Star Whisper.

Tarka:
 
It was quite, and Gee enjoyed the silance, absorbed it through his skin while 
he sat on the warn permafoam mat. There was only a mild pull holding him down 
to the mat but even that was almost blissful in the silance. 
 
He let his mind clear the his daily duties and just tired to drift without 
sleeping. It wasn't offten that he got a chance to slip into the isolation 
room for a while. People needed some time alone and in silance to continue to 
be sane.
 
'BEEP' The sound jolted him out of his meditation. Normally it wouldn't sound 
so loud but his the silance it was like the roar of a launch. 
 
"What the Fuck." He hit the relay. "Gee here."
 
"Hey Gee. I'm sorry to disturb you in isolation but I need you on the bridge."
 
Gee sighed and bit back what he was going to say. "Aye Cap. I will be up 
there in a miniute." He grabbed his cloths and toggled the hatch. The Iso 
chamber was removed from the main hull by a vibration absorbing flextube. So 
when the hatch poped open the low humm of the ship returned to him like 
thunder. He bucked his legs and shot up out of the chamber in the micro 
gravity with cloths under his arm.
 
He made his way to the core fo the ship to the persnal mover running both 
ways down its spine. He hooked his foot into a strap on a bow bound mover and 
worked at getting his cloths on before he got to the bridge. It wouldn't do 
to be out of uniform before he got there. Some of the other crew gave him a 
wave on his way by.
 
Portia:
 
Hey, Gee, what the heck to ya thin' this is, a peep show?", said Simon Wells, 
an engineer from section C. I just glared at him and smirked with responding,"-
If so, pay up, man. This isn't free you know."
 
As I made my way, clothes finally on, and the bridge in sight, I took several 
deep breaths trying to calm myself from the "relaxing" trip up here.
 
"Lt. Thereus Gee. You are... late.", the steely blue eyes of the commanding 
officer glared at me. "You are aware that we are on a mission.." He stopped 
and then asked,"Do you know what our mission is?"
 
Mission mission... I thought it was to scavage parts, but.. wait. This is a 
trick question. He is testing me, I thought. We had been in space for 2 
months, heading out into the Skylos galaxy and I don't remember ever asking 
any questions. I tightened my lip and thought.. what are we here for. waht 
are we here.. I got no clue!
 
The captain smirked,"You do not know for we have not told you. That is why I 
have called you here. You are to lead a mission to find new mineral deposits 
on Moon 12." He stiffened,"Can you do this?"
 
Finally, my chance.. my future.. my goal. "Yes sir. Right away sir." He 
nodded and said that I was dismissed. When I turned to go after a sound 
salute, he called me back,"Lt Gee." I whipped around,"Yes sir?" 
The blue eyes smirked, but the man did not,"Your shirt is on inside out."
 
Terry:
 
"It's the new style, sir," Gee said, trying to maintain as much dignity as he 
could with all the excitement building up inside him. He'd never led a team 
before, let alone even gone on a mission to the sort of planetoid that still 
only had a number. "You should really follow the newsfeeds."
 
It took a few hours to get everything set up. The captain had't remembered to 
actually assign him any resources for the mission, but the quartermaster was 
used to that and did his best to ensure that Gee and his hastily assembled 
team would meet a horrible death from explosive decompression or fusion 
bottle failure.
 
Gee didn't let that bother him -- he had his computer guy switch the numbers 
on the requisition to assign them a functional shuttle, stole a few extra 
suits and supplies from a less attentive lieutenant, and had them out of the 
hangar before the security department got back from his bathroom break.
 
If they succeeded, it wouldn't matter that he'd broken a few rules. The 
captain already disliked him, but it'd ne hard to argue with the shareholders 
if he brought in the bacon. On the way, he brought up a schematic of Moon 12, 
and hissed in a quick breath as he saw what the cap had assigned him. This 
wouldn't be easy.
 
