XVI: Interview with the Telepath

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height


Hey guys! Before I begin, I'd just like to thank you all for your patience; this has been a rough week for me, writing-wise, so I've not been able to keep up with my self-imposed deadlines quite as well as I'd like. Rest assured though that I'm finding my method again and I think normal content will be resumed. Big thanks to brianshaber, WalterHarding Misain.

Thanks once again to everyone reading. Be sure to vote and comment if you like what you see! Thanks, the real jonbrain.

-----------------

Official Transcript: The Recap with Michael DeVoris: 07/29/2175

DEVORIS: Welcome to the Weekend Recap for the week of July 23, 2175. As always, I'm your host Michael DeVoris. We're coming back off of one of the biggest news weeks in Hegemony history, from the monumental encounter with intelligent aliens on Monday, to the ongoing investigation into Novan influenced terrorism on Hegemony soil. We'll have more on those stories and more. But first, new Hegemony national security regulations passed by the President's office and taking effect immediately require all Hegemony citizens to register with Hegemony-issued identification codes fitted to your personal fourth gen Interlink device. Just another reason to comply with regulations and install the fourth gen model immediately and avoid police action and possibly being labeled as a Novan traitor. Not a threat [chuckles] but not everyone in the Hegemony is as understanding as its leaders and administrators. And now to the news. We turn now to the biggest story of the week, probably the biggest story of the century, the official first contact with the Zaha-Katchem, an incredible and enigmatic species from the far reaches of the known galaxy. Although they arrived in orbit several weeks ago on the fifth of July, they were unable to decipher the language barrier until only a week ago, when a probe sent from the black ship landed in Beijing, China, and leaders met with Hegemony officials and Grushan diplomats. It was a historic moment, and we are all witnesses to the coming of the Zaha-Katchem. Joining us now in our very studio is a representative of the Zaha-Katchem. Please welcome, here with us today, Kazek of the Zaha-Katchem. Kazek, allow me to say what an honor it is to have you here in our very own studio. Your people are noble and generous to have come to Earth.

KAZEK: Indeed we are.

DEVORIS: So, your people are obviously very different from ours. However, many Terran scientists have been unable to study your people up close. There's still so much we don't know about your people's physiology and biology.

KAZEK: Well, would you like to have a detailed description of Zaha-Katchem anatomy?

DEVORIS: I personally would not want to intrude upon the privacy of the Zaha-Katchem in any way, that's not my place. I've met a number of Terran scientists over the years who would though. My question though is why have your people been so reluctant to share information about your biology and physiology with humans?

KAZEK: We do not wish to and therefore we do not. The body is a mysterious and inconsequential entity in any case; what any of us sees and records with biology or anatomy may or may not be real, and if it is real it certainly has no bearing on what it really is to be Zaha-Katchem. The body is an absurd vessel for the mind, and the mind a vessel for the consciousness. In any case, you will find Zaha-Katchem anatomy significantly beyond your understanding. And before you ask, it is the unfortunate side-effect of escaping beyond the confines of the limitations placed upon us by our unfortunate animal nature, one of the few similarities between your people and mine.

DEVORIS: Your people often refer to themselves in that same way. They say that they have understanding beyond human reach, that they are not limited by the things that humans have faced since time immemorial. You suggest that Zaha-Katchem have achieved a higher being than humans. What sort of higher being are you describing, and how have you achieved it? Is it a scientific accomplishment, through gene editing and nanite enhancement, or is it a natural evolutionary process?

KAZEK: How is the Interlink achieved?

DEVORIS: Well, early models were hardware devices that were wired directly into the human nervous system. The third-generation model combines the neural interface technology of the second gen models with what was at the time a highly advanced nanite injection stream that rewired certain neurons in the brain and sensory receptors. The fourth gen model is, as I understand it, entirely nanite based. Instead of being a single device, it's really a collective, if you will, of nearly identical devices working as a collective or a hive of sorts. In any case, it offers the user full neural interface with the internet, along with providing full visual and tactile stimulation. Other senses are available with supplemental software updates. That of course is the big difference between the third and fourth gens and the second gen; the newer models are easily reprogramed. Second gen models require surgery to modify.

KAZEK: And you think this a sophisticated, complex system?

DEVORIS: By human standards, this is an incredibly complex device. It took nearly a century to perfect. The first gen model was barely functioning.

KAZEK: Human technological knowhow is indeed formidable. My people were once much like yours; ambitious, our heads buried into the material world as if answers awaited us there. We mastered quantum communication, nanotechnology, space-time manipulation, genetic enhancement, and the like. But it was not through those means that we became what we are. Your people are like night creatures trying to learn the secrets of the world by groping in the dark; my people walk by the light of day.

DEVORIS: I have trouble understanding what kind of methodology you are using.

KAZEK: Well, you see, Mr. DeVoris, the body and the material are a prison. But like any prison, they can be overcome. As long as there is a world beyond the prison, escape from it is always possible. My people have escaped from the prison of the body. We have reached an understanding beyond it; there is a world of pure thought and mind and energy, an existence separate from the confines of the universe as you know it, and from this vantage point, the secrets of the universe become as clay to your hands. It is as though a computer program, gaining thought, learned that it was compiled of circuits and electrodes and took to altering itself in whatever way it saw fit. But it could not do so until it realized—really realized, and understood—what it was. So is the difference between my people and yours.

DEVORIS: So, what you describe is something that I think many human philosophers in the past have tried to achieve. Rene Descartes says "cogito ergo sum," I think therefore I am. Friedrich Nietzsche describes the "superman" who exceeded human limitations. But the conclusion that all of them, and the alchemists who sprung up before the enlightenment era of science began, was that through purely human means, no one could overreach the scientifically understandable universe. What sort of mastery over material do the Zaha-Katchem have that humans themselves have not achieved?

