Darkworld: Earth

2.40.

Eodar threw the stress ball into the air, catching it a second later. He threw it again, squeezed it as hard as he could, and threw it again.

It had been a gift from Olivia. She had to get approval to give him even this, but slowly he was regaining some measures of freedom. Under supervision he was allowed to go outside for an hour per day. He was receiving lessons from a private tutor who engaged him through a television with a camera. He was allowed paper and crayons while in the day-room, although he couldn’t bring anything back with him into his room except the clothes that he was wearing.

He was observed while he was bathing. He was observed all of the time, for that matter, although some of it was through a camera. He knew that they were watching him because they told him so.

It was starting to make him angry.

Olivia said that was fine. That anger over a lack of privacy was an acceptable response. She had talked about healthy ways to deal with anger and given him the stress ball, which he could have with him anywhere except for his room.

He tossed it into the air.

Earth had been attacked. He had listened to the reporters on the radio as they had encouraged people to seek shelter. He had tried to activate his armor and weapon systems to prepare to act in case the enemy sent someone to the surface.

Nothing had happened.

He squeezed the ball. Despite his strength, he could not crush it. It just squirted out of the gaps in his hand.

He threw it again.

He turned to the camera. “May I please speak with Olivia?” he asked.

The request was met with silence. Were they not watching him?

He threw the ball into the air. He caught it. He squeezed it.

This wasn’t forever. Olivia promised. Once the scanners said that his body had returned to the normal amount of strength that he would have had if he hadn’t been enhanced the security protocols would be lessened. He would be transferred somewhere where he wouldn’t be alone for most of the day.

Right now he was still dangerous. They were afraid of him.

He tossed the ball. He caught it.

In all of his days of training, why had nobody ever prepared him for boredom?

~~~~~

Sarah stood under the shower, slowly composing herself. She wasn’t certain why she was so emotional.

No, that’s not true. She knew why, she was just surprised despite the knowledge.

“The aliens were supposed to stay in space,” she said to herself. “We were supposed to go looking for them, they weren’t supposed to come looking for us.”

She sighed. She turned off the water and pulled the towel from where it was hanging nearby. Previously she’d had no issues showering with the girls, but the shower was one of the only places on the ship where she could be alone, so she’d requested to use it for an unscheduled session.

Everyone on the ship knew about Earth. Everyone was concerned. Both about her and her people, and about what had happened and what it would mean for themselves and the larger universe.

She stepped out of the shower area and into the dressing room. She saw one of the girls waiting, but the girl turned and ran away without saying anything. As Sarah dressed, she tried to sort her thoughts.

Earth had been attacked.

They had lost most of their fleet.

They had driven the enemy off, but it had been a pyrrhic victory.

The location of Earth had been revealed to the universe.

The Rosantean Empire had accused Earth of piracy.

Things could always get worse.

She had asked the Toormonda to predict what would happen if Rosantean won the war.

She sat on the bench, pausing while half dressed to continue to process the news. Earth itself wouldn’t be touched. According to the Toormonda, it would be such an unconscionable act to attack the populace of a planet from space for the actions of its interstellar military that the entire universe would rise up in their defense if that happened.

The Rosanteans would just occupy the solar system and prevent Earth from returning to the stars until she surrendered and became part of their empire. Even then, the integration period would rob Earth of everything that made it unique. The children would learn from Rosantean teachers, the adults would be ‘reeducated’ to Rosantean ideals, and the countries and boundaries that had existed would be wiped away.

Anybody who did not speak Rosantean would have trouble communicating with their government officials.

Because of its status as a probationary member of their empire, they wouldn’t be allowed their own military force. The occupation would last for generations.

She shuddered.

“Maybe I don’t want to go home after all,” she said to herself.

She stepped out of the dressing room and found Dornodo waiting for her. He smiled.

“If you wish for more time to be alone, you may use my room,” he informed her. “In the coming days, you may even kick me out of my room if you feel the need to have private emotions while others are inconveniently present.”

“Thank you. I’ll let you know if I feel the need,” she told him.

“I am sorry about your world. How do you wish to be treated during this time? I will instruct the children to attempt to respect your wishes,” he said.

She thought about it for a moment. She sighed. “I’d like to keep busy and try to keep my mind off of it. There’s nothing I can do about it, so there’s no point in dwelling on it. Let’s try to have everyone go back to normal.”

“As you wish. I will spread the word,” he told her. He took her hand and squeezed it. She squeezed back.

She noticed that he was a handsome man, for a Yonohoan. She thought of Diego for a moment and wondered if he was safe.

She was almost past him. Almost. She no longer lay awake at night recalling that devastating conversation with him in which he had methodically shattered the shell that she had built around herself. She had needed that, she knew. As long as there had been hope, she would have clung to the delusion. It was only when she had the truth hit her in the face like a sledgehammer that she was able to face the truth.

And if it had happened before she’d been receiving treatment … she didn’t want to think about what would have happened. It hadn’t happened that way, so there was no point in asking ‘what if?’

“Thank you for turning the showers on for me. It helped me cope,” she told him.

“I am glad.”

“It’s still education time,” she pointed out.

“It is.”

“Let’s go back and watch the kids play Topokan,” she suggested. “You can point out all of the interactions that I miss as a silly outsider.”

“I do not think that outsiders are silly. Or stupid. It is just hard to explain some things to you.”

“That’s fine. Try anyway. I’ll listen.”

“As you wish,” he said.

They returned to the main room, where he made a brief announcement before sending everyone back to work.

