Empire Saga: The Fight for the Paradise, #1

by Lori Beery

  “What do we use to build it,” asked KwinJai.

  “Nothing. Just replicate it,” I replied. Various uncomprehending murmurs met my response.

  “How can we replicate it if we can’t use anything to build it?” asked Jacarr voicing their confusion.

  “That is why this is a challenge. I want to know what you come up with,” I said. They each complied, albeit unconfidently. And as expected, only one of us could replicate the mug. Lucera accomplished the task. Her mug looked, felt like, and functioned like the mug in the center of the table. The rest of us could make excellent 3-dimentional pictures. They looked like the mug, but failed to mimic the other two properties.

  “Lucera, please tell us what you did,” I instructed.

  “Well, I held a picture of the mug in my mind. Then, I… made-it-real?” she said unsure how to elaborate.

  “Okay. Please do it again except let us watch and replicate the mug on this end of the table,” I said indicating a spot across from her.

  She focused on the mug. Created an image within her mind. Then, she cast it to the place I had indicated. As it reached the position, the mug materialized. It just acquired form and substance. How? I don’t know. I picked up the mug turning it in my hands. Then, I replaced it on the table.

  “Can you un-make it?” I asked her.

  “I don’t know,” she said frowning. “Perhaps, if I just…,” she continued. As her voice trailed off, her eyes lost focus. A moment later, the mug vanished.

  “What did you have to do?” I asked.

  “Let go of the image,” she said. I looked for the image in her mind. It was, indeed, gone.

  “Are you still holding the first mug image you made real in your mind?” I questioned.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “Go ahead and let that image go,” I requested. She complied. The first mug disappeared. I reached over and picked up the challenge mug that I had set on the table. Placing it by the food replicator, I returned to my place. “Okay, form an image with the following three items: the mug, a pad, a flower,” I told her.

  “Any particular order?” she asked.

  “No,” I responded. “And place them anywhere on the table.” To the rest of the group I said, “Let’s see if we can catch what she is doing all the way through the process.” I nodded for her to begin.

  Again, I saw her create the image. She had chosen to form a data pad like Marleah’s. The flower she selected was a bright yellow pilut. I watched her cast it to a point close to my end of the table. Then, again, I didn’t catch the make-it-real process. The items just materialized.

  “Did anyone catch the whole process?” I asked. There was a chorus of negatives.

  “I only caught the image creation,” answered Beltrain.

  “I saw her ‘toss’ the image,” replied KwinJai. “Although I’m not sure that’s what she did. It did seem to change from in her head to there,” he said indicating where the items sat on the table.

  “So, at the moment, the actual change from image to item is still a mystery,” I commented. The others agreed.

  “Lucera, are you feeling tired?” I asked.

  “I’m too excited to be tired,” she said shaking her head, eyes dancing.

  “The items are still here. Are you still holding the image?” I asked

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Can you remove the data pad yet leave the other two items?”

  “Well, I think so,” she replied. Her eyes lost focus for an instant. At that moment, the data pad disappeared from the table. She smiled at her accomplishment.

  “Was manipulating the image harder than just letting it go?” I asked

  “Harder? No, it did take a moment for me to figure out how to alter it,” she replied thoughtfully.

  “Okay,” I responded thinking. “Ready to try two more things before you take a break?”

  “Sure.”

  “Try altering the image by putting the flower into the mug,” I suggested.

  “As though the mug is a vase?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  I saw her reach out and reposition the flower in the image. Then, something happened. It alluded me, yet again. I quickly checked the items on the table. The flower was in the mug stem first.

  “How hard is it to hold the image?” I asked her perplexed.

  “Once it’s formed, it’s easy,” she replied.

  Grinning I said, “I lied.” Everyone looked up at me. I held up a finger and said, “First, I want you to continue holding onto the flower-mug picture. Then,” I held up a second finger. “I want you to take an image from me and make that one real. Okay?” I asked. The others smirked acknowledging that I had added a third task.