Randall:
 
Gee muttered curses all through the shuttle landing.  If he didn't know 
better, he'd swear this was a hazing ritual- a one hundred square kilometer 
grid to search and not one decent place to land.  By the time the shuttle 
touched down, he didn't care if the hull got a few scratches.  Everyone 
suited up and disembarked.
 
The craggy landscape was kinder to anyone with hands and feet to climb, and 
the team unpacked and assembled the first set of sensors.  It gave Gee time 
to relax after the rough touchdown.  Still, it wasn't much of a chance to 
lead; every member knew his job.
 
Gee began to think that his first trip in charge would be a dud when Chen's 
voice came in over the 2-way.  "Gee, better take a look at this.  Looks like 
there's a series of caves over this ridge."
 
Athalon:
 
Dr. Mahdi sat upon The Throne, surrounded in blue light, the center of The 
Temple.  She rested her head on three limbs, and Saw.
 
We may speak of Mahdi as 'doctor', though her people had no science, no 
medicine to speak of.  Neither was The Temple a grand architectural offering, 
nor The Throne even furniture beyond the simplest woven mat.  Mahdi was 
Guardian of The World - the encompassing term pointing up the fact that her 
tribe had no notions of astronomy at all.  
 
But she had been trained since egghood for her role as protector and defender 
of her people.  With mind alone, she reached out, sensing and exploring the 
Strangers upon World.  Their experiences were foreign to her, as their 
speech.  Yet their sensations - thank The Snake - were things Mahdi could 
fathom.
And their intentions, she liked not at all.
In her mind, she wrapped Gee in tentacles, and began to squeeze.
 
Tarka:
 
Gee hit the nipple on the inside of his visor for the third time to get 
himself some asprin. He was getting one hell of a headach as he tried to 
listen to Chen. "Well if there are caves that would make dropping some of the 
sensors down there and get a better sounding I would think."
 
Chen nodded and headed out to do his job while Gee lowered himself in the 3rd 
of a g gravity and winced. Then tongued the com pip. "Hey Yanzy. Do you think 
you can get something for a headach out of the medkit. I need it."
 
Yanzy grunted back over the com and Gee waited. Trying to keep track of some 
of the sensor data already coming back over the hud. "Go away!!"
 
Gee blinked. Then tongued his com pip again. "Repeat last message Yanzy?"
 
"Nothing from here boss."
 
Portia:
 
The voice reappeared,"Go away, human!"
 
Gee shook his head, his headache growing in volume. He messaged again,"Yanzy, 
stop kidding around. I got a headache and I'm Jonesing for someone to knock 
me out!"
 
The com started,"Lt Gee. Yanzy here... there is a problem.. abort abort." 
Then static.
 
"Yanzy! YANZY! Come in. What the HELL is going on here?" Gee started to climb 
up the line, feeling as if his head would explode when...
*BLACK*
 
"...I tell you Siva, this is not the way. We are living and breathing, 
perhaps not in the same way, but still."
 
Siva looked at the young apprentic,"It is not for us to judge the way of the 
guardian. We are merely doing our duty as told." He looked at the young 
female,"It is not your place to question."
"But 
 
But Siva.. do you not see something is wrong here?", the dusky hued gelding 
pleaded,"There is a problem!"
 
Siva looked at the young one,"Talis, do not make me give you another order. I 
will not..." Noise could be heard from the downed figure as he slowly came to.
 
Terry:
 
Everything faded to red. Gee's head felt like it had been split open, like 
his mind had evaporated out of it, lit on fire. What were those... creatures? 
Who were they talking about? It had looked like some sort of hideous alien 
creature, but then those... those bugs had looked normal, in the vision.
 
A whirl of blue light resolved into a dimly lit chamber, in which a massive 
-- no, it was the guardian, in pain. Tethys's heart felt like it would burst 
from sorrow to see her in such agony, but the warriors had already been sent, 
and what else could they do? Maybe he could track them back to their source, 
with the other workers. Quietly, he retreated from the chamber, and headed 
for the dormatories where the others rested between shifts.
 
