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91. Tek and Psionic
🕑 Added 2023-09-26 20:36:28 +0000 UTC
It had been a few months since the exploration of the Harvesters' crashed vessel and no words of what had been discovered had spread, Liam decided that speaking of it would be but an invitation for fear, panic, and even possibly hysteria.
It wasn't worth it to speak of it right now, even less so as he didn't know much of the threat or what they would do, it would only lead to negative results.
Adding that the Harvesters had not come back to attack Eywa in any way for the countless years that had passed after she killed one of their Queens, it would be improbable that this pattern suddenly changed. Most people alive today would not have to worry about this for their entire lifespan but if they arrived they would be prepared.
As long as these aliens with small moon-sized ships if not bigger that possessed what was akin to a wormhole drive to likely move at superluminal speed didn't suddenly decide that now was the perfect time to attack, which in more ways than once was the case but that they didn't know.
Yet he will need to speak of it when asked why the need for drastic in his projects, he didn't want distrust to sprout.
Though as much as this doomsday scenario hanging over their necks was a problem it didn't take their entire focus, or stop them from living, they weren't going to run around like a headless chicken with a tinfoil hat over their heads.
So they acted methodically and efficiently leading to changes, ones that were very much needed, Liam lacked the manpower to collect minerals so Eywa did but a little push to her children in the form of cryptic messages sent to the Tsahìks of the most amiable clans to humans such as the Omatikaya encouraging them to interact and work with the Sky People more directly, and that manner was to be a miner.
The All-Mother was neutral no more yet she didn't force her children, the situation, or at least what it could be was less than acceptable but it wasn't an immediate threat of death, they weren't defenseless lambs either.
So what she did was only give the nudge necessary for more than five dozen Na'vi, mostly young ones to pick up the pace and ask what they could do to help the Sky People thereby also helping themselves.
The Community School had built friendships and a deeper understanding of the others made it so that all went smoothly. And those fifty and then some were the original number, it had increased as time went on.
Within the first wave of volunteers was Tsu'tey's little brother and the kids now adults who had caused minor problems to Katherine for the first and last mine dug on Pandora after the RDA was evicted because they protested to protect the terrain.
Of course, all of those were untrained in all matters that would serve them to be space miners and neither was there adapted equipment but those two aspects were temporary the second was already fixed by building adequate AMP suits which also needed training but it was nothing complex for the Na'vi, controlling something that would be comparable to an extension of your body was no new concept for them.
Still, even if those Na'vi were most deep in the training phase the result had already been shown, a steep increase in resources extracted on-site and even resources brought daily from the hyper volcanic moon and the small one that had been exploited for nearly a decade.
And no Na'vi held problems with that; the Three Laws of Eywa concerned Pandora, even if the All-Mother had begun to expand on one of the moons. The problem was not mining by itself but the damage it brought on the ecosystem and their home which for both were completely absent here.
Though it wasn't perfect and there was discontent from some of the humans under him, they didn't do nor say anything due to the fear of the consequences, their every move and sound was recorded. One wrong step and they will suffer the rightful consequences.
Consequences that could get pretty heavy and were not private, everyone at Hell's Gate would know on the scoreboard. Liam knew it was morally dubious but he couldn't trust humans fully, it didn't matter if they were adults or not to him in any way, he treated them in a way like children for the ones with little authority though it was a fact not many had caught on.
And for the ones that did and were low on the ladder of authority little could be done and in more ways than ones, there were true children compared to him if not toddlers that only started to speak and saw the world around them.
Short-sighted, immature, chaotic, irrational, emotional, weak, small, and lost and to be guided to a large extent the latter was nothing new but it began to grow as his being slowly but inevitably changed. Though guiding them was for his survival first and foremost.
This was even valid for the ones he considered as friends but that was hardly a fair comparison and as much as they were factually inferior it didn't mean he didn't value, respect, and count on them. He wasn't perfect, far from it.
Humans weren't the only ones to be punishable, the Na'vi that volunteered and decided to stir conflict for one reason or another weren't immune to consequences that would be as heavy as for the humans, even more so considering Na'vi culture for this kind of actions. None were favored over the others and if that was the case then it was earned by merit.
Preferential treatment was earned for grown and fully capable individuals, merit prevailed over sex, species, origin, or other inconsequential factors that made an individual and that once upon a time held some semblance of value to Liam.
In another manner the volunteers weren't working without any compensation, they weren't free labor or even less so slaves. Even if nearly all came out of pure intention not expecting anything more than gratitude and strengthened bond in return.
Money didn't exist here and in general, Na'vi didn't need anything from Hell's Gate so compensating them was not straightforward but that was in general.
The People were not stupid and amenities to ease their lives in the dangerous world that was Pandora were welcomed, they weren't hard to please some would simply ask for various products like sugar. Products they couldn't get from the surrounding nature or that they didn't have the technical know-how and technology to do so.
However, this major improvement in Na'vi and human interaction wasn't the only thing that had happened and was happening.
It was the seventieth day of the tenth year since the day of arrival which meant April 21st of the year 2164 and deep in the most secured room of a house built upon the Island of the Great Heartsong were the two leading forces of the moon working upon a new branch of technology.
"Hmm, the pandorium and Element bonds in the crystal's inner nano structure seem to be able to hold this level of resonance, a 7.47% increase compared to the last design… Let's see if it holds up to your Psionic.", Liam said pensively as he mentally noted every piece of the information from the scanners focused onto a forearm-long crystalline structure fused to an arm of living metal.