~~~~~~

It had no human name, for it was not human. As clever as the human mind was, and it had a deep respect for the human mind, they would have a hard time conceptualizing its existence.

If they had a word for what it was, they would call it an overmind.

It was the overmind of the sulivans. Not the Topoka, which were the people who were dedicated to the Yonohoans on planet Totola. They had their own group mind, of course, but it was not the overmind.

The overmind spanned galaxies.

It knew secrets

It had tried to give itself a name that the humans could understand.

It had called itself the watchers at the edge of time and darkness .

They did not understand. As clever as they were, it was very hard for the overmind to talk with the humans that it loved so much.

So much that the watcher refused to let their light go out, even when that meant that some of them must die.

The overmind did not truly understand the humans. It tried. It tried so hard to understand them. When it had found them on their homeworld, it had spread them to the worlds of the Yonohoah so that they did not need to fear extinction. And it had had the young of its constituent minds study them so that it could come to understanding.

The Watcher had thought that it had succeeded.

The Watcher had shared its observations with the other overminds.

The Watcher had thought that they would rejoice at the wonder of the small creatures who were in the process of taming their worlds despite the lack of an overmind.

Instead, a horror beyond imagining had followed. The other overminds of species whom the watcher had once thought it understood had been snuffed out one by one until only the watcher remained.

By the humans.

In righteous fury and just indignation.

The watcher understood the justice of their actions. It did not celebrate the loss of the other overminds, but it understood. Justice was harsh, but fair.

The watcher was the only overmind left in the universe. It would know if there were others. The not-place where it existed, though it floated in the dreams of the sulivans, would ripple with their thoughts if they survived.

It alone remained to guide the universe.

It tried to guide the universe into brilliance, but it was so small compared to its goals. It reached out with what tools it had. The Sulivans heard its voice in their dreams and they tried to help. They studied the human and tried to calm their wrath. Tried to guide their evolution into a higher existence, but they would not cooperate with the efforts.

The watcher wished so desperately for a human overmind that it hurt.

Perhaps someday.

But now a threat.

The source world had emerged screaming into the light!

A threat on the scale that made the Watcher shudder to think of the dangers of what might happen if the time-weapon were used.

The self-powering paradox wave would speed out into the universe at the speed of light. It would resonate with each of the worlds of the Yonohoah that it struck, causing shockwave after shockwave until all the light that had returned to the universe was extinguished.

With the other overminds, the Watcher had once brought light to the universe.

Now it alone remained.

It would not let the light go out.

It reached out to the only tool that it had.

The sulivans.

And it sent Earth a weapon to defend itself.

But the weapon was unpredictable, and this weapon more than any other.

It had tried to send instructions, but the Sulivans who transcribed the message for the humans could not understand the patterns of thought of the Overmind.

Success and failure together.

And now, a new threat.

It reached out again.

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