<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title>Defending Elysium</title></head><body><h1 id="book">Defending Elysium</h1><p>The woman thrashed and spasmed in the hospital bed. Her dark hair was matted to her head with sweat, and her uncontrolled motions seemed almost epileptic. Her eyes, however, did not have the wildness of the insaneâinstead they were focused. Determined. She was not mad; she just couldnât control her muscles. She kept waving her hands in front of her with awkward movements, movements that seemed strangely familiar to Jason.</p><p>And she did it all in silence, never uttering a word.</p><p>Jason switched off the holovid, then leaned back in his chair. He had watched the vid a dozen times, but it still confused him. However, he couldnât do anything until he arrived at Evensong. Until then, he would simply have to bide his time.</p><hr><p>Jason Write had always felt an empathy for the Outer Platforms. There was something about the way they hung alone in space, claimed by neither planet nor star. They werenât lonelyâthey were . . . solitary. Autonomous.</p><p>Jason sat beside the shuttleâs port window, looking at Evensong as it approached. The platform resembled others of its kindâa flat sheet of metal fifty miles long, with buildings sprouting from both its top and bottom. It wasnât a ship, or even a space stationâit was nothing more than a collection of random buildings surrounded by a bubble of air.</p><p>Of all the Outer Platforms, Evensong was the most remote. It hung between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, the farthest deep-space human outpost. In a way, it was like an Old West border town, marking the edge of civilization. Except in this caseâno matter what humankind liked to thinkâcivilization lay outside the border, not within it.</p><p>As the shuttle approached, Jason could Sense the cityâs separate skyrises and towers, many of them linked by walkways. He sat with his eyes turned to the window, though the position was redundant. He had been legally blind since heâd turned sixteen. It had been years since he could even make out shadows or light. Fortunately, he had other methods of seeing.</p><p>He could Sense lights shining from windows and streets. To him, their white light was a quiet buzz in his mind. He could also Sense the line of buildings rising in a way that was almost reminiscent of an old Earth city skyline. Of course, there wasnât really a sky or a horizon. Just the blackness of space.</p><p><i>Blackness</i>. Voices laughed in the back of his mind. Memories. He pushed them away.</p><p>The shuttle slid into Evensongâs atmospheric envelopeâthe platform had no sphere or force field, like some of the older space stations employed. Element-specific gravity generators had eliminated the need for such things, and had opened space for mankind. ESG, along with fusion generators, meant that humankind could toss an inert piece of metal into space, then populate it with millions of individuals.</p><p>Jason sat back as the shuttle made its final approach. He had a private cabin, of course. It was well furnished and comfortableâa necessity for such a long trip. The room smelled faintly of his dinnerâsteakâand otherwise had a sterile, well-cleaned scent to it. Jason approvedâif he had owned a home, he would have kept it in a similar way.</p><p><i>I suppose it is time for the vacation to end,</i> Jason thought. Silently bidding farewell to his relaxed solitude, Jason reached up to tap the small control disk attached to the skin behind his right ear. A sound clicked in his earâthe acknowledgment that his call was being relayed across the void to Earth so far away. Faster-than-light communicationâa gift given to Earth as a reward for mankindâs most embarrassing political faux pas of all time.</p><p>âYou called,â a perky feminine voice sounded in his ear.</p><p>Jason sighed. âLanna?â he asked.</p><p>âYup.â</p><p>âI donât suppose anyone else is there?â Jason asked.</p><p>âNope, just me.â</p><p>âAaron?â</p><p>âAssigned to Riely,â Lanna said. âHeâs investigating CLA labs on Jupiter Platform Seventeen.â</p><p>âDoran?â</p><p>âOn maternity leave. Youâre stuck with me, old man.â</p><p>âIâm not old,â Jason said. âThe shuttle has arrived. Iâm initiating a constant link.â</p><p>âAffirmative,â Lanna replied.</p><p>Jason felt the shuttle set down in the docks. âWhereâs my hotel?â</p><p>âItâs fairly close to the shuttle docks,â Lanna replied. âItâs called the Regency Fourth. Youâre registered as a Mr. Elton Flippenday.â</p><p>Jason paused. âElton Flippenday?â he asked flatly, feeling the docking clamps send a shudder through the ship. âWhat happened to my standard alias?â</p><p>âJohn Smith?â Lanna asked. âThatâs far too boring, old man.â</p><p>âItâs not boring,â Jason said. âItâs unassuming.â</p><p>âYes. Well, I know rocks that are less âunassumingâ than that name. Itâs boring. You operatives are supposed to lead lives of excitement and dangerâJohn Smith doesnât fit.â</p><p><i>This is going to be a long assignment,</i> Jason thought.</p><p>A quiet sound buzzed in the roomâan indication that docking had finished. Jason rose, fetched his single bag of luggage, slid on his sunglasses, and left his quarters. He knew the glasses would look odd, but his sightless eyes tended to put people on edge. Especially when they discovered that he was obviously able to see despite his unfocused pupils.</p><p>âSo, how was the trip?â Lanna asked.</p><p>âFine,â Jason said tersely, walking down the shuttleâs hallway and nodding toward the captain. The man ran a good crewâin Jasonâs opinion, any crew that left him alone was a good one.</p><p>âCome on,â Lanna prodded in his ear. âIt had to be more than just âfine.â What kind of food did they serve? Did you have any problems with the . . .â She droned on, but Jason stopped paying attention. He was focused on something elseâa slight warble in Lannaâs voice. It sounded for only a brief second, but Jason immediately knew what it meant. The line was being tapped.</p><p>Lanna had undoubtedly heard it as wellâshe was loquacious, but not incompetentâbut she continued as if nothing had happened. She would wait for Jasonâs signal.</p><p>âHow are the kids?â Jason asked.</p><p>âMy nephews?â Lanna replied, not breaking the rhythm of her conversation as she received his coded request. âThe older oneâs fine, but the younger one has the flu.â</p><p>The younger one was sick. That meant the tap was on Jasonâs end, not hers. <i>Interesting,</i> he thought. Someone had managed to get close enough to scan his control disk without him noticing.</p><p>Lanna fell silent. She was preparing a tap block, but would only act if Jason ordered it. He didnât.</p><p>Instead, he stepped out of the shuttle and walked down the short ramp to the arrival station. Before him spread a line of scanning arches, meant to search for weaponry. Jason strode through them without concernâthere wasnât a scanner in human space that could discover his weapons. He nodded with a smile as he passed a guard; the man smelled faintly of tobacco and was wearing a blue uniform that registered as a pulsing rhythm in Jasonâs mind. The guard frowned as he saw the silver PC pin on Jasonâs lapel, then turned a suspicious eye on his scanners.</p><p>Jason stepped aside as the other passengers formed a line at the registration counter, ostensibly searching for his ID. He watched them with his Sense, however, his useless eyes turned downward. Most of the people wore the soft rhythm of navy, the roar of white, or the still silence of black. None of them stood out, but he memorized the patterns of their faces. The person who had tapped his line must have been on the shuttle.</p><p>After they had all passed, Jason pretended to find his IDâone of the old plastic ones, rather than a new holovid card. A tired security man, his breath smelling of coffee, accepted the ID and began processing Jasonâs papers. The guard was a young man, and his skin was tinted blue after one of the newer fashion trends. The man worked slowly, and Jasonâs eyes drifted to a holovid playing on the back counter. It displayed a news program.</p><p>â. . . found murdered in an incineration building,â the anchor said.</p><p>Jason snapped upright.</p><p>âJason,â Lannaâs voice said urgently in his ear. âI just picked something up on the newsfeeds. Thereâs been aââ</p><p>âI know,â Jason said, accepting his ID back and dashing out of the customs station and onto the street.</p><hr><p>Captain Orson Ansed, Evensong PD, hustled through Topsideâs slums. It still surprised him that Evensong had slums. All of the platformâs buildings were built of rich telanium, a super-light, silvery metal that didnât corrode or fall apart. In fact, most of the buildings had been prefabricated with the platform, and were an extension of its sheet-like hull. The buildings were spacious, well constructed, and sleek.</p><p>And still there were slums. It didnât matter that Evensongâs poor lived in homes that many wealthy Earthsiders couldnât afford. By comparison, they were still poor. Somehow, their dwellings reflected that. There was a sense of despair to the area. Shiny, modern buildings were hung with ragged drapes and drying clothing. Aircars were rare, pedestrians common.</p><p>âOver here, captain,â one of his men said, motioning toward a building. It was long and squatâthough like all buildings on the platform, it had other structures built on top of it. The officer, a new kid named Ken Harris, led Orson inside, and Orson was immediately struck by a pungent smoky scent. The building was a burning station, where organic materials were recycled.</p><p>Officers moved about in the darkened room. Like most buildings on Evensong, this one was poorly lit. Evensongâs distance from the sun kept it in a perpetual state of twilight, and the platformâs inhabitants had grown accustomed to having less light. Many of them kept the lights dim even indoors. The tendency had bothered Orson at first, but he rarely even noticed it anymore.</p><p>Several officers saluted, and Orson waved them down with a petulant gesture. âWhatâve we got here?â</p><p>âCome and look, sir,â Harris said, weaving through some equipment toward the back of the room.</p><p>Orson followed; eventually they stopped beside a massive cylindrical burner. Its metallic face was dark and flat. One of the bottom reservoir doors was open, revealing the dust below. Mixed with the dirt and ash was a large section of carapace, its shell stained black from the heat.</p><p>Orson swore quietly, kneeling beside the carapace. He poked at the shell with a stirring rod. âI assume this is our missing ambassador?â</p><p>âThat is what we assume, sir,â Harris said.</p><p><i>Great</i>, Orson thought with a sigh. The Varvax had been asking about their ambassador since its disappearance two weeks before.</p><p>âWhat do we know?â Orson asked.</p><p>âNot much,â Harris said. âThese burners are only emptied once a month. The carapace has been in there for some timeâthereâs almost nothing left of it. Any longer, and we wouldnât have even found him.â</p><p><i>That might have been preferable,</i> Orson thought. âWhat did the sensor net record?â</p><p>âNothing,â Harris said.</p><p>âDoes the media know about this?â Orson asked hopefully.</p><p>âIâm afraid so, sir,â Harris said. âThe worker who found the body leaked the information.â</p><p>Orson sighed. âAll right, then, letâs . . .â</p><p>He trailed off. A figure was silhouetted in the buildingâs open doorâa figure not wearing a police uniform. Orson swore quietly, standing. The officers outside were supposed to keep the press out.</p><p>âIâm sorry,â Orson said, walking toward the intruder, âbut this area is restricted. You canât . . .