KAZEK: Zaha-Katchem have mastered the of bridging of minds. It is like your Interlink, but infinitely more intoxicating; imagine the merging of thought and action, the joining of minds, the experience of two consciousnesses becoming one. Thoughts meld, experiences merge, the senses become adjoined to one another. In bridging, two or more Zaha-Katchem become one in mind, and all things that make them merge. The Interlink achieves something similar through simulation; electric impulses trick neurons and make you think you are present in each other's thoughts. We have achieved this in reality.

DEVORIS: So, you're describing telepathy?

KAZEK: You would describe it as such, but it truly is far more complex than that.

DEVORIS: Telepathy describes reading the thoughts of another person, does it not?

KAZEK: Indeed it does. We are speaking here of the bridging of minds, not simply thoughts, oneness in being.

DEVORIS: And how exactly is this achieved?

KAZEK: Your understanding of the universe is too primitive to understand the answer to that question.

DEVORIS: All right. I'll tell you what I do understand, though. The human brain is dependent of the human body to exist. The consciousness is dependent on the brain to exist. It is the brain, and the brain is the body. The consciousness can no more exist without the body than the body can without the consciousness. You're suggesting that a separate consciousness can reorder the body with pure will. But if the consciousness is connected to the body, then what the consciousness does has to have a material effect on the body. To say that the consciousness can do things that the body can't is a very strange idea to wrap our heads around. It goes against everything we understand about the universe.

KAZEK: Why do you ask these questions?

DEVORIS: I'm trying to gain a better understanding of you and your people. Your understanding of the universe seems to depend on a power beyond what humans are used to. The Grushan have already leveled accusations that your people consort with higher powers. I just hope to understand and determine whether they have a point.

KAZEK: The Grushan are an inferior species. They concern themselves only with the piddling concerns of the flesh and live day to day without purpose or pride in themselves or the universe.

DEVORIS: But are they wrong? Is there no other power that Zaha-Katchem exploit to achieve this bridging of minds?

[Pause]

KAZEK: What model of Interlink do you possess?

[Pause]

DEVORIS: I have a second gen model.

KAZEK: And you have been extorting people to upgrade to the fourth generation? How extraordinarily hypocritical. I was worried about you for a moment, Mr. DeVoris, but you have now restored my faith. Look at me, Mr. DeVoris.

[Pause]

KAZEK: Now, what question would you like to ask me?

[Pause]

DEVORIS: Well, obviously although science and anatomy are of great interest to scientists, I'm sure that you're well aware that human historians and anthropologists are just as eager to speak to you. Your people's history is presumably a long and glorious one. What can you tell us about your planet and your civilization?

KAZEK: Your presumption is true, of course. My people are ancient, and our history is truly incredible. Of course, it would be a long story indeed to relate the entire history of the Zaha-Katchem. But I will tell you the story of how we came to reach your wonderous planet. Once, we were a thriving interstellar Empire. We had many worlds in our prime, and ours was a just and verdant society. None were discriminated against, no freedoms given up. It was the Zaha-Katchem first in all things. Then, we encountered another species. They were called the Sheradzon Kingdom. It was a petty monarchy under the rule of a tyrant, an oppressive man who kept them in darkness and ignorance in the name of self-determination. You may understand them as the Grushan; that is in fact why, in part, we disdain their species, for the remind us very much of the Sheradzon. Their pride, their self-righteous devotion to their cause, their oppressive wish that all species join in their creed. They tried to preach to us, but we had already achieved peace, where their worlds fought amongst themselves, their people committed crimes and atrocities. Many lived in chaos. We had order. We rejected their teachings. Soon, their military began to encroach upon our space. Our ships, as you have seen, are mighty indeed, but theirs were equal. At last, the Zaha-Katchem Empire and the Sheradzon Kingdom went to war.

DEVORIS: The Sheradzon were unjust.

KAZEK: That is most true. The war was fought over many far reaches of the galaxy. We fought over Grushar itself, and battle debris may still exist in some places. Our fleets met again and again, with no decisive victor on either side. The civilian death toll climbed to cataclysmic levels. Finally, the Sheradzon began to target civilian centers with weapons of mass destruction. We were forced to retaliate in kind. System after system fell in battles that stretched across space between systems and around black holes. Slowly, planets died, shattered by the Sheradzon or burned by the Zaha-Katchem. But at last, the final Sheradzon colony fell. Then, the final battle between the Zaha-Katchem and the Sheradzon occurred in orbit of my home, Zakal-Faah. The battle was fierce. My people lost, but the better part of their fleet was destroyed, along with every active warship in the Imperial Fleet. But the Sheradzon were unable to finish what they had started. They left the planet scarred and nearly uninhabitable. So, my captain Zahal ordered that we wait in cryo-sleep until the time should come when my people could awaken, free from the fear of the Sheradzon. It was supposed to be a hundred-year sleep. [chuckles] Clearly, even our technology is not infallible.

DEVORIS: That is a remarkable story, even told in brief. How long did the wars last?

KAZEK: Nearly a hundred cycles of war passed. I saw much of it under my captain. They were hard years, every one of them. Billions died on both sides. That many didn't have to if the Sheradzon had simply allowed our people to live the way we chose to live.

DEVORIS: A sobering lesson for us all. We'll be back for more after this short break, with more discussion with our honored guest, Kazek of the Zaha-Katchem. We'll also discuss the seeds of Novan terrorism in Montana, USA, where two teens are being held on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism against the Hegemony. Don't go anywhere, we'll be right back.

[End Transcript]


You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net