Weapon
 
 Copyright 2000 by silli_artie at hotmail dot com 
 
This work may not be reposted or redistributed without the prior express written permission of 
the author. 
 
A work of fiction, meant for adults.  Read something else if you are not an adult, or are offended 
by stories with sexual content.  Then again, if all you're looking for is in-out, in-out, in-out, you 
should probably read something else.  I welcome constructive comments.  Enjoy.

	The Group of Six gathered around a circular table.  Four women and two men nodded 
formally to each other as each sat at their traditional place.  One of the women produced a 
holomessage cylinder from a pocket in her robe and slid the recording into the viewer.

	A small image of a man appeared in three dimensions on the table in front of each of 
them.  The six small images bowed in unison, and began to speak.

	"Hmmm, you want to know about the Weapon, don't you?  It's the least important part of 
what I have to tell.  And what do I have to tell?  I have an interesting story, my Lords and Ladies.  
We made a Jump.  We met the Other.  My Lady vanquished the Other, for all of time.  The 
Terror which lurked beneath Space is no more.  So you see, the Weapon doesn't really matter."

	"You're not satisfied, I can tell.  Oh, it's a fearsome Weapon -- I've felt it.  And while 
you are still my Lords, you are no longer my Masters.  She is my Master, and will be 
forevermore, such is the strength of the Weapon."

	"It's a Weapon that can't be built, or bought.  It's not made of matter, or of energy.  
Nothing can stand before it, yet it is so delicate -- it can be destroyed.  Oh, it's an old Weapon, 
very, very old.  I don't know why you'd be interested."

	"Ah, but before I speak of the play, I should describe the set, and the players, no?"

	"I'll start with myself.  I have been your humble servant for some time, observing, 
reporting, doing you bidding, going here and there.  It was your bidding that I follow her, my 
Lady and my Captain, and report.  She knew this from the beginning, but accepted me for what I 
was.  And I will be forever thankful, for she also saw and accepted me for what I could become."

	The image paused and smiled.

	One of the women around the table snarled at the small figure projected before her, "You 
are a loon."

	The image continued, smiling and bowing with a flourish.

	"And while I may be a loon, I have been your loon, my Lords and Ladies, faithful in my 
service and in my reports."

	One of the men sitting at the table chuckled and muttered, "How does he do that?"

	The recorded image tilted its head, as if listening.  "How indeed?" it said with a smile.  
"There are many mysteries in the Void...."

	The image moved to sitting, cross-legged.

	"It was your bidding, my Lords and Ladies, that I follow her, so it is with her that we 
should begin.  You know her story, or you think you do.  Lady Catherine, Leader of the Great 
House of the Southern Cross, deciding to take an Adventure, and accompany her niece to the 
newly opened world of New Haven, and return.  She left as Lady Catherine of the Great House 
of the Southern Cross, and returned Catherine in the Southern Cross.  She brought the Great Ship 
White House back from New Haven in one jump.  She departed a Great Leader, and returned a 
Great Captain."

	The figure shook its head slowly, a sardonic smile on his face.  "Oh, there are many 
mysteries in the Void, but that is not one of them.  That was not happenstance, but that is a tale 
for another day."

	One of the women frowned.  She touched the jeweled emblem on her chest and said, 
"The transition of Lady Catherine from Leader to Captain was not an accident.  Find out what 
really happened."

	The figure grasped his right foot with his left hand and deftly placed his foot behind his 
head.  "It is the tradition of our Guild that she recruit her own crew.  It was no surprise that she 
chose her aide and consort of many decades, David of the Southern Cross, as her First Officer.  
The chemistry between Captain and First Officer is paramount to the operation of a Great Ship.  
The rest of the crew is easy to pick.  Through, ah, happenstance, I became part of her crew."

	The figure placed his hands together in front of his chest, and with his foot still behind his 
head, bowed.  He sat up, removed the foot from behind his head, placing the other foot behind 
his head.

	"Catherine and David were wed, and had a daughter.  If there is to be one greater than my 
Lady Catherine, it will be her daughter, Celeste.  For she was born of, and to the stars."