  “Yes, I’m ready,” she answered happy to continue.

  I fed her an image of a citrace, a fruit, on a plate. I saw her take the image, toss it from her, and then that something happened. The plate with the citrace appeared on the table next to the ‘vase’.

  “I wonder,” I murmured as I reached out and picked up the flower. I put it to my nose and inhaled. The scent was just right for a pilut. I lifted my eyes to Lucera.

  “How is the image?” I asked.

  “Still there as before. Should I alter it to current conditions?” she asked.

  “No,” I said as I replaced the flower. Then, I picked up the citrace, peeled it, and sectioned it, placing the pieces back on the plate beside the peel. I picked up the plate, took a section, and passed the plate to Dulain. He took a piece of the citrace and passed the plate on. It wasn’t long before we all had some of the citrace. I received the plate back and replaced it on the table. I took a bite of the citrace. It was very juicy and tasted just like a citrace. Lifting my eyes to Lucera, I continued “I assume the image of the citrace is as it was when I gave it to you?”

  “It is,” she affirmed.

  “How can that be?” blurted Marleah. “Half of it has been removed even destroyed. Shouldn’t it reflect reality?”

  “One would assume so. But, my observations don’t support that assumption. Do yours?” I asked her.

  She shook her head and said, “No they don’t.” Her voice was a whisper.

  “We saw the same things you did,” supplied Beltrain as he looked around the table.

  “Up for trying one more thing?” I asked Lucera.

  “Yes?” she responded hesitantly.

  “Can you duplicate the ‘citrace image’?” I asked.

  “Let me try.” Her eyes lost their focus for an instant. Then, there were two ‘citrace images’. One over the plate. The other in her mind. “Now what?” she asked.

  “Let the one in your mind reflect reality,” I suggested.

  She nodded. She altered the image in her mind and made-it-real. At that moment, a plate with two sections and an orange peel appeared in the middle of the table.

  “What happens when she pulls the image over here into her mind?” asked Beltrain.

  I shrugged, lifted an eyebrow in Lucera’s direction, “what do you think?” I asked her.

  “I’m not sure. I think another plate will appear but with an unpeeled citrace on it,” she speculated.

  “Where will the plate appear in relation to the one already there?” asked Marleah.

  “Lucera, how are you feeling?” I asked

  “A little tired,” she confessed.

  “How many images are you holding?” I asked.

  “Three.”

  I nodded and continued, “Two out here and one in your mind, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Let go of the one with the flower in it,” I said. The image over the ‘flower in the mug’ disappeared as did the corresponding items on the table. “Okay, try to bring the ‘whole citrace image’ into your mind. Try to hold the images side by side,” I instructed. The images moved. She held them both in her mind side by side just as I had asked her. However, nothing on the table changed.

  “Why didn’t the plate move?” asked Kwin
Jai.

  “Lucera, please make both images real,” I requested.

  “Okay,” she responded. The plate we had passed around disappeared. At the same instant, two plates appeared in front of Lucera. One contained an entire citrace. On the other, sat two sections and a citrace peel.

  “It seems that creating and manipulating the image is separate from making-it-real,” I concluded. “One more experiment, okay?” I asked.

  “Only one more please,” requested Lucera.

  “This is the last one. Move the images so that the ‘whole’ one is behind the other,” I suggested

  Lucera nodded. She shifted the positions of the images. And nothing happened to the items on the table. “Should I make them real?” she asked.

  “Yes, but only if you are not too tired,” I replied.

  She made the images real. The orientation of the plates on the table changed. The plate with the whole citrace was behind the plate with the peel and two sections.

  “Okay, that’s enough for now. Go ahead and let both citrace images go,” I instructed. She let the images go. Both plates and their contents vanished from the table. “Lucera, go take a nap. I want you to be rested before we do anything else,” I said.