â</p><p>The man ignored him. He was tall and thin, with a triangular face and short-cropped black hair. He wore a simple black suit, a little outdated but otherwise indistinctive, and a pair of dark glasses. He brushed past Orson with an air of indifference.</p><p>Orson reached out to grab the insolent stranger, but froze. There was a gleaming pin on the manâs lapelâa small silver bell.</p><p><i>What!</i> Orson thought with amazement. <i>When did a PC operative get here? How did he know?</i> The questions didnât really matterâregardless of their answers, one thing was certain. Orsonâs jurisdiction had come to an end.</p><p>The Phone Company had arrived.</p><hr><p>It had finally happened a hundred and forty years before, in the year 2071. Oddly enough, the ones who had made first contact had been an outdated, nearly bankrupt phone company.</p><p>Northern Bell Incorporated had been on the losing side of technological progress. While its competitors had been researching and incorporating holovid technology, Northern Bell had tried something a little more daring: cybernetic-based telepathic linking.</p><p>Cyto, as it was dubbed, had turned out to be a failure. Holovid technology was not only cheaper and more stable, it also worked. Cyto had not workedâat least not as Northern Bell had hoped. In the last days before its impending bankruptcy, the company had finally managed to get a few squeaks of sound through the system. Those squeaks, while unimpressive to their human monitors, were also inadvertently projected through space to a group of beings known as the Tenasi. The Tenasi reply had been the first interspecies contact Earth had ever known.</p><p>Second contact had been made by the United Governments Military when they accidentally shot down a Tenasi ambassadorial vessel. But that, of course, was an entirely different story.</p><p>âHeâs been missing for two weeks?â Jason asked, kneeling beside the burned carapace. It was silent in his mindâa foreboding indication of its black color.</p><p>âYes, sir,â the officer said.</p><p>âYup,â Lanna said at almost the same time.</p><p>âWhy wasnât I informed of this?â Jason asked.</p><p>The police officer looked confused for a moment before realizing that Jason wasnât talking to him. Earlinks were a common, if confusing, part of modern life.</p><p>âI assumed you knew, old man,â Lanna said. âYou know, Jason, for an all-knowing spy type, youâre remarkably uninformed.â</p><p>Jason grunted, standing. She was rightâhe should have looked into local news stories during his trip. It was too late now.</p><p>The officer regarded Jason with hard eyes. Jason could read the manâs emotions easily. Not through the use of his Cyto Sensesâit was a common misconception that psionics were telepathic. No, Jason could read the manâs emotions because he was accustomed to dealing with local law enforcement. The officer would be annoyed at Jason for interfering with his investigation. But at the same time, the officer would be relieved. Local men always felt overwhelmed when it came to dealing with other species. Aliens were to be handled by the Phone Company. The PC had made first contact; the PC had negotiated Earth out of danger following the Tenasi incident. The PC had brought FTL communication to humankind.</p><p>So the officer watched Jasonâjealous, but thankful. Jason could hear other officers muttering at the edges of the room, angry at his interference. <i>Dirty PC. Why is he here? Why does he look at us like that? Canât you see? Whatâs that in front of your face? Is it my fist? Can you see it if I hit you? Maybe that willâ</i></p><p>âJason?â Lannaâs voice sounded in his ear.</p><p>Jason snapped to, muscles twitching, memories fading. He still knelt beside the burner. The officer still stood staring at him, the room still smelled overpoweringly of smoke, and he could still hear the reporters arguing with officers outside.</p><p>âIâm all right,â Jason whispered.</p><p>He stood, dusting off his suit, listening to the reporters. They, like the policemen, would probably assume that Jason had come to Evensong to investigate the Ambassadorâs death. It didnât matter that Jasonâs shuttle had left for Evensong over a month before the murder. An alien had died, and a PC operative had arrived. That would be enough for them.</p><p>âI shouldnât have come to the scene,â he mumbled.</p><p>âWhat else would you have done?â Lanna asked. âThis is our duty, after all.â</p><p>âNot mine,â Jason said. âIâm here to retrieve a missing scientist, not investigate a murder.â Then, speaking louder, he continued. âIâm certain the local law enforcement is competent. Let them investigateâthe PC can handle diplomatic negotiations.â</p><p>The officer looked surprised. But, apparently uncertain what else to do, he saluted Jason. Jason nodded, then turned to leave.</p><p>âNot that the âdiplomatic negotiationsâ will be too hard,â Lanna noted. âThe Varvax are so insanely docile that theyâll probably apologize for inconveniencing one of our murderers.â</p><p>âTheyâre all like that,â Jason said, stepping out onto the buildingâs front steps. âThatâs the big problem, isnât it?â</p><p>There was a moment of shocked silence as the reporters realized who he was. They stood in a ring around several beleaguered police, and the commotion was attracting a crowd of curious onlookers. Then the reporters exploded with questions. Jason ignored them, pushing his way through the crowd. He had his head bowed, his hand raised to forestall questions. However, in his mind he was looking.</p><p>He scanned the crowd, pushing through the humming and pulsing colors. He looked over each face, comparing them to the ones in his memory. A smile crept to his lips as he found what he was looking for. The media let him leaveâthey were used to the PC ignoring their questions. Behind him, Jason could hear their on-the-spot vidcasts. They had all the facts wrong, of course. There was fear in their voicesâa fear of what they didnât understand, a fear of the retribution that might come. In their world, retribution was assumed. In their world, you hurt that which was weaker than you.</p><p>Jason continued to walk with his head bowed. Behind him, a man broke free from the group of onlookers and wandered in Jasonâs direction, obviously trying to look casual.</p><p>âI wish there were more flowers,â Jason said.</p><p>A second later, a click sounded in his ear. Then Lanna sighed. âWhat took you so long?â she demanded. âIâve been waiting for you to do that ever since you got off the shuttle. I feel creepy knowing someoneâs hacking our line.â</p><p>Jason continued to stroll forward. His shadow followedâthe man moved with the skill of one who had been well trained, but he made the mistakes of one who was inexperienced. There was no change to his stepâhe probably hadnât noticed the switchover. At that moment, he would be listening to a fabricated conversation between Lanna and Jason. For some reason, Jason suspected he didnât want to know what kind of silly things Lannaâs replicated version of his voice was saying.</p><p>âIs he buying it?â Lanna asked.</p><p>âI think so,â Jason said, walking away from the slums. âHeâs still following.â</p><p>âWho do you think heâs with?â</p><p>âIâm not sure yet.â Jason turned, taking the steps down into an airtrain station. The man followed.</p><p>âIf you caught him this quickly, he must not be very good.â</p><p>âHeâs young,â Jason said. âHe knows what heâs supposed to do, but he doesnât know how to do it.â</p><p>âA reporter,â Lanna guessed.</p><p>âNo,â Jason said. âHeâs too well equipped. Remember, he managed to hack into a secure FTL comm.â</p><p>âOne of the corporations?â</p><p>âMaybe,â Jason said, strolling into an underground cafe. It smelled of dirt, mold, and coffee. His follower waited for a few moments outside, then walked in and took a table a discrete distance from Jason.</p><p>Jason ordered a cup of coffee.</p><p>âWe havenât even discussed how he managed to scan your disk,â Lanna noted. âYouâre losing your edge, old man.â</p><p>âIâm not old,â Jason mumbled as the waitress brought his coffee. It smelled of cream, though he had ordered it black. He turned his ineffectual eyes on a newspaper someone else had left on the table, but his mind studied his follower. The man was indeed youngâin his early twenties. He wore softly humming grays and browns.</p><p>âSo,â Lanna said, âdo you want to try and get me a visual so I can look him up?â</p><p>Jason paused. âNo,â he finally said, taking a sip of his coffee. It had far too much cream in itâprobably an attempt to obscure its poor flavor.</p><p>âWell, what are you going to do?â</p><p>âBe patient,â Jason chided.</p><hr><p>Coln Abrams sipped his coffeeâit didnât have enough cream. He had to keep telling himself not to look at his target. Coln didnât actually need to watch the man to monitor the conversation, he just had to stay within range.</p><p><i>What are you doing here, Write?</i> Coln wondered with frustration. <i>How did you know the ambassador would be killed? What does this all have to do with your plans?</i></p><p>Coln shook his head. Jason Write, head operative for Northern Bell Phone Company, one of the most enigmatic people in the Solar System. What was he doing on Evensong? The United Intelligence Bureau knew a lot about the man, but for every known fact there seemed to be two more missing.</p><p>Take, for instance, the Tenasi Agreement. Coln had read the document itself a hundred times, and had watched the holovids, commentaries, and old newscasts relating to the Tenasi incident over and over. The United Governments military had accidentally shot down a Tenasi diplomatic vesselâthereby initiating a rather embarrassing first contact. Earth had been thrown into a chaos of confusion and worry. Were they being invaded? Would they be invaded now that they had made such a horrible mistake?</p><p>Then the PC had stepped in. Somehowâusing means they had yet to explainâthey had contacted the Tenasi. The PC had brought peace to Earth. But in exchange, the company had demanded a steep price. From that moment on, the PC had become completely autonomousâuntaxable, unquestionable, and completely above the law. In addition, the PC had secured sole rights to the aliensâ FTL communication technology. And, with those two concessions, the PC had become the most powerful, most arrogant force in the system.</p><p>Coln gripped his mug tightly, barely noticing as the waitress brought his sandwich. He was still listening to the conversation between Write and his Base Support Operativeâthey were discussing what color roses they liked best.</p><p>Coln had never trusted the PCâand he hated things he couldnât trust. The PC grew fat off its treatiesâit held exclusive contracts with all twelve alien races humankind had met. The alien races all refused to deal with Earth unless they went through the PC first. The Phone Company kept humankind locked in space, refusing to share FTL travel technology. It claimed that the aliens had yet to give it to them. Coln suspected the truth. The aliens had FTL travel, that was certain. The PC was simply keeping it from humankind, and that infuriated Coln. He wanted to findâ</p><p>Coln froze. The conversation in his ear had stopped mid-sentence. For a panicked moment, Coln feared that Write had slipped out of the restaurant and out of range.</p><p>Colnâs eyes darted across the room. He was relieved to find Write sitting in his booth, sipping quietly at his coffee. It had simply been a lull in the conversation.</p><p>âWhat do you think heâll do when he realizes his cover is blown?â the Base Support Operative, Lanna, said in Colnâs ear.</p><p>Coln paused.</p><p>âI donât know.â Jason Writeâs voice was firm. Arrogant. Coln could see Writeâs lips moving as he spoke. âI suspect he will be surprised. Heâs youngâhe assumes heâs better than he really is.