	"Let me speak of her Ship.  When the time came for Our Lady to Captain her own Ship, 
much discussion followed.  What would she choose?  What befitted her skills, her abilities?  
With those backing her, what would she choose?  What would she build, she who had already 
built worlds?  The Great Ship Versailles?  The Great Ship Taj Mahal?  The Great Ship Phobos? 
Surely, the greatest Captain deserved the greatest Ship."

	"Oh no, that is not her way.  Look at the holos of her attending important functions.  How 
is she dressed?  How does she speak?  'We have no need of lavish ornamentation,' she says.  She 
lets her deeds speak for her."

	"And so she chose the Great Ship Fallingwater.  Oh, it fits her so well -- the openness, the 
informality, the natural textures.  It is a Great Ship.  Yes, many ships are larger -- the Great Ship 
White House, for example.  But none have gone so far."

	"Now I ask you, my Lords, how do the Great Ships whisper beneath the stars?  Ahh, you 
don't know; you can't know -- you haven't done it.  Oh, you can talk to scientists, and repeat 
what they say about the Source powering drive fields which are modulated by the polycrystals of 
the Rim and the Officers' crowns, folded adaptive Minkowski spaces -- but while that's correct, 
it's also completely irrelevant."

	The figure in front of them frowned and moved to sitting in full Lotus once more.

	"Ahh, let's try a different approach.  How do you do this?"

	The figure in front of them extended and flexed the index finger of its right hand 
repeatedly.

	"How do you do this?  If you talk to doctors, they'll tell you about tendons and muscles, 
and maybe nerve impulses, and perhaps calcium and potassium -- correct and irrelevant!"

	One of the women around the table muttered, "Get to the point, fool."

	The figure in the recording looked out at them intensely, still flexing the finger 
maddeningly.

	"I may be a fool, but the way we do this is the same way we whisper beneath the stars.  
They are the same!  You don't need doctors, or scientists, or engineers.  You don't need people 
like Cargill, Shinozuka, or de Severac.  You need mystics -- like me, or Crowley."

	One of the women muttered, "Find me this mystic called Crowley."

	The (stolen from silli artie at hotmail dot com) figure continued.

	"For moving a finger, and moving a ship between the stars are both the same -- they are 
acts of Will.  Without Will, the finger does not move, the ship does not move.  It is Will which 
moves the finger, and it is Will which moves the Ship."

	"A Jump is a supreme act of Will.  The Captain of the ship chooses how to end the Jump.  
We've known that there are 'good' and 'bad' places to end Jumps, and the 'bad' places are to be 
avoided, for they are associated with the Other."

	"And when the ship Jumps, where does it go?  Hmmm?  We say 'whisper beneath the 
stars,' but where is that?  We know mathematically the ship moves out of our 'normal' space, 
and into a different one.  Then it returns to 'normal' space at a different location, far, far away."

	"Now we are getting to the matter of the Other.  That is a strange phrase though, as the 
Other has nothing to do with matter.  We know, from the remains of ships such as the New 
Caledonia, and the exploration craft Gimlet, that the crew were touched by something, by the 
Other.  Oh, yes -- I've seen the Gimlet, and what remains of her brave crew.  But we don't need 
to worry about that, because our Captain, my Lady, ended the threat for all time."

	"But, I hear you ask, what are they?  Where do they live?  How?  Do they prefer their tea 
hot or cold?  Do you find that last question irrelevant?  They all are irrelevant!"

	"Where is the ship when it is neither in normal space nor Jumping?  Where are you when 
you are neither asleep nor awake?  There is a third place, one oh so hard to recognize, and even 
more difficult to explore.  But our Captain found it.  And, she hovered in it.  For this is the place 
in which the Other lives -- the universe between wake and sleep, between our space and Jump 
space."

	"Did the Other attack?  Did they attack us?  Did they attack the New Caledonia, the 
Gimlet, the Wouff Hong?  Oh, people have died, and worse.  But I don't think they attacked."

	"Imagine a young child, seeing a soap bubble for the first time.  The child is drawn by 
curiosity, and reaches out, reaches with a spirit of innocence and exploration.  But oh!  One 
touch and the bubble is no more!"