  “Sounds good,” she stated relieved. She rose and headed to her chamber without complaint. Obviously, she was weary. Most likely, the make-it-real process was more tasking than the image work.

  I circled around the table to Lucera’s vacant seat and sat down. I allowed my gaze to sweep the rest of my Hexacle. No one volunteered anything. So I said, “Questions, comments, observations?”

  At first, they glanced around the table at each other. Then, KwinJai met my eyes. “We learned that Lucera can create items from images and we don’t know how she does it,” he stated.

  “That is a true statement at this time,” I replied.

  “Are you saying that we might figure it out?” asked Beltrain.

  “It is possible,” I stated.

  “But, I thought you knew all about her gift,” said KwinJai. “You are the Hexator!”

  “Being the Hexator doesn’t automatically mean I know how every gift works. It means that I can link our abilities together to perform tasks we could not do as individuals,” I answered.

  “If you don’t know how the imager gift works, why did you become her trainer?” asked Jacarr.

  “For several reasons. One,” I said holding up a finger, “she is a member of this Hexacle. “Two,” I put up another finger, “there was no one else willing to become her trainer; her parents are both deceased. And three,” I added the third finger, “I don’t want her to harm herself or anyone else.”

  “So, what do you know about the imager gift?” questioned Jacarr.

  “I know more about it now than I did before we left Cassyndryl,” I responded. “When I was told she has the imager gift, I did some research. I checked the Hexator Complex’s archive as well as the Imperial archive concerning the gift. I discovered little more than a definition. No known imager practitioners are on file.”

  “That would imply it is either a very rare gift or a very dangerous one,” said Dulain.

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  “What dangers does the gift present for her?” asked Beltrain quietly.

  “She might accidentally make an unsafe image a reality,” I answered.

  “Like her nightmare,” Jacarr supplied meeting my gaze.

  “Yes,” I agreed nodding. “Perhaps, because the image step is separate from the make-it-real step, she has avoided setting herself on fire, at least so far.”

  “That’s a small comfort,” stated KwinJai.

  “That’s why you have alerts in place so you know when she is having the nightmare,” Marleah stated.

  “Yes,” I replied quietly. “When she is rested, what experiments should we ask her to try and what do you think we will learn about her gift?”

  “How about asking her to include the location in her image,” suggested Beltrain. “That would let us know her image can have more detail?”

  “That’s a good suggestion,” I replied. “What other ideas do you have?”

  We discussed a number of possibilities. We settled on seeing if the location could be added to the image and discovering if an exterior power source could be used to minimize the energy drain on Lucera herself. As our discussion wound down, Lucera rejoined us.

  “I’m starving!” she exclaimed.

  “Are you too hungry to go out?” Jacarr asked. As she nodded, I went to the food replicator and ordered a banana.

  When it materialized, I handed it to her saying, “Perhaps this will tide you over until our food arrives in the restaurant.”

  “Erm, would you make it two, please?” she asked in a pleading voice.

  “Of course,” I replied repeating the banana ordering process.

  Lucera quickly devoured her bananas. Shortly after that, we left for Deck 2 and lunch.

  Chapter 5

  We did not immediately return to our suite after lunch. Instead, we stopped by the Captain’s ready room. I wanted to see when the Captain would be available to meet with me today. After motioning my Hexacle to remain in the hall, I stepped up to the door, activating the door chime.

  The door slid open as Captain Lawrence said, “Come.”

  I stepped into the ready room and greeted him, “Good afternoon, Captain.”

  “Ah, good afternoon, Hexator Nickoli,” Captain Lawrence replied as he looked up. Waving me into the room, he added, getting to his feet, “Please come in.”

  I entered further into the ready room. He met me before his desk. I accepted his proffered hand in a handshake. With a smile I said, “Thank you, Captain.” Releasing his hand I asked, “Do you still have time to meet with me this evening?”

  “I do,” he responded. “I was hoping we could meet after the evening meal.”