â</p><p>Write looked up, his sunglassed eyes looking directly at Colnâs face. Horror rose in Colnâs chest, an emotion quickly followed by shame. Heâd been discovered.</p><p>âCome here, boy,â Write ordered in Colnâs ear.</p><p>Coln shot a look at the door. He could probably get awayâ</p><p>âIf you leave,â Write said, âthen you will never discover why I am on Evensong.â His voice was sharp and businesslike.</p><p>Coln regarded the man indecisively. What should he do? Why hadnât any of his classes covered situations like this one? When an agent was discovered, he was supposed to pull out. But what if his target seemed willing to talk to him?</p><p>Slowly, Coln rose and crossed the cafeâs dirty floor. Writeâs sunglasses watched him quietly. Coln stood for a moment beside Writeâs table, then sat stiffly.</p><p><i>Donât reveal anything,</i> Coln warned himself. <i>Donât let him know that youâre with theâ</i></p><p>âYou are young for a UIB agent,â Write said.</p><p>Inwardly, Coln sighed. <i>He already knows. What have I gotten myselfâand the Bureauâinto?</i></p><p>âI wonder,â Write said, taking a sip of his coffee. âIs the Bureau growing more confident in its young agents, or am I simply slipping in priority?â</p><p><i>He doesnât know!</i> Coln realized with surprise. <i>He thinks Iâm here officially.</i></p><p>âNeither,â Coln said, thinking quickly. âWe werenât ready for you to leave. I was the only field agent who was unassigned at the time. It was simply poor luck.â</p><p>Write nodded to himself.</p><p><i>He accepted it!</i></p><p>âI must say,â Write said, setting down his mug, âI am growing tired of the UIB. Every time I think that you people are going to leave me alone, I find myself being followed again.â</p><p>âIf the PC werenât so untrustworthy,â Coln said, âits Operatives wouldnât have to worry about being followed.â</p><p>âIf the Bureau werenât so poor at investigation,â Write said, âit would have realized by now that the PC is the only company that the Bureau <i>can</i> trust.â</p><p>Coln flushed. âAre you going to say something useful, or are you just going to insult me?â</p><p>âA clever man would realize that my insults contain the most useful information youâll likely receive,â Write said.</p><p>Coln snorted, rising from the chair. Write had just invited him over to gloat, and Coln had ruined his own career for nothing. He had been so certain that he could tail Write, that he could figure out what the man was doing, discover truth behind the Tenasi Agreement. . . .</p><p>âYou may accompany me,â Write said, finishing his coffee.</p><p>Coln paused mid-step. âWhat?â</p><p>Write set down his mug. âYou want to know what Iâm doing? Well, you may come with me. Maybe this will finally alleviate the UIBâs foolish suspicions. Iâm tired of being followed.â</p><p>âJason,â Lanna said in Colnâs ear. âAre you certainââ</p><p>âNo,â Write said. âIâm not. However, I donât have time to deal with the UIB right now. This is a simple missionâthe boy may come with me if he wishes.â</p><p>Coln stood, dumbfounded. He couldnât decide what to do. Could he really trust a PC operative? No, he couldnât. But what if he learned something important? âIââ</p><p>âHush,â Write said suddenly, holding up a hand.</p><p>Coln frowned. Write wasnât looking at him, however. He was staring straight ahead, his face confused.</p><p><i>Now what?</i> Coln wondered.</p><hr><p>Something was wrong. Jason ran his mind around the room, trying to Sense what was bothering him. The cafe had about a dozen other occupants, all eating quietly. Most of them were in workersâ clothingâflannels and denim that pulsed an irregular symphony in Jasonâs mind. He studied their faces, and recognized none of them. What was bothering him?</p><p>A line of bullets blasted through the window just beside Jason. They came far too fast for his body to react or dodge, moving with the incredible speed of modern weaponry.</p><p>As fast as the bullets were, however, Jasonâs mind was faster. He whipped out, a dozen invisible mindblades slashing through the air. The force of his attack slapped the bullets backward as well as sliced each one in two. There was a series of audible clicks as the pieces bounced back off the window, then fell to the cafe floor. All was silent.</p><p>The UIB kid plopped into his seat, his face horrified as he stared at the window and its holes.</p><p>âJason?â Lanna said urgently. âJason, what happened?â</p><p>Jason Sensed out the window, but the sniper was already gone. âI donât know.â</p><p>âSomeone shot at you?â Lanna asked with concern.</p><p>Jason regarded the bullet holesâthey ran in a small circle in the window just beside the UIB kidâs head. âNo,â he said. âThey tried to kill the kid.â</p><p>The cafeâs patrons were running about in fear, some calling out, others hiding beneath benches. The UIB kid was looking down at himself with surprise, as if he couldnât believe that he was still alive. âThey all missed,â the boy whispered with amazement.</p><p>Jason frowned. Why would someone try to kill a UIB agent? Why not focus on Jason? The PC was a far more dangerous threat.</p><p>âHow did you let him sneak up on you like that?â Lanna asked.</p><p>âI wasnât expecting to be shot at. This was supposed to be a simple assignment.â Then, turning to the kid, he nodded. âLetâs go.â</p><p>The kid looked up with surprise. âSomeone tried to kill me! Why?â</p><p>âIâm not certain,â Jason said. He ran his Sense over the room one last time, memorizing faces. As he did so, he noticed something. While most of the people were hiding or quivering in fear, one didnât seem to be concerned at all. A solitary form sat quietly at the back of the cafe. He was a nondescript man with a long nose and a firm body. He watched Jason with interested eyesâeyes that seemed slightly unfocused. Almost as if . . .</p><p><i>Impossible!</i> Jason thought. Then, without bothering to see if the UIB kid followed him, he left the cafe.</p><hr><p>âYou must take the apologies of us,â Sonn urged. The Varvax Foreign Ministerâs words were delivered by a translation program, of courseâthe Varvax language consisted of clicks and snaps mitigated by hand gestures. The figure on the holovid screen was large and boxy, and its skin shone with quartz and granite. That was, of course, only the exoskeletonâthe Varvax were actually small creatures that floated in a nutrient bath sealed within their inorganic shells.</p><p>âSonn,â Jason pointed out, sitting back in his chair, âyour people were the victims here. Your ambassador was murdered.â</p><p>Sonn waved a clawlike hand; a symbol of denial. âYou must understand that he knew the risks of living in an undeveloped civilization. Creatures of lesser intelligence cannot be held responsible for their acts of barbarity. You have not yet learned a better way.â</p><p>Jason smiled to himself. Comments like that one that earned the Varvax, and most other alien races, humankindâs disgust. It didnât matter that the comments were trueâin fact, the truth of such statements only enraged humankind more.</p><p>âWe will return what is left of the body as soon as possible, Minister Sonn,â Jason promised.</p><p>âThank you, Jason of the Phone Company. You must tell to meâhow go your efforts at civilization? Will your people soon raise themselves to Primary Intelligence?â</p><p>âIt will take some time yet, Minister Sonn,â Jason said.</p><p>âYou are an interesting people, Jason of the Phone Company,â Sonn said, his claws held before him in a gesture of supplication.</p><p>âYou may speak on.â</p><p>âYou have such disparity amongst what you are,â Sonn said. âSome of Primary Intelligence, some of Thirdâor even FourthâIntelligence. Such disparity. You must tell to me; are your people still convinced of the power of technology?â</p><p>Jason shrugged an exaggerated shrugâthe Varvax liked to watch and interpret human gestures. âHumankind believes in technology, Minister Sonn. It will be very difficult for them to accept another way.â</p><p>âOf course, Jason of the Phone Company. We will speak to each other again.â</p><p>âWe will speak again,â Jason said, shutting off the holovid. He sat for a moment, Sensing the room around him. He couldnât just relax completely anymoreâhe missed that. If he let his concentration lapse, the darkness would come upon him.</p><p>âThey certainly are confident, arenât they?â Lanna asked in his ear.</p><p>âThey have reason to be,â Jason replied. âIt has always happened as they expect. A race discovers FTL Cytonic Transmission at the same time it achieves a peaceful civilization.â</p><p>âIf only they werenât so cursed ingenuous,â Lanna said. âA part of me kind of wishes I had three Varvax diplomats, a card table, and a host of âuselessâ technologies I could cheat out of them.â</p><p>âThatâs the problem,â Jason said. âThereâs a little of that in all of us.â</p><p>âWhat if theyâre wrong, Jason?â Lanna asked. âWhat if we do get FTL travel before weâre âcivilizedâ?â</p><p>Jason didnât replyâhe didnât know the answer.</p><p>âI looked up the kid for you,â Lanna offered.</p><p>âGo on,â Jason said, rising and gathering his things. The attack the day before still had him worried. Was it an attempt to scare Jason off? From what? âThe day you left, a young UIB agent named Coln Abrams disappeared from the Bureauâs training facilities on Jupiter Fourteen,â Lanna said. âHe stole some sophisticated monitoring equipment. The UIB put out several warrants for him, but they arenât looking this farâapparently they didnât expect him to make it all the way to Evensong.â</p><p>âIt isnât exactly a prime vacation spot,â Jason noted, strolling over to the window and trying to imagine what the city would look like to normal eyes. It would be dark, he decidedâmost of it didnât vibrate very much to him. Dark and tall, like a city constructed entirely of alleyways. Lights were sparse and insufficient, and the air always smelled musty. It always seemed to be a few degrees below standard temperature tooâas if the vacuum of space were closer, more ominous, than it really was.</p><p>âSo,â Lanna said, âweâve got a wanted felon. Can we turn him in?â</p><p>âNo,â Jason said, turning from the window. He put on his suit coat and slid on his dark glasses.</p><p>âCome on, letâs turn him in,â Lanna said. âIn fact, it was probably the UIB who tried to have him killed yesterday.â</p><p>âThey donât work that way,â Jason said, walking to the door. âDo you have my permits secured?â</p><p>âYes,â Lanna said.</p><p>âGood. Turn the kid back on, and letâs get going.â</p><hr><p>The image was blurred and poorly exposed. Unfortunately, it was the best he had. Coln walked around the large holoimage, studying it as he had hundreds of times before. The answer was before him; he could feel it. The image held a secret. Yet Coln, like thousands of others, was unable to determine just what that secret might be.</p><p>The image had been taken by the only spy to infiltrate the PCâs central headquarters. It was a picture of a simple white room with an apparatus lining the back wall. That apparatus, whatever it was, powered all of humankindâs FTL communications.</p><p>It was the greatest secret of the modern age. Humankind had been trying for nearly two centuries to break the PCâs monopoly on FTL communication. Unfortunately, no amount of research had been able to duplicate the PCâs strange technologyâand until someone did, humankind would be indebted to a tyrant.</p><p><i>It has to be here!</i> Coln thought, staring at the unyielding image. He walked around it to look at several angles. <i>If only it werenât so blurry.