	"So it is with the Other.  They are so curious.  And as our ships transition from one space 
to another, we pass, so briefly, through their space.  We are such a curiosity to them, appearing 
so briefly and suddenly -- and they reach out, and touch ... our souls."

	The figure was filled with sadness.  "Oh, my Lords and Ladies, they did not know what 
their touch did.  They were driven by curiosity, a curiosity which increased as it became apparent 
we were avoiding them."  The figure wept for a moment, then wiped his eyes and continued.

	"But that leads us to the next part of our tale.  Our Captain had taken us on another Jump.  
It was for her a moderate Jump, but it was a Jump which will become part of history.  For on that 
Jump, she discovered the Other."

	"As she was taking our ship back to normal space, she sensed ... something.  Not the 
smoothness of 'safe' space, or the rough curdle of 'bad' space, but something ... interesting.  She 
found the space of the Other, and she hovered our ship there."

	"She sensed them.  And oh, they sensed us.  Imagine a playground full of curious, active 
children -- suddenly bubbles appear all around them!  What delight!"

	"I was on the bridge, and experienced it.  The Other touched Brennan, our engineer and a 
friend.  We on the bridge felt his bubble burst.  We knew.  But our Captain was also curious, 
trying to contact them, even as the Weapon started to form."

	"They touched Carmichael, cargo master and my lover.  I cried out in anguish as we felt 
her bubble burst -- I felt the sticky sweetness that was her soul leak into the Void.  Our Captain 
kept trying.  Through my tears I could see the gleam of the Weapon."

	"Then, they reached for others on the ship, including her child, and her husband!"

	"In an instant, she raised and wielded the Weapon, overloading the power of the Source 
powering our ship.  We all felt it, and fell in awe before her power and glory.  Did you miss that, 
my Lords and Ladies?  In that instant, she drew more energy from the Source than has ever been 
recorded in the history of the Great Ships."

	"In that instant, the Other felt her Weapon as well.  They fell back.  They approached 
again, and she raised the Weapon again.  And in that instant, the two made contact."

	"She did it, Lords and Ladies.  Lady Catherine made contact with the Other.  She learned 
that they were merely curious.  They learned that their touch causes us great harm, oh, harm 
which cannot be undone.  This saddened them greatly, and they promised it would never happen 
again.  We felt their remorse.  We filled space with our tears."

	"She thanked them, and raising her Weapon once more, took us back to normal space.

	"We tumbled into normal space, in shock, in awe.  We helped the doctor care for the 
broken husks which had held Brennan and Carmichael.  We felt the Weapon again as her cries of 
anguish shook her ship, mourning the loss of friends, of crew."

	"And what is this Weapon?  My Lords and Ladies, it is brighter and more powerful than 
the largest supernova.  Yet it is as delicate as a whisper blossom, which can be destroyed by a 
breath."

	"What is this Weapon?  It is love -- Love under Will.  She would do anything to protect 
her family, and her crew.  We were protected by her love; her love defeated the Other.  Oh yes, 
there was the power of the Source, and the polycrystals in her crown and in the ship's Rim, but 
all aboard felt her love.  Love under Will is the greatest power in the Void."

	The small figure paused and sighed, wiping away tears.

	"Rubbish," one of the men sitting at the table muttered.

	The figure raised its head, smiling.  It stood and bowed.

	"And that is the end of my report, and the end of all my reports, my Lords and Ladies.  I 
told you I was on the bridge.  I was on the bridge, wearing a crown, at her bidding.  I have felt 
her love.  I have also felt the fabric of space, and changed it by my own Will.  By my Will, I 
have whispered our Ship beneath the stars, crossing the Void."

	The figure sighed.  "I begged her to let me stay with her for the rest of my days -- she put 
in my name for membership in the Guild, and I have been accepted.  While I will never approach 
her greatness, I know that I will captain a ship, whispering beneath the stars, crossing the Void, 
the Void that she has made safer for us all, made safer through the awesome power of Love 
under Will."

	The figure bowed one last time, and the recording winked off.

FIN  
Rev 5/23/2001

 
Weapon  
by silli_artie at hotmail dot com  
http://www.asstr.org/~artie 

Weapon
 silli_artie at hotmail dot com 	1	http://www.asstr.org/~artie 