"If the guardian is in pain, we will help," Rosetta said, speaking for the 
others, "But our tools are in the chamber of purification, so we will be 
naked."
 
Tethys nodded. "The second shift had left their tools in the entrance for the 
smiths to retrieve, but the smiths are still eating. We will take their tools 
with us, for our task is more important than the purification of another 
team's implements."
 
Rosetta looked at him in horror, and Tethys suddenly felt terrified -- what 
had he just said? Such a thing was unthinkable!
 
Gee screamed silently as he came back to himself, back to the blank nightmare 
of his own body, the haze of red and pain.
 
Randall:
 
The return of clarity was unwelcome.  Gee had walked while he was out, though 
he didn't know how far or in what direction.  A bite down on the right 
control in his helmet, and he had positioning again.  Yanzy's signal was 
gone, though.  This was bad- not even the suit's black box was giving out a 
signal anymore, and damned little could cause that.  "Chen?  Dammit Chen, 
answer!" he snapped into the 2-way.
 
Silence.  Then, faintly, an answer.  "Gee, this is bad.  I made it back to 
the shuttle, but Yanzy...Yanzy's gone.  Just a scorch mark where his position 
was.  I can't hail the captain."  
 
Gee took a few breaths, forced calm into his body.  He needed to keep his 
cool.  "All right, Chen.  Stay in the shuttle, I'll come to you."  As soon as 
he took a step, though, he was halted, pulled by two sets of limbs, and a 
touch- a touch inside his head, not the pain that he had felt moments before, 
but something alien to him; it brought goosebumps to his skin.  And it 
compelled him to stop with all its being.
 
Athalon:
 
The Old One shook his head - or so we might say, had his head been apparent.  
"Mahdi, you must NOT let your..."  Here he shuddered.  "You must not let your 
eggFeelings interfere.  You are Guardian."  
 
Siva had assumed control, had taken over Mahdi's Seeing.  Responsibility 
temporarily relieved, shame at her failing redoubled.  She had faltered.  Her 
teacher had no tolerance for such.  He was as in her mind as she had been in 
the Strangers'.  She felt utterly humiliated.  An egg.
"Will you do what you must?" the Teacher asked.
 
Mahdi reached out, seeking tentacles in the dark as sensitive as eyes.  Were 
she to have had a face, one might say it was a look of longing, of supplicatio-
n.
 "I will kill them."
 
Tarka:
 
The tools were unclean... the tools were unclean... that is all that went 
through Rosetta's mind as she followed Tethy's to the outter skin of the 
world. Following old and decayed paths out to the void. Where not a sound 
could be heard from above. The tools were unclean and she was holding them in 
her hands. Ashamed to her core.
 
"I will go through purification when this is done Tethys. For I am unclean 
now."

Tethys turned around with the tools and hissed. "No no... the Guardian 
demands this of us... nothing the Guardian asks can make you unclean. 
Purifining yourself for an unseen dishonor would be a waste. Come. We are 
near the skin."
 
Momments later they exited the world near the strange hardness that lurked 
upon its skin.
 
"Chen, there is movement northbound of the shuttle." The piolet looked at the 
sensor readouts. Then flipped over to video scanner.
 
"Is it Gee?" Chen leanned over and peered at the readout...t rying to see 
what was in the dark protected by the hill. Then pulled back when two... 
things... came out of the dark toward the shuttle.
 
"Hit the autoresponder and ship out a beacon. Hopefully the Whisper will pick 
it up sense we can't raise them on com. Dump all data into it and send. I'm 
going to go out and see whats up. This airless rock shouldn't have life."
 
Meanwhile far below.... Mahdi stared at the creature in her arms... his body 
strangely hard under her hands. "Strange... so strange.
 