</i> He looked closely at the holoimage. A security guard sat against the right side of the room, staring in the photographerâs direction. There seemed to be several cylindrical outcroppings on the far wallârelays of some kind? One was larger than the others, and dark in color. Was it the answer?</p><p>Coln sighed. Men far more technologically savvy than he had tried to dissect the image, but none had been able to draw any decisive conclusions. The picture was just too fuzzy to be of much use. He had spent the entire morning trying to decide why someone would try to kill him. He had only been able to come to one decisionâthat for some reason, Write had ordered him assassinated. The PC agent had been the one who had coerced Coln over to sit beside him, in the place where the assassin had shot. The PC was behind it somehow. <i>Except the assassin missed,</i> Coln thought. <i>He must have done so on purpose. Write wanted to scare me off. He acted like he didnât care if I followed him, then he tried to frighten me away.</i> Coln nodded. It made sense, in a twisted PC sort of way. And if Write didnât want him along, then Coln had to make certain he stayed.</p><p>âWake up, kid,â Lannaâs voice crackled suddenly in his ear.</p><p>âIâm awake,â Coln said, bristling at the reference to his ageâtwenty-three was hardly young enough to earn him the title of âkid.â At least the other two had stopped feeding him dummy conversationsâwhen they didnât want him to listen, they simply shut him out completely.</p><p>âThe big guyâs leaving,â Lanna said in her pert voice. Coln was beginning to wonder why Write put up with her. âHe says you can go with him, but only if you can keep up.â</p><p>Coln cursed, throwing on his jacket.</p><p>âOh, and Coln,â Lanna said, âtry not to steal anything from him. Jasonâs kind of attached to his equipment.â</p><p>Coln flushed. How much did they know?</p><p>He dashed out into the hallway just in time to see Writeâs black-suited form turn a corner. Coln padded across the floor, catching up to the operative. Write barely acknowledged him. They walked in silence to the end of the hallway, then took the private lift down to the lobby. The lush carpets and wealthy furnishings hinted that they were far indeed from the previous dayâs slums.</p><p>âSo, what is it?â Coln asked as they stepped out onto the silver telanium street. The street, as always, was dimly litâthough hundreds of lights shone from windows and signs. Evensong was dark, but it did not sleep.</p><p>âWhat is what?â Write asked as an aircabâobviously charteredâpulled up in front of the hotel.</p><p>âWhat is your purpose here, Write?â Coln asked, climbing into the back of the car beside the operative. âI assume you knew something about the ambassadorâs death?â</p><p>âYou assume wrong,â Write said as the aircab began to move. âThe ambassadorâs murder was a coincidence.â</p><p>Coln raised an eyebrow in skepticism.</p><p>âBelieve me or not, I donât really care.â</p><p>âThen why are you here?â Coln asked.</p><p>Write sighed. âTell him.â</p><p>âIt happened just under two months ago, kid,â Lanna said. âA scientist named Denise Carlson disappeared from Evensongâs PC research facility.â</p><p>Coln frowned at the comment, searching through his memory. He paid attention to anything the Bureau learned about the PC. He recalled something about the scientistâs disappearance, but it hadnât seemed very important.</p><p>âBut,â Coln said, âour reports said she was nothing more than a lab assistant. The PC home office barely paid any mind to her disappearanceâit said that she had been the victim of a common street mugging.â</p><p>âWell, at least someone pays attention to current events,â Lanna said.</p><p>Write snorted. âHe might pay attention, but he should have realized that any story we downplay is far more important than it seems.â</p><p>Coln blushed. âSo, you came to find this Denise Carlson?â</p><p>âWrong,â Lanna said. âThatâs why he left, but thatâs not the goal anymore. While Jason was in transit, we located Miss Carlson. Just under two weeks ago a woman fitting her description was picked up by authorities. She was diagnosed with severe mental problems, and was checked into a local treatment ward.â</p><p>âSo . . .â Coln said.</p><p>âSo Iâm here to retrieve her,â Write said. âNothing more. Weâre going to bring her back to Jupiter Fourteen so that she can receive proper treatment. My role is that of a simple courier.â Write smiled slightly, turning his black glasses toward Coln. âThat is why I am willing to let you come with me. You sacrificed your career so you could watch me escort a mental patient.â</p><hr><p>Jason strode into the hospital, the depressed Coln tagging along behind. The kid kept asking questions, convinced that Jasonâs actions had some greater purpose in the PCâs âmaster plans.â Jason was beginning to regret bringing him alongâthe last thing he needed was another person jabbering at him.</p><p>The nurse at the front desk looked up with surprise when he entered, her eyes flickering toward his silver lapel pin.</p><p>âMr. Flippenday?â she asked.</p><p>He paused only briefly at the horrid name. âI am. Show me to the patient.â</p><p>The nurse nodded, leaving the desk to another attendant and waving Jason to follow. She wore whiteâa roaring, blatant color. To others, White was neutral, but to Jason it was by far the most garish choice. Better the subtle hum of gray. The walls were white as well, and the hallways smelled of cleaning fluids.</p><p><i>Why do they do that?</i> Jason wondered, shaking his head slightly. <i>Do they think that it will make their patients feel at home? Lifeless sterility and monochrome white? Perhaps all these people need to regain their sanity is a little bit of color.</i></p><p>The nurse led them to a simple room with a locked doorâostensibly for the patientâs safety.</p><p>âIâm glad you finally decided to come,â the nurse said, a slightly chiding tone in her voice. âWe contacted the PC weeks ago, and the womanâs just been waiting here all this time. With no relatives on the platform, one would think that you people . . .â</p><p>She trailed off as Jason turned toward her. After losing his eyesight, he had eventually learned that a look of discontent could be accomplished as much with oneâs bearing as with oneâs eyes. As he stared sightlessly at the nurse, her resolve weakened, and the punitive tone left her voice.</p><p>âThat is enough,â Jason said simply.</p><p>âYes, sir,â the nurse mumbled, shooting him a spiteful look as she unlocked the door.</p><p>Jason walked into the small, unadorned room. Denise sat beside a deskâthe roomâs only furniture beside a bed and a dresser. She regarded Jason with wide eyes. She looked much as in his holovidâshe was thin, her short dark hair in curls, and she wore a simple skirt and blouse.</p><p>Jason had met her several times beforeâDenise had shown an affinity for Cyto, and had been midway through her training. She had once been a straightforward and calculating woman. Now she looked like a young squirrel that hadnât yet learned to fear predators.</p><p>âThey said you would come,â she whispered, the words awkward in her mouth. âDo you know who I am?â</p><p>Jason looked toward the nurse.</p><p>âSheâs amnesiac,â the nurse said. âThough we canât determine any physical reason for it. She also has some sort of muscular problemâshe has trouble keeping her balance and controlling her limbs.â</p><p>Denise demonstrated such, rising slowly to her feet. She wobbled slightly as she walked forward, but she managed to remain on her feet.</p><p>âSheâs made amazing progress,â the nurse said. âShe can walk now if she doesnât move too quickly.â</p><p>âDenise, youâre coming with me,â Jason said. âAbrams, help her walk.â</p><p>The kid looked up with surprise. Jason didnât give him time to complainâinstead, Jason turned and strode from the room. Abrams cursed quietly, but did as he ordered, giving the confused Denise a helpful arm as they walked from the hospital.</p><p>They were nearly out when Jason noticed something. He never would have seen it without his Senseâthe man hid behind a door, barely peeking out. The Sense was far more discerning than normal eyes, however, and Jason recognized the face even through the doorâs small slit. It was one of the men from the cafeânot the strange man who had sat at the booth, but one of the ordinary workers.</p><p><i>So, theyâve been watching her,</i> Jason thought as he left the building, the kid and Denise following. <i>Did they expect her to reveal something, or did they know that I would come for her?</i></p><hr><p>âI do not know what this means,â Denise said, staring at the menu with her wide eyes. She looked up, confused.</p><p>âYou canât read?â Jason asked.</p><p>âNo,â Denise replied.</p><p>âHere, let me help,â Abrams offered, reading down the list of items.</p><p>Jason sat back, allowing himself a slight smile. The kid was showing an almost chivalrous devotion to the amnesiac woman. She was passably attractive, in a sickeningly innocent sort of way. Abrams was just betraying the inherent predisposition of a young human male; he had seen a woman in need and was trying to help her.</p><p>Denise raised her hand awkwardly in an odd gesture as Coln read. âI still do not know what it means.â</p><p>âNone of the words sound familiar?â Jason asked, leaning forward with interest.</p><p>âNo.â</p><p>âBut you can speak,â Jason mused. âWhat do you remember?â</p><p>âNothing,â Denise said. âI donât remember anything, Mr. Flippenday.â</p><p>Jason cringed. âCall me Jason,â he mumbled as Abrams asked the girl what kind of food she liked. She, of course, didnât know.</p><p>She should have remembered more. Most amnesiacs remembered somethingâif only fragments. âWhat do you think?â Jason whispered.</p><p>âItâs odd,â Lanna said. âSheâs changed, old man. Whatever they did to her, it was pretty thorough.â</p><p>âAgreed.â</p><p>Abrams ordered for the girl and himselfâchoosing, Jason noticed, two of the most expensive items on the menu. He knew that Jason would be paying. At least the kid had style.</p><p>As he sat, Jason thought back to the strange man in the cafe. The man couldnât have access to Cytoâin a hundred and fifty years, no one had discovered the ability besides the PC. But what if someone had? What if they had learned about Denise, and had captured her to try and learn what she knew? What had they done to her to get at her knowledge?</p><p>His ponderings led him nowhere. Eventually the food came, and Jason began to eat. He preferred simple meals with little mess, so he had ordered a tossed pasta dish with a very light sauce. He ate quietly, thoughtful as he watched a man a short distance away haggle over his bill with the waiter.</p><p>He shouldnât have been worried about the ambassadorâs death. The police would probably find that the murder had been preformed by some xenophobic activist group. They were prevalent. There were those who hated other species because of assumed superiority, those who hated them because they thought the aliens were too arrogant, and those who hated them simply because they were different. The student-sponsorship program, where human children would be sent to other planets to learn of other species, had been defeated three times in the United Senate.</p><p>The ambassadorâs death probably wasnât related to Denise. Jason should leaveâthere were too many things that demanded his attention for him to waste time chasing false leads. This trip had taken far too long already.</p><p>Jason paused. Denise had turned and was staring at the man who was arguing about his bill. He raised his fist at the waiter, uttering a few epithets, then finally slapped down some money and stalked out of the building.</p><p>âWhy is he like that?â Denise asked? âHow can he be so angry?â</p><p>âThatâs just the way people are sometimes,â Coln said uncomfortably. âHow is your food?