by James Murdo
She immediately regretted having let the sensespace take her back to the terrifying, swirling mass of utter blackness. Her insignificance against its sheer scale was humbling. The darkness continued to display its power, warping reality with its movement. The whispers cowered, barely audible.
It was hard to gauge its magnitude, but she knew it was more gargantuan than anything else that could exist. She was afraid. If it awoke and noticed her, it would not be kind. The sensespace was right to fear it.
She hated the sensespace… at least, she thought she still did. It had become confusing. However, the black mass seemed much worse. She could feel its cold hate. It planned to destroy all it could. It barely registered the sentients in the galaxy, unlike the sensespace, all it wanted was to obliterate everything.
She gazed, for a long time, until it came to her. The specks of light dotted about its dark heart were stars. She had been right in knowing, somehow, that it was vaster than anything that had come before it, impossibly so. Entities, or structures, on that scale, were not supposed to exist.
The presence behind her shifted, moved about, and the whispers evaporated to nothingness.
A word came to her, plucked from the recesses of her mind. Something that she had long supposed, although had not been consciously able to articulate. She knew where this thing resided, she had known for quite some time. She was connected to it, to everything. It had all been laid out for her.
Centre.
She wanted to look about, to find where the information had come from, to blame anyone other than herself, but she could not. It had come from within her.
Filled with the understanding that this word described what was ahead, she was captivated, no longer just afraid, gazing into the dark heart. She understood. It was at the centre, a centre that everything in the galaxy could understand. The centre. What was more, she knew exactly what it was, what was waiting for her. The craft-lect and One-oh had been right.
The Deliverer was waiting for her, at the centre of the galaxy.
She shot backwards.
*
The entire galaxy was there, for her to behold. Her infinite eyes put her on the threshold of omniscience. She wished she could comprehend it all – she had the ability but not the capability, nor the strength. Not yet. Perhaps she never would. The whispers were gaining in volume.
She could see it, still. Finally able to place it, to make sense of what she had already known. The dark heart, the menacing presence dominating the centre of the galaxy. A gap in her perceptive sight, bespeckled with those specks of twinkling light, which she now knew were stars. She knew the centre was filled with malicious intent, and dark power. Substantial and terrifyingly destructive. The Deliverer. The omission of a presence. It was hidden, untouched by the sensespace, her most powerful tool, the thing she begrudged beyond anything. She still did not understand quite how she could control the Maspero gateways without the sensespace, but whatever other gifts she had were not demystifying the Deliverer for her.
She knew she was becoming confused about the sensespace and whether she should hate it, or this Deliverer, more. Her father’s words had not helped. She did not want to think about what he had implied about his connection with the sensespace – that lay some of the blame for all the death it had caused, including Tor’s, at his feet. It also did not make sense because he had said he wanted his children to be strong, yet Tor had been killed by Teacher. She knew her father would never have wanted to cause Tor’s death, he had loved Tor.
Her attention was taken by a faint sensation across her presence – like a muted version of the force she felt when they were near the Maspero gateways. As soon as she formed those thoughts, shining points, unlike the stars, became apparent. They shone with a pale green hue that became increasingly prominent the more she observed. She was able to see the myriad of connections between them, which took the form of faint viridescent lines. Every now and then, she spotted certain lines becoming thicker, and a deeper green, in a motion that swept from one side to the other. She was right, these were the gateways.
She could ascertain the overall shape of the gateway network. Broadly, it was spherical, although most thickly traced as a ring on the main galactic plane. It was the same ring she had already seen the impression of when the sensespace had first shown this to her, before she had even encountered the gateways. The ring was the thickest part of the shell, spanning a significant stretch of the galaxy, but it was unmistakably clear from her current point of observation. She saw the path they had taken in the Wanderer ship, the crisscrossing through space, comically oblivious to the network they had wandered into. Obvious to her now. Now that she understood its layout and how the constituent gateways were connected, she would be able to take them wherever they wished. She could even differentiate between the sensespace-infected worlds and those that appeared derelict of its presence.
She peered closer, through the shell of the Maspero gateway, into the inner reaches of the galaxy, but not too close to the darkness at its heart. There were two other inner shells, smaller than that of the Maspero gateway network, and discernibly separate from each other. Concentric shells. They both contained structures within them that were interlinked, although she did not understand what they were – perhaps other gateways.
She knew, with reluctance, where she needed to go, where she needed to take them. As close to the centre as the Maspero gateways would take them. Finding the right path no longer worried her, but what she would do when they reached the end, did. Sooner or later, venturing inwards, they would wake the darkness. Did it have its own set of infinite eyes, or something else, something terrible? She was scared. What was she meant to do, kill a god?
CURRENT AND UPCOMING BOOKS
By James Murdo
Wanderers series:
Gil’s World (Book 1)
Searching the Void (Book 2)
Infinite Eyes (Book 3)
Wanderers universe:
Fractured Carapace (soon)
www.jamesmurdo.com
If you enjoyed reading Infinite Eyes, please feel free to leave a review or connect with me through my website!