Portia:
 
"I have never... so clean... smooth." Mahdi, stops,"I cannot think such 
things. I am here to protect my world. I am here to do my duty." She looks 
down at the figure,"So strange, but not so bad."
 
Guardian, please.. wait." Siva moves quickly to Mahdi,"They are on the 
surface and I believe they will be looking for this.. this creature. You must 
give him back so they will leave."
 
Mahdi stops and turns to Siva,"This creature will be held until we can 
question it about why it and the others were here."
 
Siva stops and instead of doing what he has been taught his entire life, he 
rebells,"You are letting your own mind get in the way of your duty." He 
stands straight and looks at Mahdi,"You will ruin us all if you keep him."
 
Siva turns and head quickly down the hall, but not before his head begins to 
pound when...
 
Terry:
 
On the surface, Rosetta and Tethys reached out towards the strange hardness 
with their tools, to soften it. A bright heat played over them from one of 
its stunted tentacles, and Rosetta released the others, who flew from her 
pouch and landed on the hardness, wriggling across it and covering it with 
cooling slime. They whirred in distaste at the alien nature of the thing, and 
the unfamiliar set of tools.
 
Tethys opened his mind to their senses, to track, but the results made no 
sense... and his head began to pound...
 
Mahdi contemplated the smoothness of the creature, fascinated by the flickers 
of sentience that formed such odd patterns, and didn't notice Sevi's 
collapse. And wouldn't have cared if she had... there was a thing within this 
creature that was more precious to her than her duty, than her society, than 
the world itself. She had to keep it for herself, away from the others, so 
she lifted it in her tentacles, physical and mental, and pulled it inside 
herself, where she could keep it safe.
 
She knew that this was not something a Guardian should do, but no one could 
stop her, and what else would define what was permitted? Nothing, the smooth, 
slithery mind spoke to her. Nothing is more important than your own ambitions.-
 And isn't it better quiet like this, with the noise of the world sealed away 
and sleeping?
 
On the surface, Chen stopped screaming long enough to notice that the 
horrible worms that had been eating through the shuttle's hull had stopped 
moving. He gave a quick peep, and slowly approached the console again, tuning 
the communicator. "Gee? Gee, are you still alive? Did you do something?"
 
Randall:
 
It was quiet.  Gee's mind cleared of all worries, all thoughts.  He was in 
his isolation room, no pain, no noise, just blissful silence.  And then, when 
he reached Nirvana, he felt it- her.  The touch in his head became firmer, 
and Gee got a greater sense of her, this Dr Mahdi.  He felt the protectiveness-
, the anger of the Guardian at the intrusion.  He felt her fascination at his 
body, at his suit.  She was taking in the same thoughts- knowing him as he 
began to know her.  
 
The more Gee's link to Mahdi strenghtened, the more he could hold conciousness-
.  And then the quiet and isolation were gone.  He was full aware again.  He 
could hear Chen's voice through his speaker.  "-you do something?"  
 
He made a move to respond, and Mahdi sensed it, took the image of Chen and of 
the ship and reached out towards it with her thoughts.  And Chen saw.  There 
was a crackle of static over Gee's earpiece, then Chen's panicked voice.  
"What the hell?  What the hell is it doing?  You're inside it, Gee!"  
 
Athalon:
 
Siva the Elder lay dead.  The psychic rebound through the immature Guardian 
had done its worst.
 
It is a people who live with their ghosts which does not develop science, 
which has no need to seek the stars.  Siva, not released from the limitations 
of biology, seized his willful pupil, shook Mahdi like a rag.
  
Mahdi's mental scream shook the planet: one does not easily lay tentacles - 
even those of the mind - upon a Guardian. 
 
Gee, within her, knew all.  His uncomprehending amazement at the nature of 
death on Moon 12 was only little less than his terror as the Elder sought to 
teach one last lesson.
 