â</p><p>Denise turned her eyes down at the steak. She had taken several awkward bites, though Coln had been forced to cut it for her. âItâs very . . .â</p><p>âVery what?â Jason prompted.</p><p>âI do not know,â Denise confessed, blushing. âIt tastes too . . . strong. One of the flavors is very odd.â</p><p>Jason frowned. âWhat flavor?â</p><p>âI do not know. It was very strong in the hospitalâs food too, though I didnât say anything. I didnât want to offend them.â</p><p>âDescribe the taste to me,â Jason said. Something was tickling at the back of his mindâa connection he should have made.</p><p>âLeave her alone, old man,â Abrams said. âSheâs been through a lot.â</p><p>Jason raised his eyebrows at the use of âold man.â He heard Lanna chuckling through the FTL link. Jason ignored Abrams, turning his head toward Denise. âDescribe the taste to me.â</p><p>âI canât,â Denise finally said. âYou must understandâI donât know what it is.â</p><p>Jason reached for the saltshaker, then sprinkled some salt on his hand. âTaste this,â he ordered.</p><p>She did as asked, then nodded. âThatâs it. I do not like it very much.â</p><p>Abrams rolled his eyes. âYouâve figured out that she doesnât know the word for salty. So? She doesnât know what any of these foods are, or even what her name is.â</p><p>Jason sat back, ignoring the kid. Then he turned to his food and continued to eat in silence.</p><hr><p>âIâve arranged your return trip to Jupiter,â Lanna said. âYouâll be leaving on the courier ship<i>Excel</i> at 10:30 PM, local time.â</p><p>Jason nodded to himself. He stood on his balcony, leaning against the railing as he listened to Lannaâs voice in his ear.</p><p>âThe ship is a good one, and always punctualâas you like them,â Lanna said. âYour accommodations are for two people.â</p><p>Jason didnât reply. He Sensed Evensong before him, feeling its massive metallic buildings and numerous walkways. Sometimes, he tried to remember what it had been like to see. He tried to imagine colors as images, rather than as Cytonic vibrations, but he had trouble. It had been so long, and his eyes hadnât been very good in the first place.</p><p>Evensong was in motion around himâaircars flew, people moved on the walkways, lights flickered on and off. It was beautiful, in a way. It was beautiful that humankind had expanded this far, that it had found a way to thrive even here, in the middle of space, where the sun was barely more than another star.</p><p>âYouâre not coming back yet, are you?â Lanna asked quietly.</p><p>âNo.â</p><p>âSo you think the ambassadorâs death might be related?â</p><p>âIâm not certain,â Jason said. âMaybe. Something is bothering me, Lanna.â</p><p>âAbout the murder?â she asked.</p><p>âNo. About our scientist. Something about Denise is . . . wrong.â</p><p>âWhat?â</p><p>Jason paused. âIâm not sure. She learned to walk and talk too quickly, for one thing.â</p><p>Lanna didnât respond immediately. âIâm not certain what to tell you,â she finally said.</p><p>Jason sighed, shaking his head. He didnât really understand what he meant either. He stood quietly for a moment, watching the flow of people on a walkway a short distance away. Something was wrongâhe couldnât decide what it was, but he knew what he feared. For over a century, the PC had maintained a monopoly on Cyto. He didnât expect psychic ability to remain confined to the PCâin fact, it was his ultimate goal that it not be. The very thing he was working toward was what he feared.</p><p>âJason,â Lanna asked, âhave you ever worried that what weâre doing is wrong?â</p><p>âEvery day.â</p><p>âI mean,â Lanna continued, âwhat if theyâre right? The Tenasi, the Varvax, and the restâtheyâre all much older than humankind is. They know more than we do. Maybe theyâre rightâmaybe humankind will become civilized before it obtains FTL travel. Maybe by holding Cyto back from them, weâre keeping ourselves from progressing as we should.â</p><p>Jason stood quietly beside the balcony, listening to the sound of children running on the walkway below. <i>Children, laughing . . .</i></p><p>âLanna,â he said, âdo you know how the Interspecies Monitoring Coalition rates a raceâs intelligence class?â</p><p>âNo.â</p><p>âThey look at the raceâs children,â Jason said quietly. âThe older ones. Children who have lived just long enough to begin imitating the society they see around them, children who have lost the innocence of youth but havenât yet replaced it with the tact and mores of adulthood. In those children, you can see what a species is really like. From them, the Varvax determine whether a species is civilized or barbaric.â</p><p>âAnd we failed that test,â Lanna said.</p><p>âMiserably.â</p><p>âThatâs all right,â Lanna said. âEvery race fails it during the early part of their growth. Weâll get there eventually.â</p><p>âThe Tenasi had barely begun using steam power when they made their first FTL jump,â Jason said. âThe Varvax werenât far behind themâthey still didnât have computers. Both species traveled to other planets before they learned to send a shuttle into space.â</p><p>Lanna fell quiet.</p><p>âWeâve been in space for nearly three centuries now,â Jason continued. âThe Varvax say that technology isnât the wayâthey claim that technological development has boundaries, but that a sentient mind is limitless. But . . . still I worry. I worry that humankind will find a way, somehow. We always have before.â</p><p>âAnd so you play watchdog,â Lanna said.</p><p>Jason stood for a moment. âThe few, so cleansâd, to these abodes repair,â he finally said in a quiet voice, âAnd breathe, in ample fields, the soft Elysian air. Then are they happy, when by length of time, The scurf is worn away of each committed crime; No speck is left of their habitual stains, But the pure ether of the soul remains.â</p><p>âHomer?â Lanna asked.</p><p>âVirgil.â Above, beyond the buildings, beyond the air, Jason could Sense the specks of starlight in the sky. âSpace is Elysium, Lanna. The place where heroes go when they die. The Varvax and the others, theyâve fought and bled, just like we have. They finally overcame all of thatâthey paid their price and have earned their peace. I want to make certain their paradise remains such.â</p><p>âBy playing God?â</p><p>Jason fell silent. He didnât know how to reply, so he didnât. He simply stood, Sensing the paradise above and Evensong below.</p><p>Coln rifled through the in-room bar, searching for something to drink. He wasnât normally prone to drinking, but normally he wasnât facing the loss of his job and probable imprisonment. Eventually, he poured himself a small glass of scotch and made his way out onto the balcony.</p><p>He paused halfway out the door. Jason Write stood leaning on his own balcony just a short distance away. The man didnât look over, but Coln still felt as if he were being watched.</p><p><i>Donât let him intimidate you,</i> Coln told himself. He turned away from Write indifferently and leaned against his own balcony railing.</p><p>Coming after Write had seemed like such a good idea at first. Coln had been frustrated at the Bureauâs lack of information. They knew the PC was hiding technology from them, but they had no clue what it was. They knew Write had something integral to do with the PCâs operations, but they werenât sure why. They wanted to keep trailing him, but theyâd made too many promises. The Bureau had been ready to just leave Write alone.</p><p>Coln sighed, taking a sip of his drink. Heâd picked the wrong mission. Write planned to leave within the day, taking the unfortunate scientist with him. And then Coln would be left by himself, a fugitive and a fool.</p><hr><p>âThat kid is a fool,â Lanna said.</p><p>âI know,â Jason mumbled. âBut at least he has passion. And courage.â</p><p>âNot courageâbrashness.â</p><p>âCall it what you will,â Jason said, Sensing the young UIB agent standing a short distance away.</p><p>âWhatâs more,â Lanna continued, âhe may have passion, but that passion is hatred of you. Iâve been doing some searching. It appears that you were the focus of several of his research projects back when he was an undergraduate. None of his conclusions were flattering, old man. You should read some of these things. . . .â</p><p>Lanna continued to speak, but Jasonâs mind drifted. His thoughts kept coming back to Denise. Who had taken her, and what had they done?</p><p><i>She doesnât understand violence,</i> Jason thought. She didnât understand violence, and she hadnât ever tasted salt. She spoke oddly, in a way that was almost familiar. She couldnât walk or use her muscles. It was almost . . .<i> </i></p><p>Jason took in a sharp, surprised breath.</p><p><i>Almost as if sheâs accustomed to another body.</i></p><p>âWhat?â Lanna demanded.</p><p>âDenise Carlson is dead,â he said.</p><p>âWhat! What happened to her?â</p><p>Jason was silent for a moment.</p><p>âJason! What happened!â</p><p>Jason ignored her, turning and walking back into his room. He strode out into his hallway, then made his way to the room beside his ownânot Colnâs, but the one on the other side. He threw open the door, not bothering to knock.</p><p>Denise sat up with surprise, but relaxed when she realized who he was. Jason strode past her without saying a word, walking to her roomâs control panel. He entered a few commands, and the light in the room grew far brighter, the bulbs turning slightly red in color.</p><p>âHow is that?â he asked, turning to her.</p><p>Denise regarded him with confusion. âItâs nice. It feels right for some reason.â</p><p>Jason nodded once. The light was bright enough that most people would find it very uncomfortableâin Jasonâs mind it was a virtual roar.</p><p>âPlease,â Denise said, holding her hands forward. âTell to me what you are doing.â Her hands held forwardâforward in the Varvax gesture of supplication. He should have seen it sooner.</p><p>âJason, youâre freaking me out,â Lanna said in his ear.</p><p>âThis isnât Denise Carlson,â Jason said quietly.</p><p>âWhat? Who is it?â</p><p>âIts name is Vahnn,â Jason explained.</p><p>Suddenly, Coln pushed his way into the room. He immediately shielded his eyes from the lightâlight that imitated a harsh, hot sun, one that required a strong crystalline carapace to provide protection.</p><p>âWhat are you doing, you maniac!â Coln said, pushing past Jason and altering the controls to the room. Then he turned to Denise. âAre you all right?â</p><p>âI . . .â Denise said. âYes, why would I not be?â</p><p>Coln turned harsh eyes toward Jason. Then he paused, frowning.</p><p>âWhat?â Jason asked.</p><p>âWhy are you looking at me like that, Write?â Coln demanded.</p><p>âLike what?â</p><p>Coln shivered. âYour eyes . . . itâs like youâre looking past me. Like . . .â</p><p>Jason reached unconsciously for his face, feeling for sunglasses that werenât there. He had forgotten he wasnât wearing them. He turned from the room in shame, rushing out into the hallway.</p><p><i>I mustnât let him seeâmustnât let him know. Heâll mock me. Heâll laugh. . . .</i></p><p>Coln stayed behind, watching with confusion as he knelt beside the creature that had the body of a woman and the mind of an alien.</p><hr><p>âItâs not possible,â Lanna said.</p><p>âThey said that about psionics years ago,â Jason said, striding down a walkway outside the hotel.</p><p>âBut, itâs just so . . .â</p><p>âSo what?â</p><p>Lanna sighed in frustration. âAll right, letâs assume youâre correct. Who would do such a thing? Why switch someoneâs mind for an alienâs? What good would it do them?â</p><p>âThe Varvax are the most developed Cytonics in the galaxy,â Jason said, speaking quietly as he passed people on Evensongâs dark streets.</p><p>âSo?