GLOSSARY AND CHARACTERS
A-autom – Classification of a craft-lect that controls a Wanderer ship. It is at the top of the ship’s internal machine-lect hierarchy.
AB level – Empire, civilisation, race, species or any other grouping of sentients that has reached the point of technological advancement comparable with that of the ABs. The term can also be used to describe specific technologies that are comparable in advancement to those used by ABs.
AB space – A reality deeply connected with real space. It is the ‘true’ home of the ABs.
Antigraviton – Elementary particle of the antigravitational force, which acts over massive inter-galactic distances to push objects further apart. The force acts like gravity’s opponent, although it is a separate force and not an antimatter equivalent, which does not exist.
Apalu – Sibling of the craft-lect.
Ascended Biologicals (‘ABs’) – Most advanced known civilisations in the galaxy. They had been thought to be all-powerful, until they chose suicide in the face of the sensespace threat. A defining aspect of the ABs was that they were unable to be fully understood by the less advanced, wider galactic community. They reside in both real space and AB space, although the latter is their ‘true’ home.
Axe-coding – Type of inhabitant of a craft-lect’s technosystem reality, alongside the c-automs. Axe-codings cull c-automs at the instruction of the craft-lect.
Axe-haven – Structure that disseminates orders and updates to the axe-codings, and whose existence is purposely concealed from the craft-lect.
Axenic garrison – Thorus’ territory that is separated and hidden from the rest of the galaxy using transit-point technology given to it by the Makers.
Axuum – Common material that is light-weight, strong and impervious to gamma radiation making it useful for space travel. Typically fou
nd across most manufacturing areas within young civilisations.
Azuum – Material that is similar to Azuum, and typically found across most manufacturing areas within young space-faring civilisations.
Balrooni Wonder – Galactic marvel, discovered by the Balroons.
Balroons – Race of large, technologically-augmented macronematoids.
B-autom – Category of machine-lect designed by the Wanderer Enclave to co-ordinate c-automs within early craft-lect ships. They did not act as intended and were either destroyed or repurposed.
Beast-men – Extinct species that was similar to Gil’s people.
Bio-lect – Biological sentient that has been upgraded near to the point of becoming a machine intelligence, while keeping its biological thought constructs. Differentiated from a machine-lect, although technically a subset. Rare instances have shown they can evolve naturally, such as with the Waka race.
Biological sentient (‘biological’) – Non-exotic living entity that has naturally evolved, or would have been able to, and that also possesses an intellect.
Bloom – Wanderer propulsion method powered by vacuum energy.
Blue Dots – Phenomenon appearing within the photospheres of most heavier main sequence stars within the Minor Hednes Arm. It has been debated whether they are a primitive species or simply an emergent property of a complex system. Their apparent patterns are thought to be governed by a set of equations known as the ‘Hyplex Dolsden Triple’.
Bo – Oldest and wisest elder of Gil’s former commune.
Bunch’wan – Small aquatic, and heavily religious species that fractured into various derivative civilisations in pre-Conflation times. The base species, alongside with many others, became extinct as a result of the war against the sensespace. Offshoot levels three, eight, nine, ten and twenty-seven are known to have survived and reintegrated into one society.
Capacity – Amount of concentration available to each Wanderer machine-lect, which can be divided and allocated between tasks.
C-autom – Lowest classification of sentient sub-lect within the autom series. They are created by Wanderer craft-lects and delegated various tasks.
Ciqalo – Disappeared sibling of Apalu and the craft-lect.
Cognitional demarcation (‘coupling’) – Technique allowing data-lects to ascertain the veracity of information entering the Wanderer data exchange network.
Commune – Type of community where Gil was raised on her world.
Communer – People who live in a commune.
Coupling – See ‘cognitional demarcation’.
Craft-lect – Wanderer machine-lect that travels the galaxy detecting and destroying incidences of sensespace infection.
Craftnet – Ship-wide network on a Wanderer craft-lect’s ship. It is available to be used for ship-wide communications by all c-automs.
Cross-Prophet – Entity initially referenced by Thy, who reveals himself to Tor and DeVoid. Also known as the ‘Guardian of the Spaces’ and the ‘Traveller’.
Data exchange network – Wanderer civilisation’s information network, spread across the galaxy. Often referred to as ‘the data exchange’.
Data exchange portal – Individual portal within the Wanderer data exchange network. Usually referred to simply as ‘a data exchange’.
Databanks – Wanderer memory technology.
Data-lect – Higher Wanderer machine-lect that usually acts as a steward of a data exchange portal. Originally created during experiments by the Machine Alliance, and prodigy-tending on average. They exhibit greater independence of thought than most Wanderer machine-lects.
Deliverer – Powerful machine-lect created and left behind by the ABs, dedicated to learning about and destroying the sensespace.
DeVoid – Data-lect with origins predating the Great Conflation.
Diasporasm – Siltlong species that evolved from the Silti, and are their largest descendants.
Dissociation shell – Enormously destructive weapon based on dissociation technology.
Dissociation shield – Complicated technology that funnels a dissociation explosion around an enclosed, protected area.