Tarka:
 
The bridge crew slowly pulled themselves back to their stations and strapped 
themselves in this time. The Captain called out. "All Hands to stations! All 
hands to Stations!" They had lost contact with the mission a while before but 
then the scream came from the planet below. 
 
"Johnson, what kind of Psy attake was that?"
 
"Negative sir... if I read the systems right it wasn't directed at us... it 
just happened below somewhere."
 
The Captain grimly frowned. "I want another shuttle down there within the 
hour."
 
"Aye Sir. I will take it myself.
 
Mahdi shuttered.... her mind stretched and torn.... shudding she started to 
sink to the ground.... her mind about to slip away from her... when two 
smooth arms slipped around her, and the link with Gee pushed from without. 
"Its alright, hang in there, listen and learn."
 
Gee felt the other's pain... and no mater what the body looked like... he 
knew what he had to do. Teach Zen... teach meditation... teach this one how 
to reach enlightenment from within. For he felt that if she died, it would 
spell his own death as well. Nothing gets your focus better then death.
 
Mahdi listenned... and realixed she had more more lesson to learn... and 
cluched at that one thread to life still left to her. The smothness... the 
silance... it was hers as well.
 
Terry:
 
"Siva is dead," Gee told Mahdi. "He only lives on in your memory... you don't 
have to remember him if you don't want to. I can teach you how to forget 
everything." Siva's brutal attacks continued all the while, but despite the 
link Gee remained remote. "Focus on a symbol, on something that doesn't mean 
anything, but that you can picture clearly. Concentrate on it, ignore the 
outside world, and these ghosts that plague you..."
 
Siva screamed at Mahdi as he felt her slipping away, lost to the alien's 
call. He cried for the other dead of the tribe to assist him -- a worker from 
the surface, a young gelding, a breeder, but nothing could touch the 
guardian. Her training had already taught her to be remote, above the world 
rather than a part of it, and the wall this alien was helping her build was 
already too high.
 
Gee relaxed, allowing the calm to fill him. The aliens were all dead or 
sleeping, except for Mahdi and her ghosts, which weren't real. He knew they 
couldn't be real, and soon he'd convince her of that as well, and they would 
win. A few more seconds....
 
"Gee, are you okay?" came Chen's voice over the radio. "I still can't contact 
the ship, but there's a shuttle coming down --"
 
"SHUT UP!" Gee shouted, as his silence was shattered -- through the radio, or 
psychically, he wasn't sure. It was too late, though -- the ghosts swarmed 
through the crack Chen had chiseled in his meditation, and he felt Mahdi 
spiralling out of control.
 
With his last thought, he cursed Chen, and everyone from the ship, that had 
sent him here to die/destroy the world/corrupt the guardian...
 
The radio in the shuttle crackled to life, as the guardian's blanketing 
protection faded. A cheery blue light indicating a solid signal shone on 
Chen's face, glittering in the pool of blood that dripped from his nostrils 
and off his dead, staring eyes. The speakers came to life, "Gee, this is 
Johnson. What the hell is going on down there?"
 
Tethys awoke -- the tribe's inner battle had ended with the death of the 
guardian and the intruder both, and Siva had taken their knowledge and 
distributed it to the surivors. He knew what was happening in this... shuttle 
now, and that he was powerless to stop it, weakened as he was. The other 
shuttle would land, and see what had happened, and the world would not 
survive another assault. "Okay, Gee, I'm coming down. You'd better not be 
messing around again, or -- what the, what do you mean the fusion bottle's 
unstable? I gave Gee the dodgy one."
 
"Oh," came the last transmission, before a massive burst of heat shone down 
on the surface. Tethys lifted his tentacles up towards the miniature sun, and 
radiated pleasure to the others.
 
The captain watched the second shuttle explode, and without turning from the 
viewscreen, ordered the navigator to lay in a course away from this galaxy. 
It was definately time to cut his losses. Weird psychic attacks, exploding 
shuttles... forget cutting his losses, this place was *cursed*.