â</p><p>âSo,â Jason said, âwhat could you learn if you could spend a few years in a Varvaxâs head? What if you could get into a Varvax body somehow and infiltrate their society? Someone tried to get hold of a Varvax hostâbut something went wrong. The body they stole was killed, or perhaps the transfer went wrong. They disposed of the Varvax body afterward and left Denise wandering the streets.â</p><p>âBut why Denise?â</p><p>Jason paused. âI donât know. Maybe she was one of themâa spy of some sort. When a better opportunity came along, she took it.â</p><p>âThatâs weak reasoning, old man.â</p><p>âI know,â Jason admitted. âBut I canât think of anything else right now. All I know is that the woman back in my rooms is not human. She acts like a Varvax, thinks like a Varvax, and gestures like a Varvax.â</p><p>âShe speaks English,â Lanna pointed out.</p><p>âMany Varvax study English,â Jason said. âOr, at least, understand it. They find spoken languages interesting. Besides, maybe her body retained a residual understanding of speech and motion.â</p><p>âMaybe,â Lanna said, sounding unconvinced. âWhere are you going?â</p><p>âYouâll see.â Jason continued on his way for a short distance until he came to the mental hospital. He strode in, and the same nurse sat behind the desk. She raised an eyebrow at him, confused and a little disapproving.</p><p>Jason ignored her, striding into the facility itself.</p><p>âSir!â she called. âYou canât go in there! Sir, you donât have . . .â her voice trailed off, but soon she began calling for security.</p><p>âThe nurse?â Lanna said, listening. âYouâre back at the hospital? So, youâve finally admitted that youâre insane and decided to commit yourself?â</p><p>Orderlies, nurses, and even some patients began to look into the hallway. <i>Heâd better be here,</i> Jason thought. Just after the thought occurred to him, he sensed a familiar face peeking out of one of the rooms.</p><p>âPlease alert the Evensong Police Department, Lanna,â Jason said. âTheyâre about to get a report of a madman attacking one of the orderlies in this hospital. Please tell them to ignore it.â</p><p>âJason, you are a very strange man.â</p><p>Jason smiled, then spun and burst into the room. Several orderlies jumped back in surprise at Jasonâs entranceâthe buzzing white room was some kind of employee lounge. The orderly, the one Jason had seen at the cafe, immediately turned to run. Jason jumped forward and snatched the man in one hand, then spun him around.</p><p>The man struggled, but knee to the groin stopped that. Jason pulled off his glasses, then grabbed the manâs head with both hands and turned it toward him.</p><p>âWho sent you?â Jason asked, staring at the man with his sightless eyes.</p><p>The man stared back defiantly.</p><p>âAh, I see,â Jason said, hold the manâs head in both of his hands. âYes, I can read your thoughts easily. Very interesting. Ah, and yes. So they switched minds, did they? I didnât know that was possible. Thank you, youâve been very informative.â</p><p>Jason released the surprised manâs head.</p><p>Lanna snorted in his ear. âJason, unless youâve been hiding some strange powers for a very long time, that was the biggest load of lies Iâve ever heard.â</p><p>âYes,â Jason said, replacing his glasses and striding out of the room. âBut they donât know that.â</p><p>âWhatâs the point?â Lanna asked.</p><p>âBe patient,â Jason chided, holding up his hands as security guards entered the hallway. âI was just leaving,â he said, then pushed past them and left the hospital.</p><hr><p>Back at the hotel, Jason gathered Denise and Coln in his room. One regarded him with customary wide-eyed confusion, the other with equally customary hostility. Jason removed his pin and handed it to Coln.</p><p>âThere is a ship chartered for Jupiter Fourteen,â Jason said. âBe on it when it leaves, and take Denise with you. Go to the PC office, and they will protect you from the Bureau.â</p><p>âWhat about you, Write?â Coln asked suspiciously.</p><p>âIf Iâm right, I should be going somewhere else in a bit. You should get movingâthe ship leaves in less than an hour.â</p><p>Coln frowned. Jason could sense the apprehension in his face. He didnât want to accept the PCâs help, but he also didnât want to face the Bureauâs justice. Hopefully, he would see to Deniseâs safety.</p><p>After a short internal debate, Coln nodded and stood. âIâll do it, Write. But first I want you to tell me something. Answer one question for me.â</p><p>âWhat?â</p><p>âDo you have what everyone says you do?â</p><p>Jason frowned. âHave what?â</p><p>âFTL engines,â Coln said. âDoes the PC have the technology to create them or not? Have you been withholding the secret of FTL travel from the rest of humankind?â</p><p>Jason paused. âYouâre asking the wrong question,â he finally said.</p><p>Colnâs expression darkened. âI knew you wouldnât answer,â he said, turning toward Deniseâs chair. âCome on, Denise.â</p><p>Denise didnât move. She slumped in her chair, eyes closed.</p><p>âDenise!â Coln said urgently, kneeling beside her. She appeared to be breathing, but . . .</p><p>Jason began to feel light-headed, and he noticed a faint scent in the air. He cursed quietly, turning to dash across the room. He stumbled halfway to the door, losing his balance. He barely even felt himself hit the ground.</p><p><i>They work fast. Must have already been prepared to gas us. . . .</i></p><hr><p>Jason awoke to blackness. Pure, horrifying blackness. There was no sight, no Sense, no feelings at all. The darkness had returned.</p><p>Jason began to shake. <i>No! It canât be! Where is my Sense!</i> He curled up, barely feeling the cold metallic floor below him. The blackness swallowed himâit was more than just darkness, it was a nothingness. A lack of sensation. It was the one true terror in Jasonâs life. And it had returned.</p><p>He whimpered despite himself, memories flooding in.</p><p>It had started with his night vision, as visual diseases often did. He remembered the nights spent in bed as a child, the darkness seeming to grow more and more oppressive. And then, it had started to come during the day. First his peripheral visionâit had been like the darkness was following him, enveloping him. Each morning when he awoke, it had seemed that the darkness was closer. It had crouched like a beast in the corner of his vision.</p><p>Terror. The doctors had been able to do nothing. Jason had been forced to try and live his life as normal, the darkness seeming to grow closer every moment. He had lived in perpetual fear of what must come.</p><p>And then there had been the children. The other children, who hadnât understood. He had tried to go on as normal, tried to live his life as if nothing were wrong. He should have admitted it to them. As it was, they only saw a stumbling fool. They had laughed. Oh, how they had laughed.</p><p>Jason screamed, as if yelling could push back the darkness. Where was his Sense? What was wrong? He flailed in the darkness, his fingers brushing a wall. He pulled back into a corner, frightened and confused.</p><p>âHow did you do it?â a voice asked from above.</p><p>Jason looked up, but didnât see, or Sense, anything.</p><p>âTell me, Mr. Write,â the voice demanded. âCan you read minds? This is impossible of Cytoâeven the Varvax cannot penetrate an individualâs thoughts. How did you do it?â</p><p>Jason didnât respond. The darkness. The blackness.</p><p><i>I did this on purpose</i>, a piece of Jasonâs mind thought. <i>I baited them. I wanted to get their attention, so they would bring me to them. They did. This is what I wanted.</i></p><p>But . . . the darkness.</p><p>âHow!â Jason croaked. âHow have you taken it away?â</p><p>âAnswer my questions, Mr. Write,â the voice said, âand I will return your Sense. How did you read that manâs mind?â</p><p>Jason shuddered, pulling back against the cold telanium. The manâs voice was harsh and guttural. He spoke oddlyâwith an accent of some sort, but not one that Jason recognized.</p><p><i>Itâs not permanent</i>, Jason told himself. <i>The darkness will go away. Just like it did when you developed Cyto. </i></p><p>âI am not a patient man, Mr. Write,â the voice warned. âSpeak, and I will let your companions live.â</p><p><i>Coln, Denise. They were in the room with me.</i></p><p>Jason didnât answer. He sat, breathing deeply, struggling to remain sane. Ever since he had developed Cyto, he had never been in darkness. His Sense worked even when there was no light.</p><p>âLanna?â Jason whispered, feeling the darkness advance on him. âLanna!â</p><p>âThe link to your home base has been cut, Mr. Write,â the voice said.</p><p>Jason whimpered. The darkness seemed to be growing closerâcloser to devouring his mind.</p><p>âAs you wish, Mr. Write,â the voice said. âI will give you three minutes. If you donât have an answer for me by then, the woman dies.â</p><p>A click, then silence. It seemed worse without the voiceâsuddenly Jason wished he had kept the man talking. He wished he had told the voice the truth, that he couldnât read minds. Anything to keep someone else there.</p><p>Now he had no one.</p><p><i>I canât do this!</i> Jason thought. <i>Anything but this. I lived this horror once. I canât do it again!</i></p><p>He tried to push out with mindblades, but nothing happened.</p><p><i>Be calm, Jason. Control yourself. The Varvax said something about this.</i> Sonn had said it once. He had been reserved and uncomfortableâodd for a Varvax. Jason had asked if there was a way to suppress Cytonic ability. Sonn had eventually admitted there was, but had told Jason he wouldnât need it. Not yet.</p><p>The darkness . . .</p><p><i>No! Stay focused. You donât have time for fear</i>. There was probably a technological aspect to the suppressant device. Many Cytonic abilities had mechanical halvesâlike the FTL comm feed, which wouldnât work without physical receivers. The Cytonic behind his imprisonment would be feeding part of his mental energy into a physical device, one that used electricity to amplify the effect. But because of that augmentation, Jason would never be able to break free. He would be trapped forever in the blackness.</p><p><i>Not forever. Just another few minutes, until they kill me.</i> That would almost be preferable.</p><p>An image came to him. An image of humankind escaping into space. An image of human merchants trading and cheating, of human tyrants capturing the technologically inferior Varvax, Tenasi, and Hommar. Images of wars, of fighting, of a paradise destroyed.</p><p><i>I canât let that happen!</i></p><p>But, what could he do? He felt along the wall, stumbling to his feet and feeling his way around the room. It was small, perhaps two meters square. He could barely feel the seal of the doorâthere wasnât a handle on his side.</p><p><i>Thereâs not enough time!</i> Jason thought with desperation. <i>I canât escape, I canât contact Lannaâ</i></p><p>He couldnât contact Lanna, but . . . He reached up to his ear, tapping at the control disk. They had broken his link to the home base, but perhaps they hadnât thought of stowaways. . . .</p><hr><p>âYou wonât get away with this!â Coln screamed to the empty room. âIâm a UIB agent. There are serious repercussions for the imprisonment of a law enforcement officer!â</p><p>There was no answer. Coln sighed, his rage weakening before sheer boredom. He had awakened in this room, which appeared to be some sort of storage closet, with a headache. He hadnât heard a thing outside the door since that time. Denise was there too, sitting quietly on a box.</p><p><i>What is Write planning?</i> Coln thought. <i>He had us captured, but why?</i> It had to have something to do with the PC master plan, whatever that was.</p><p>Suddenly a sound crackled in his ear. âColn?â The voice crackled sicklyâlike whispers from the lips of a dead man.</p><p>âWrite?