Dissociation technology – Antigravity technology that was banned before the Great War.
Drone – Automated instruments that are typically not sentient.
Dual-structure lect – Type of machine-lect architecture that allows for two distinct expressions of sentience to co-exist within the same medium at the same time.
Duspatock – Siltlong species that evolved from the Silti, and are their smaller descendants.
Emblem-ship – Largest and deadliest Battle Class ships produced by the Woal Collective, initially created during the early stages of the Great War. They are more conjoined fleets than individual ships, comprising hundreds of interlinked baubles – each with their own machine-lect in charge. They are known to favour weapons derived from dissociation technology.
Enclave-lect – Member of the Wanderer Enclave.
Faistri’al – Species made famous throughout the galaxy for their association with the Balroons.
Flap-weaponry – Type of Faistri’al weapon.
Fringe viewpoint – Description of a minority school of thought in the Wanderer civilisation.
Galactic community – Encompasses known spacefaring civilisations who exchange information between each other. Also used to group together all sub-AB sentients.
GA-Ries – Galactic civilisation known to the Wanderers.
Gate-lect – Machine-lect from the gateway mechanism.
Gateway mechanism – Mechanism overseeing the Wanderer data exchange network.
Gil – Twin sister of Tor.
Granthan – Mysterious race that reached near-AB level before technologically plateauing.
Granthan-lect – Machine-lect from the Granthan civilisation.
Granthan-lect fragment (‘fragment’) – Partial copy of the original Granthan-lect that infiltrated the craft-lect’s ship.
Graviton – Elementary particle of the gravitational force.
Gravity cocoon – Device to suppress or dampen an explosion.
Great Conflation – Mass suicide event which occurred sixty million years ago, during the fight against the sensespace. It was initially proposed by the embattled ABs as a means of forcing the sensespace into dormancy by removing its ability to actively control those it had infected, as it was theorised to rely on the aggregate level of sentience within the galaxy. Sometimes, the Great War is referred to as the Great Conflation, although that is not technically correct.
Great War – Three hundred million years ago, following its discovery by the Balroons, the sensespace attacked the galactic community. It exerted an active control over those it had infected to carry out destruction. The war is still ongoing.
Guardian of the Spaces – See ‘Cross-Prophet’.
Han – Most skilled hunter in Gil’s former commune.
Hatelei – Grouping of Siltlong races that is far smaller than the Wanderers.
Higher-level c-autom – C-autom with greater-than-average intelligence.
Hollow-world – World-sized husk that appears typical but is identifiable primarily by its negligible gravitational readings.
Hugger Encroachment – Civilisation that mostly had settlements within the outer perimeters of star systems, with a level of technology far inferior to that of the Wanderers. Extinct long before the Wanderers were formed.
Hunter – Communer who hunts animals for food in the surrounding forests.
Hyper-lucidity – Ability of some biologicals to exhibit intellectual leaps far surpassing the abilities of most machine-lects, and often requiring prodigy or savant machine-lects to understand.
Insul – Craft-lect and parent-lect of Pelteus. Deceased.
Lect – Living entity that possesses an intellect and is therefore sentient. Usually an affix to a machine intelligence.
Lenbit Orbital – Asteroid field where the craft-lect encountered the derelict research base, dis
guised as a mining station, established by One-oh’s race.
Lower-level c-autom – C-autom with lower-than-average intelligence.
Machine Alliance – Pre-Wanderer grouping of machine-lects who engaged in numerous technological experiments, banded together by the central tenet of machine superiority.
Machine-lect – Machine-based intelligence.
Makers – Creators of the sensespace and ‘the spaces’.
Mart’oop – Upright hexapodic insectoid species that caused their own extinction hundreds of millions of years before the Great Conflation.
Maspero – Private AB civilisation rumoured by the Wanderers to have been involved with creating the Deliverer.
Maspero gateways (‘gateways’) – Rotating gravitational singularities that appear to allow near-instantaneous passage between separate locations.
Metalink – Conduit used by Thorus to receive and transmit information from its garrison.
Meta-traps – Snares used by Pelteus to attack its prey.
Multiversal boundaries – Boundaries separating universes within the multiverse.
Multiverse – Collection of universes, separated by multiversal boundaries, that comprise the spaces.
Nanosphere – Antimatter weapon.
Near-AB level (‘Near-AB’) – Empire, civilisation, race, species, or any other grouping of sentients, that has technologically advanced to a point nearly comparable with that of the ABs, although still recognisably inferior by the galactic community. The term can also be used to describe specific technologies.
Near-speed-of-light (‘N-SOL’) travel – Fastest transportation method known to, and possessed by, sub-ABs. N-SOL travel is an AB technology that was gifted to the galactic community billions of years ago.
Needle-whip – Weapon.
Nevosplitter – GA-Riesian instrument.
Nine-Bunch’wan – See ‘Bunch’wan’.
Non-ABs – Empire, civilisation, race, species, or any other grouping of sentients, whose technological advancement is inferior to the ABs, or who have AB-level, technologies but have declined to join the AB grouping. The term can also be used to describe specific technologies.