Char’s cyber realm. Our vanity surely calls us to keep our ego-selves alive in one manner or another. The question is NOT if we desire eternal life, but rather, what form we would want our everlasting existence to take. The choice here is, should we allow for linear resurrection in our culture? We absolutely have the means. Because we can, should we? I’ll do my best to articulate the D’Har Tarik view on this and I think I also give voice to our Shotar’s own concerns about the prospect of such linear resurrection and its effect on his people.
Char has been established to be a collective for our knowledge, a place where our people could pull a shared wisdom from, not just for us current Narshin-Falcanians, but also our next generation. It’s a sort of genetic memory.
There are many advantages to such collective knowledge to be sure and this is in fact why the Phoenix Heart had originally been conceived. We know Falcanians are sexual creatures, due as much to our cultural mores as to those biological drives we seek to instill in our new bodies. It’s an evident fact demonstrated by the Shotar’s own polygamous relationship as well as Lord Tariksar’s similar lifestyle. This is sanctioned on the notion such relationships should lead to multiple offspring, given there are so few of us “being fruitful”, has begun to become an imperative. At some point sexual reproduction and linear resurrection cancel one another out. Dr. Makross has made the point that to do both could cause unforeseen psychological issues among our people, not to mention bring with it a great deal of societal confusion. He posits the notion that multiple copies of a single entity carry’s with it schizophrenia, in that it detracts from the individual and that by nature Falcanians are very much individualists. My own opinion is that it comes out of forging many disparate personalities into a singular goal. I don’t think the debate has ever centered on the idea of there being many copies of any of us. This outcome has never really been on the table.
Nadia and her parents have voiced worry about genetic degeneration.
A more overriding issue to me, a topic both Sharr and Kvaltar have voiced, is that an addiction to resurrection/rebooting seems a possibility. We are still mortal creatures and hold within us human failings. You might at first, laugh at that notion, but think about it: if you know you can’t die, you will become very carefree with your life as well as those around you. Even the act of death and subsequent rebirth could become in and of itself a destructive high for some among us. Such an addiction, it has been feared could hamper a desire to procreate sexually, if not cause the usual method to go out of fashion all together with an urge to reboot as the cultural norm. It’s surely a less messy way to procreate. Even if we do not set out with that intent, this could become an unavoidable result of such an craving and in doing so lead our society down a road of stagnation and decay.
I propose the model we should structure our life cycle upon and hope that our Shotar will sanction to be D’Har Tarik canon: “We become our own descendent's.”
This model will permit change and upward, forward movement while hopefully forestalling both genetic and spiritual stagnation in our people. Allow me to briefly outline how this w
ould be structured.
A Falcanian is born > Dies, lives out another life in Char > Later in part, or in whole is returned once more to the physical realm by means of birth/hatching along the genetic-cybernetic pathways that the structure of the Phoenix Heart already has in place into a new body. Such a life cycle is far more nuanced than one straight-line of existence and is less likely to drive itself toward a bottleneck.
I know this debate has moved beyond the leadership and entered among our followers. Personally I think there’s a danger in leaving the solution to a popular vote, lest our passions overwhelm our better judgment. I am only speaking as Vorjah and keeper of the Telchar’s Lamp. My role as both a computer scientist (Who’d of thought all at that time at Microsoft would result in this?) and Falcanian cleric has met an interesting node in this debate. It is incumbent upon us to be cautious and look at the moral considerations with the structure we leave for our inheritors. I hope that I’ve outlined the issues clearly and presented what I think is an elegant solution to our dilemma in this paper. Your thoughts are welcome.
Vorjah Zoar Jangsiin, Tahru Caste
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“We will never forget them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.” – Ronald Reagan.
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Subject: Re: Our Cybernetic Infrastructure And Linear Resurrection. The Debate!
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