â Coln asked. âWhy did you imprison me!â</p><p>âHush, Coln,â the voice whispered. âWe are both imprisoned. We are going to die unless you can do something.â</p><p>âSomething?â Coln asked suspiciously. âWhat?â</p><p>âYou need to knock out the power. Blow a fuse, overload a circuitâdo something.â</p><p>Coln frowned. âWhat good will that do? Theyâll have backups.â</p><p>âJust do it.â The link crackled off.</p><p>Coln swore quietly. What was Write planning this time? Dared he trust the man? Dared he do otherwise?</p><p>Denise watched with confusion as Coln searched through the small room, pushing aside boxes and carts. Eventually, he found a power jack on the wall. He stood for a moment, regarding it. Finally, he sighed and unloosed a piece of steel from a nearby boxâs constraint. <i>Why not? Itâs not like I can get into more trouble than Iâm already in.</i></p><hr><p>Jason couldnât escape the darkness. He couldnât shut his eyes against it, he couldnât run away from it, and he couldnât ignore it. He could only huddle against the wall, feeling his resolveâand his sanityâgrow weaker by the second. He heard, but didnât understand, the voice when it returned. His captors had made a grave mistake. They could make all the demands they wanted, but he was in no condition to respond to them. They could kill him. It wouldnât matter.</p><p>The voice screamed at him. Jason felt his sanity slipping. He couldnât struggle against it. He didnât want to struggle against it. Struggling would be far too difficult. Blissful unconsciousness was the only answerâa silencing of thought and perception.</p><p>At that moment, his Sense returned.</p><p>It was only a blipâa fractional waver in the power level. But it was enough. Sense flooded into Jason like drugs into an addictâs veins. It immediately began to fade, the suppressor coming back on line.</p><p>Jason blasted out a thousand mindblades at once, shredding the walls around him. He shattered the telanium into chunks, the chunks to chips, and the chips to dust. The walls dissolved like tissue paper before a nuclear blast, spraying grains of metal away from him. He screamed as he let out the surge of power, a bestial yell to push back the darkness.</p><p>The suppressor immediately fell dead, its mechanisms destroyed by the blast. Jason lay huddled, his suit stained with dirt and sweat, on a bright telanium floor. He reveled in his returned Sense for a wonderful, silent moment. However, with Sense came sanityâthe two were inseparable to him.</p><p><i>There is another Cytonic in here, and heâs not going to be pleased that Iâve escaped.</i></p><p>So, taking a deep breath, Jason forced himself to stand.</p><hr><p>Coln sat, stunned. He held a piece of rubber in his handâthe very same he had used to grip the metal as he rammed it into the power jack. He had expected a slight reaction; he hadnât expected the room next to his own to explode.</p><p>Coln blinked, dusting the silvery telanium flakes off of his clothes. <i>What . . . ?</i> he thought with amazement, rubbing some of the telanium grains between his fingers. <i>What could have done this?</i> Modern weaponry had difficulty even scarring telanium.</p><p>He looked up, and saw Jason Write standing in the direct center of the explosion. The operativeâs suit was torn. Coln let the telanium dust trickle from his stunned fingers as he saw Writeâs eyes. Like before, they were unfocused, even unresponsive. They stared dully forward, motionless, like the eyes of . . . a blind man.</p><p>âWhat are you?â Coln whispered.</p><p>Write ignored the question. âTake the girl and go,â he said, his voice calm but ominous. âThis area is about to become very dangerous.â</p><p>Coln nodded, reaching for the frightened Deniseâs hand. At that moment, a new voice spokeâone Coln didnât recognize.</p><p>âOh, come now, Mr. Write,â the voice said. âMust we stoop to such assumptions? Are we not . . . civilized?â</p><p>Write didnât turn toward the source of the soundâa speaker on the wall. âShow yourself.â</p><p>There was silence. The sound of footsteps. Coln pushed Denise behind him, turning wary eyes on the hallway outside their roomsâthe hallway that was now exposed, thanks to the strange explosion.</p><p>A figure appeared in the hallway. He was nondescript save for a long nose and a thin body. He wore a sharp navy suit, and he was smiling as he strolled forward, scuffing the layer of telanium dust.</p><p>âTell me who you are,â Write said, turning to face the man with his unfocused eyes.</p><p>âCome, Jason,â the man said. âDonât you recognize me?â</p><p>âNo.â</p><p>âI guess I shouldnât be surprised,â the man said, continuing to stroll around the room. âIt has been several years, and I really wasnât all that important. Just one of your many recruits. My name was Edmund.â</p><p>The room fell silent. âWhy did you try to kill Coln?â Write finally asked.</p><p>Edmund just smiled. âEven for a PC agent, youâre an extremely secretive man, Jason. Youâve been hiding things from the Varvax. If they knew that you could create mindblades, theyâd certainly be tempted to elevate humankindâs intelligence designation.â</p><p>Write frowned. âIt was a test. You wanted to see if I could stop the bullets.â</p><p>âAnd I was not disappointed,â Edmund said, stopping just in front of Write. âMindblades are very advanced, Jason. Another few decades of study, and you might get FTL. Iâm impressed.â</p><p>The two men stood facing each otherâyet neither oneâs eyes focused on his opponent. They remained like that for a tense few moments, and Coln frowned. He felt like something important was on the verge of happening, but it never occurred.</p><p><i>What is going on?</i></p><hr><p>Jason fought for his life. Hundreds of mindblades whipped toward him, invisible blasts of pure thought. It was all he could do to keep them from shredding his flesh. He fought back, sending his own mindblades to block those of his opponentâan opponent he still didnât understand.</p><p>He vaguely remembered Edmundâthough he hadnât known his face well enough that he had recognized him in the cafe. Edmund had been a man with some Cytonic potential. He had run away from the PC after just a few months of training. That had only been two years agoâhow had he learned so much in such little time?</p><p>The barrage of mindblades slackened, and Edmund stepped back. He was still smiling, but there was reservation in his eyes. He hadnât expected Jason to be as good as he was.</p><p>Jason breathed deeply. Coln was watching from a short distance away, his face confusedâhe hadnât been able to see the insane battle Jason had just fought.</p><p>âIâm impressed again, Jason,â Edmund said.</p><p>Jason felt sweat trickle down his cheek. He could smell his own exhaustion. âI wouldnât have expected you to know how to block mindblades,â Edmund continued. âFew of us have even practiced that.â</p><p>Jason stood stiffly. âIâve been expecting this for some time,â he whispered. âI knew I couldnât keep it away from people like you. I knew that some day I would have to fight.â</p><p>âYou prepared well.â</p><p>The mindblades struck again. Jason grunted, whipping out with his own blades. There was a faint ripple to his Sense when a mindblade was about to appear, and he sliced at that area with his own blade. The blasts canceled each other out, wavering in his Sense like two curves of light. He blocked hundreds of them, the air around him shining like he was in the middle of an explosion.</p><p><i>I canât keep this up long.</i> Eventually a mindblade would break through. Jason had only one card to playâhe would have to make it count.</p><p>Jason continued to fight, waiting for the right time. Edmund was better than Jason was. It shouldnât have been possibleâJason had been practicing Cyto longer than any other man. How could someone have overtaken him so quickly? Jason had to find out. Otherwise, all he had worked for would be lost.</p><p>The attack retreated again. Edmund was perspiring nowâat least it was difficult for him.</p><p>âYou learned from the Varvax well,â Jason said, gambling.</p><p>Edmund looked up with surprise. Then he laughed. âSo you canât read minds after all,â he said with a smile. âThat was quite the bluff.â</p><p><i>I was wrong,</i> Jason thought. <i>But, how then . . . ?</i></p><p>âGoodbye, Jason Write.â</p><p>Jason felt the air waver around him. More mindblades than he could count began to formâit was like he was being circled in a dome of pure energy. He couldnât block them all. He would die.</p><p><i>Now! </i></p><p>Jason focused on himself. He didnât raise any mindblades. Instead, he Sensed inward. He felt his own vibration in his Sense, a cool black-clothed creature. So different than the boy he had once been. The boy had been stupefied, made immobile, by his horror.</p><p>Jason was no longer that boy. With a scream, he felt the mindblades descend around him, and he threw himself willingly into the darkness.</p><p>All was still.</p><p>The blackness enveloped him, the non-existence that had threatened him since childhood. Except this time he had come to it by choice. He suffocated for an eternal moment in its embrace.</p><p>Then he reappeared. As he reentered normal space, he pushed the air away, lest its molecules get trapped within his appearing body. In a similar manner, he pushed Edmundâs flesh away from his hand.</p><p>The world shook, and Jason was back. He stood with arm extended directly in front of Edmund. Jasonâs wrist ended abruptly where it met Edmundâs fleshâhis hand had materialized inside of the manâs chest.</p><p>Edmundâs heart, gripped in Jasonâs fist, thumped once. Edmundâs eyes stared ahead in shock. Behind, the place where Jason had been a moment earlier exploded with mindblades.</p><p>Jason squeezed once, and Edmund cried out in pain. The heart stopped beating. Edmund slid to his knees, and Jason pushed his hand slightly outside space and withdrew it.</p><p>Edmund fell backward, staring with surprised, agonized eyes. He didnât fall unconscious as he diedâhe was far too powerful a Cytonic for that. Instead, he just whispered.</p><p>âFTL transmission. Jason, you surprise me again. We had no idea. . . .â</p><p>Jason knelt beside the man. âIâve had it for some time. Tell me. Tell me how you did it. Where did you learn such powers?â</p><p>The man laughed, a pained hacking laugh. âIâve studied it all my life, Jason.â</p><p>âHow?â Jason demanded.</p><p>Somehow, Edmund met Jasonâs eyes. âAh, youâre such an idealist, Jason of the Phone Company. Sometime, you must ask yourself this. Why would a race such as the Varvax need to learn an ability such as Cytonic suppression?â</p><p>Jason paused, his mind growing numb. He only knew one answer, one he had barely dared consider. âTo keep prisoners.â</p><p>âPrisoners?â Edmund coughed. âOriginal thinkers! Dissenters! Anyone who doesnât agree with them.â</p><p>âYou lie!â</p><p>Edmund laughed, his back arching in pain. âAnd you will be our escape,â he said, his voice growing loud until he was practically screaming. âTheyâve had their paradise long enough. You nearly went mad after spending just a few minutes without your Senseâimagine living your life in such a box! You see only the peace, you see only the perfect society.</p><p>âYou donât see the price!â</p><p>Edmundâs final breath hissed out, and his body fell limp.</p><p>âYou lie,â Jason whispered. âThey are a peaceful people. We are the monsters, not them. . . .â He sat for a moment, regarding the fallen body. Coln still stood a short distance away, looking amazedâand confused.</p><p>âCome here,â Jason said quietly. âBring the girl.â</p><p>Coln obeyed without a word. Jason put a hand on each of them, then he entered the darkness once again.