  “That is acceptable,” I replied easily. “I hope you won’t mind if my Hexacle is in attendance”, I added.

  “That would be fine,” the Captain acquiesced. “May I bring my first officer and the ship’s doctor?”

  “Of course, Captain,” I replied. “Until after the evening meal.” I nodded respectfully to him and made my way back into the hallway to rejoin my Hexacle. We proceeded to our suite. Once there, we gathered around the table. This time we each took a chair.

  “Lucera are you ready?” I asked.

  “I am”, she replied with excitement brightening her eyes.

  “Excellent”, I responded with a smile. “I want you to take an image from me and make-it-real. Are you ready?”

  She nodded expectantly. I fed her the image of a short, wide drinking vessel sitting in the center of a blue ring. As she duplicated the representation and held it in her mind, I nodded to Dulain. He projected a blue ring onto the table in front of him but to Lucera’s right. I saw her begin the make-it-real process. I still did not catch it. Regardless, the glass materialized before Dulain.

  “Good,” I said. “Lucera release that image.” She let it go. The glass vanished. “Reconstruct the image I gave you and make-it-real,” I instructed her. As she began working, I nodded to Dulain. He started the blue ring moving. It was to travel in a spiral from the center of the table outward. When it came to the table’s edge it was to pause and reverse its course.

  I checked on Lucera’s work. She had constructed her image just like the one I had given her. She made-it-real. The glass appeared in the blue ring as it journeyed along its outward spiraling course.

  “Marleah, please put a red ring on the settee,” I stated. Marleah complied. A red ring was stationed on the far cushion of the settee.

  “Lucera, please alter the ring in your image. Make it red,” I suggested.

  “Okay,” she replied happily. She made the change with little effort. “Do you want me to make-it-real?”

  “Yes please,” I answered. She went through the process. Two things happened at once. A glass appeared in the red ring on the
settee. And Dulain’s blue ring became red. The glass still rode in the center. The glass was now nearing the edge of the table.

  “Very nice,” I said. “Is anyone surprised at the outcome?” There were no affirmative responses. “Lucera, how are you doing?”

  “I’m fine,” she replied.

  “Was it more draining to make more than one glass real?” I asked.

  “A little,” she responded.

  “Ready for another trial?” I inquired.

  “Of course,” she affirmed.

  “KwinJai, please place a green ring on the vid player,” I requested. He did so. A green ring rested on top of the vid player.

  “I know, I know,” blurted Lucera excitedly. “You want me to change the ring in the image to green and make-it-real.”

  “Exactly right,” I responded enthusiastically.

  She made the necessary alteration to her image. I tried to follow the process. I saw it begin but got lost – again. It felt like learning a complicated dance step of which I could follow the first step and the last one. I had no idea what happened in the middle. In any case, the glass appeared in the green ring on the vid player and the rings on the settee and on the table, both, turned green.

  “Okay,” I said pleased. “Let’s move on. Beltrain and Jacarr build your shelves. Please make them twelve centimeters above your palms.” Both men rose from the table. Jacarr stationed himself next to the view screen which was on the adjacent wall from the vid player. Beltrain went opposite Jacarr, near the door of the suite. Both extended a hand with fingers splayed as if they supported a flat surface. While they worked on creating their shelves, I turned to Lucera. “Go ahead and let go of the image you are holding,” I instructed. She did and all the glasses vanished. “Now make an image that places the glass on top of the shelf that Jacarr and Beltrain are holding.”

  “So, I should place the glass 12 centimeters above their hand?” asked Lucera.

  “Put the glass on a clear shelf 12 centimeters above their hand,” I confirmed. “Everyone ready?” I asked checking on Jacarr and Beltrain. The shelves were where I had ask them to create them. They nodded their readiness. I checked Lucera’s image. It depicted a clear shelf the right distance above a hand. “Lucera are you ready?” I asked concerned.