"It is saddening to use such a promising technology born out of both the most potent aspects of us to build the foundation of a weapon that would have the objective the shattering the deepest part of an individual but what must be done needs to be done.", Eywa behind him and the only one he has addressed said as she connected her queue to base of the arm and pushed a controlled stream of Psionic by her will.
"Indeed it is, but technology created for war never stays exclusive to this unpleasant purpose, as it is the most effective motivation for progress. For now, it is the focus but the data that will be collected will serve for the future to come.", the post-human said as he guided the stream of esoteric energy to travel through the arm and up to the crystal's internal miniaturized patterns, each starting to light up.
At this the crystal began to glow the most beautiful of iridescent white and blue as lines appeared all around its form as it bloomed open, six sharp petals detached themselves from the main body, three of which were marginally smaller as with the larger piece in the middle they formed the most delicate of flower.
A flower in appearance that would remain some that of a lily flower. An incredibly ironic design on purpose considering what represented such a flower and the primary function of this seemingly harmless if enchantingly beautiful crystal.
As the circuit charged within and the 'pistil' turned a shade of warm red Liam mentally commanded the part of his body that was the arm of Tek connected to the crystalline structure to shift and aim the flower at a set of five blue seas anemone-like creature the size of toddler peacefully waving their eery tentacle in the artificial current.
Those were young daisy anemones in their adult stage, an extensively dangerous type of zooplantea that could grow to be dozens of meters tall and a third as large. A species that Grace described as able to emit electricity in large quantities and mimic the bioelectricity of other creatures, and it was theorized it might be for defending themselves to lure prey, or both.
And the xenobotanist would be partially correct, that was only half of it, she had missed the most unique feature of those half 'animal' and 'plant'. This species could mimic the minds of various creatures to emulate their Psionic presence; it's a good technique for them to hunt and defend themselves.
The anemones present in this aquarium were far more capable than their counterpart in the sea thanks to Eywa's direct middling where she birthed a variant of this species to solely focus on the mimicry of the minds of other species such as Na'vi, humans, and even of the Harvester but the latter was only for the Drones.
Queens were infinitely more complex and powerful than their lesser kind but it wouldn't happen for this reason as it was a very dangerous endeavor to start with for the fact it would be sensed and immediately flagged as false by other Queens, drawing unwanted attention from the entire potential intergalactic civilization while at it.
"Firing the Rose of Jericho Prototype II 8.86 for test number 94 in… Three…. Two… One… Zero.", at the end of his countdown Liam pressed the metaphorical trigger, and the crystal structure lit brighter all over as waves of white shifted toward the tip in a dazzling hypnotic pattern.
Before his silver eyes glowed with blue and purple and the enchanting pale pink of his mate Avatar nothing happened aside from the crystal beginning to crack before shattering and fizzling into lights and small hexagons as a small forcefield formed around stopping any fragment from flying away and in general creating a mess.
At least that is what the common mortals would have felt and seen as the sea anemones didn't even react, the only event noteworthy was the tragic loss of the crystal flower. This wasn't the case as it could be mass-produced by the Tek Replicator, though this was a defect to fix.
But there had been quite a few things that happened, the flower of crystal had emitted a hyper focussed beam of Psionic energy lashed with Element pierced straight through the human mind imitation worn like a hat by the anemones that then popped like a balloon before dissipating into the air.
With that in mind little was left to the imagination if that would have been a human, but that wouldn't truly be so either. What the sea anemones had made was a mimicry no matter how good it might have been, it was only that, falsehood.
But that was enough for Liam and Eywa to collect usable data without the need to use people as targets, an enormous advantage all around. Calculating for potential error was going to be a must anyway, every mind was different and would have had differing results.
If it had been a real healthy adult human at the receiving end then death would have been unlikely but the damage on the Mind of the target would have been heavy and with an extremely low chance of partial recovery. Damaging the Mind itself was equal to fiddling with the brain if not worse.
The target by Eywa's understanding of the Mind would have become either mentally challenged, insane, have intense body dysmorphia, feel an inhuman level of mental anguish and pain, switch in personality traits at randoms, have void in their memory, or a mix of all and more or they could have become the mental equivalent to a stone.
Only weak individuals to begin with would have a risk of dying at such intensity and size of beam, though it might be a better fate all things considered.
The nature of humans to repel external and alien sources of Psionic like a mirror due to the species' general ineptitude with that aspect of reality was completely useless here. A mirror could reflect light but not a powerful laser, it would melt through it and that was a case very close to what just happened.
This was the Rose of Jericho, the first creation mixing Tek and Psionic and the beginning of a super weapon of mass destruction with the future purpose of extinguishing the Minds and potentially even the Souls of the All-Father and All-Mother's enemies from anywhere within the Milky Way using their combined might.
That was the plan in its best possible outcome, getting it to work to even a minimum level will be a task beyond human compression of difficulty requiring the finishing of many other equally massive and vital projects.
But this was deemed by both entities as a necessity if not to win by causing a galaxy-wide xenocide but to forcefully gain peace, and why start late when they can do so early? And if the Harvesters arrive early then they are also working on others' plans, though never would they come close to the theoretical efficiency of that of the former.
Comments
Muhanad Ibrahim
Hmm…. Yes… the emperor is pleased…
Scarletmenace
Xenocide…. This pleases the 40k part of my brain.