</p><hr><p>Coln recognized the room immediately. He blinked once, trying to forget about the awful sense of emptiness he had just experienced. He was in a white, curved roomâthe operations center of PC Headquarters. The room pictured in his fuzzy holovid. Coln had studied its image hundreds of times, and now he was actually there.</p><p>Except PC Central Operations was on Earth, months away from Evensong. Coln breathed in with surprise. Write stood a short distance away, his suit tattered, blood seeping down his arms.</p><p>âYou do have FTL travel!â Coln accused.</p><p>âYes.â</p><p>âThen I was right!â Coln said. âYouâve been keeping FTL travel from humankind!â</p><p>âYes.â</p><p>âWhy?â Coln demanded. âWhat are you trying to protect us from?â</p><p>âI wasnât trying to protect <i>us</i>,â Write said, walking over to the side of the room. He approached the wallâthe one that was supposed to house the FTL communication machineryâand pulled a lever. A small cup popped out the bottom, followed by a stream of steaming coffee. âI was trying to protect them. And prepare us.â</p><p>âPrepare us?â Coln asked.</p><p>âThe exchange programs,â Write said. âThe outreach programsâeven the skin-color fad. Anything to make us more open-minded. Of course, it doesnât really matter now, does it?â</p><p>Coln frowned, then eyed the coffee machine. âSo, itâs not the FTL comm unit. . . .â</p><p>Write shook his head, then pointed to the side. A man, the man Coln had mistaken for a security guard in the holovid, sat quietly in a chair a short distance away. The man had his eyes closed.</p><p>âHis mind,â Write said. âIt powers all of the FTL calls.â</p><p>âBut,â Coln said, âthere are millions of them. . . .â</p><p>âAll you need is one mind to provide the FTL capability,â Jason explained. âComputers can do the actual routing.â</p><p>Coln hissed quietly in surprise.</p><p>âTechnology is limited,â Jason said. âOnly the mind is infinite.â</p><p>Further questions were forestalled as the door to the room slammed open and a red-haired woman burst into the room. She immediately ran forward and grabbed Write in a powerful embrace. âWhat happened!â she demanded, and Coln instantly recognized Lannaâs voice.</p><p>âColn,â Write mumbled, âmeet Lanna Write. My wife.â</p><p>âWhat? Your <i>wife</i>?â</p><p>âUnfortunately,â Write said. There was fondness in his voice.</p><p>âBut,â Coln objected, âthe Bureau has bugged your communications dozens of timesâyou always complain when sheâs assigned to you!â</p><p>âYes, and he does the assigning,â Lanna said, checking the small wounds on Writeâs arms. âHe always says that the less the Bureau knows about his personal life, the better. Besides, he canât help teasing me.â She looked up at Write. âAll right, sit down and tell me whatâs going on. The medic is on his way.â</p><p>Write sighed, taking another sip of his drink. âI might have been wrong, Lanna.â</p><p>âAbout what?â</p><p>âAbout everything,â he said, his voice haunted.</p><hr><p>Jason sat in his quarters, letting the medic bandage his arms. Lanna stood, dissatisfied, a short distance away. She was the terror of PC Central Operationsâfew men had the courage, or the stupidity, to incur her wrath.</p><p>âAll right, old man,â she said. âWhat happened?â</p><p>Jason shook his head. Before he could reply, his holovid beeped. Jason punched the button, and Sonnâs chitinous face appeared.</p><p>âYou have some explaining to do, Sonn,â Jason said.</p><p>The Varvax put forward his hands in supplication. âI am at your disposal, Jason of the Phone Company.â</p><p>Jason pushed a button, showing Sonn an image of Denise being questioned by PC operatives. âTell me itâs not true, Sonn,â Jason pled quietly. âTell me you donât lock your discontents away.â</p><p>âVarvax discontents?â Lanna asked with surprise.</p><p>Sonn raised his hands, a sign of apology. âI said that you would discover the reason for Cytonic-suppression eventually, Jason of the Phone Company.â</p><p>Jason bowed his head. <i>No. It canât be. . . . </i></p><p>âIt is the only way,â Sonn said. âThe way to have peace.â</p><p>âPeace for those who agree with you,â Jason spat.</p><p>âIt is the only way.â</p><p>âAnd the others?â Jason demanded. âThe Tenasi, the Hallo?â</p><p>âThe same,â Sonn said. âThey have discovered the way, as you will eventually. The way to Prime Intelligence. I must apologize for the inconvenience we have given to you.â</p><p>Jason sat, stunned. He was wrong. All of these years, over a century of work, and he was wrong. They had deceived him. Suddenly, he felt sickâsick, and angry.</p><p>âTheyâre going to come for you, Sonn,â Jason said, nodding thankfully to the medic as he finished the bandaging. The man was trustworthyâone of the first Cytonics Jason had recruited over a hundred years before.</p><p>âExcuse me, Jason of the Phone Company?â Sonn asked after a short pause. His hands were pulled back in the Varvax sign of confusion.</p><p>The medic left and Lanna sat down beside Jason. She watched Sonn with calculating eyesâshe had never liked the Varvax. She said she didnât like people who could so easily falsify their body language.</p><p>âThe ambassadorâthe one who died,â Jason said. âHe was a discontent. I have him now. I thought humans were trying to infiltrate Varvax society; I didnât realize that it was the other way around. Your dissidents are escaping, and theyâre hiding among us. Theyâre trying to get hold of human technology. Weâre still uncivilized, Sonn. We have some war machines that could blast down your ships without even pausing.â</p><p>Sonn maintained his sign of confusion, then augmented it with one of worry. Few people know that the Tenasi ambassadorial vessel that had been shot down over Earth had been one of the most advanced, most powerful ships in the galaxy. A single human missile had destroyed it. The other species had far inferior technology.</p><p>âThis is disturbing,â Sonn admitted.</p><p>âI know,â Jason said. Then he reached over and cut the connection. Sonnâs face fuzzed and disappeared.</p><p>Jason leaned back with a sigh, Sensing Lanna beside him. Heâd known it was comingâheâd feared that he couldnât keep humankind out of space. He just hadnât expected heaven to fail him.</p><p>âIâm sorry,â Lanna whispered.</p><p>Jason shook his head. âYou always warned me that I was too idealistic.â</p><p>âI wanted to believe you anyway,â Lanna said. She slowly trailed her hand along his cheek. âDo you think the one who attacked you was the only one?â</p><p>âNot a chance,â Jason said. âHe was too confident.â</p><p>âThen . . .â</p><p>Jason took a deep breath. âPrepare a press release, Lanna. Tell them that the Phone Company has finally developed faster-than-light travel, and that we will release it to the public as soon as the United Governments approves our patent.â</p><p>Lanna nodded.</p><p>âPerhaps we can salvage something from paradise,â Jason whispered.</p><p><a href="#annotation">Read the annotation</a> from Brandon Sanderson in the next chapter.</p><h1 id="annotation">Annotation</h1><p>Itâs hard to dig back through my memory to the days when I wrote the rough draft of <a href="https://brandonsanderson.com/defending-elysium/">this story</a>. What was going through my head?</p><p>The story was written on a beach near Monterey California, and remains the only published piece of mine I did entirely in longhand before transcribing to the computer. Iâd never been to Monterey before, and a friend was able to trade something he did at work for a weekâs stay in a little condo-style hotel. We had two rooms and a very nice view over the city down toward the water.</p><p>So I guess I was doing the whole bohemian thing. During these days, I hadnât yet gotten published (this would have been late 2001 or early 2002). I had graduated from college, but had been rejected from all of the grad schools Iâd applied for. Iâd written about a dozen novels, and was annoyed with myself recently for not writing books that were true to what I wanted to be as a writer.</p><p>The call regarding the sale of <i>Elantris</i> would not come for another year or so. I was working a graveyard shift at the hotel, renting a room in a friendâs basement for $300 a month, and spending all the time I could practicing my craft. (In part to delay thinking about what I was going to do with my life since my writing wasnât selling and grad schools didnât want me.)</p><p>Over the next year, I would write a book called <i>The Way of Kings</i>, the bestâyet most flawedâbook I wrote during my unpublished years. A massive, beastly epic that was my symbolic discarding of any desire to chase the market or write anything that was not the type of writing I loved to read.</p><p>That was my mind-set. I remember a couple of long afternoons sitting on the beach, listing to the waves and staring out over the ocean as I wrote. A good friend named Annie was there for most of itâyou may know her as the woman that Sarene from <i>Elantris</i> was based onâwriting in her journal. Micah (you may know him as Captain Demoux from the Mistborn books, and also as the official Brandon Sanderson jacket flap photographer) was in and out. Mostly he was off taking photos.</p><p>I remember wanting to see if I could imbue a short story with the type of characterization and multiple plots that I liked in my epic fantasy. I had an idea for a character with a deep and interesting past, alongside a nice dissonant element (a secret agent working for the phone company). That, along with an interesting idea for an ending, grew into this story.</p><p>Oddly, I was able to make this work in a short story the way I wanted, while writing shorter novels hadnât worked for me. I chalk that one up to me starting to find the natural size for a story and writing it at that size. Ironically, the novels Iâd written recently (<i>Final Empire</i> and <i>Mistborn</i>, the ideas for which would eventually be recycled into a single volume you know as <i>Mistborn: The Final Empire</i>) were ones that Iâd tried intentionally to write âshort.â And in doing that, Iâd ended up filling each book with too few ideas for even their short length.</p><p>With âDefending Elysium,â I took a short story (well, novelette) and filled it with as many ideas as I could pack into the space. The result is a very dense story (in plot, history, and world terms) that ended up satisfying all of the epic storytelling buttons I like having pushed.</p><p>I ended up submitting this to <i><a href="http://www.leadingedgemagazine.com/">The Leading Edge</a></i> (the magazine I worked on) during one of my last months there. I did it under a pseudonym, a practice common for staff members, to get some feedback. (<i>The Leading Edge</i> gives feedback on all submissions. I didnât intend to publish it there; I just wanted some honest opinions.) Turns out that one of my best friends read the story, then spent about an hour the following evening telling me about this great story heâd read out of the slush, and how he couldnât believe that such an awesome story had ended up getting submitted to <i>TLE</i> just out of nowhere. (That gave me an inkling that the story might have some potential. . . .)</p><p>Thatâs the background on the story. For those who like to dig deeper into the meaning and context of a story, perhaps thatâs given you something to chew on. This was a melancholy time of my lifeâperhaps the time when I was most adriftâyet at the same time, it was one of the most artistically uninhibited times of my life. No contracts, no deadlines, no artificial rules imposed on myself. I had decided that the world could do whatever it wanted, and I would just write what I loved even if it never got published.</p><p>So, of course, the following year this story got a Writers of the Future nod and <i>Elantris</i>got picked up by Tor.</p></body></html>