Planet-H: The End of the Beginning

by J. T. Winterlord

Sgrunff handed me some gloves and kick boxing kneepads and he switched on a movie. He wondered if I could replicate some of the moves that I was seeing.

  After watching the scene for a few minutes I told him that I thought I could manage it.

  "Well, put them on and follow me to the gym."

  Once in the gym, I changed into a grey tracksuit and Sgrunff placed me in front of a large mirror telling me not to worry because it was in polycarbonate two centimeters thick so there was no danger of breaking it.

  "Just begin by doing a few of the moves you've seen in front of the mirror."

  So I did. I actually found it easy and soon after he told me to hit out at my mirror image.

  "Now try to forget that this is your image and fight it as if it were an opponent."

  I said,

  "But Sgrunfio, the whole thing is just stupid!"

  "Just do it!" he ordered him, pointing at my reflection in the mirror.

  I began to throw a few punches here and there to make him happy. He told me to give a few kicks also.

  I continued, and he insisted, getting more serious.

  "Kate! That’s your worst enemy,hit him!”

  I began to hit out with more enthusiasm though I still felt an idiot.

  "Harder," urged Sgrunfio "Go for it!"

  I wanted to please him but I did not like the absurdity of the whole thing. I continued to kick and punch and I began perspiring.

  "Come on you can beat him!" Sgrunff was as excited as a trainer at the ringside. I started to put my weight behind the blows, ever faster. I didn’t even feel tired and just pounded on for a good half hour.

  By now I was covered in perspiration. Sgrunff stopped me and told me to take a shower.

  He was waiting for me in the classroom with Sven.

  I was still slightly out of breath and I launched into them.

  "Just exactly what type of experiment did you two have in mind?”

  Sven looked pleased. He said,

  "We discovered something really important Kate. Let’s wait for the others so I can tell you all about it."

  Matt, Sonia and Valdes entered, intrigued by Sven’s excitement and he began at once.

  "We have just found out that a hidden fear factor was installed in the Taskers, probably by far the worst fear that there is - fear of yourself. In practice, the player learns to be afraid of things like spirits, ghosts, spiritual entities, gods, luminous beings, souls and so on and consequently the fear of death becomes terror in its purest state because all of these events generally occur during death. You are fighting an enemy against whom you can never win or lose.”

  The seventh relative truth.

  No enemy will ever be as strong as the one you find within yourself. The power and the arms in use will always be totally equal.

  "Who is this enemy?" Asked Valdes

  "Let Kate reply,”said Sgrunff, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at me.

  "But what answer do you want? I did nothing but fight against a mirror.”

  Sgrunff intervened - he asked me,

  "Are you able to win or lose?"

  "But Sgrunfio how do I win or lose if I fight against myself?"

  "Here's the answer," he said, "if a being unknowingly combats against himself he will be in a state of total equality right?”

  Matt remained thoughtful for a few moments, then said,

  "Now I know how they managed to extract so much energy from the Tasker. According to this logic, beings of the Confederation that are trapped continue to develop unceasingly."

  He paused and turned to Sven.

  "Can you calibrate the vibration with a wavelength that simulates a kind of spiritual awareness?"

  Sven scratched her chin and after a long pause said,

  "Yes, it is possible. I will need to monitor Kate to find the exact wavelength. It seems that during her dreams some things occur that give me cause to hope.”

  "Good! Let’s get to work then," said Matt.

  I was already lost at the word‘wavelength’so I asked for some more explanations.

  Sonia told me,

  "Dear Kate, you will not be given any explanations now, but we will make sure to have a meeting every two days. In this way you should be able to bring some of Planet Kate’s memories to Lieutenant Kate and vice versa. I'm sure that's the best way to respond to the all the questions bouncing around in your adorable little head."

  She smiled at me and I was satisfied with the answer.

  For that day I decided together with Sgrunff that we would stop, so I went to drink an Alaska with Valdes.

  We talked a lot, I don’t even remember about what but I spent a wonderful evening in his company.

  So the days passed. I fished out various bits of information from my analysis, I pointed out to Sgrunff that there was a lot of material written relating to the astral body or the body of dreams. Many people thought that detachment from the body could be realized. He told me to analyze the data I had collected very carefully because later we would be working on it.

  Meanwhile, every two days we had our meeting in a room adjacent to the bridge of the Nemesis. A few memories began to flow from both sides. Sven was busy locating and cataloguing all the circuits added to the Tasker. All in all it seemed that the work was proceeding very well.

  SOME REVELATIONS

  During one of the meetings I found myself watching my hand as it became transparent. Translucent. I played with it, fascinated like a child. I still felt the unanswered questions of Planet Kate peeping through that strange sizzling that lived in my mind.

  Matt told me it was healthy to be as curious as possible - even if I knew a lot of things in the role of Lieutenant, it was helpful that I should experiment as much as possible around what was going through my head.

  I looked Valdes and gave him a huge smile. I remembered something.

  "I remember I hugged you and you asked me to remember something about cartoons."

  He smiled at me and held out his hand, I did the same and our hands fused gently. I sent a mental caress to Sonia and Matt and they sent back a similar return. I felt the presence of the Planet H Kate.

  I could now experience many memories. I asked Sven,

  “What point are we now at with the vibrations?”

  Matt asked,

  "Do you remember anything in particular about the principal missions?"

  Yes, I remembered something.

  "One of the missions is to instil a vibration inside Planet using what is produced and sold by N Technology. The purpose of this vibration is to match the wavelength of spiritual awareness so that trapped individuals can experience a slight awakening and give us a way to trace the location of their Taskers.”

  Sonia looked at me satisfied.

  "Right Kate, congratulations! From now on we can bring into action Denise’s sales group and ramp up selling."

  She turned to Sven who as always was busy working on a plasma keyboard.

  “What do you think Sven?"

  "I would say that we have located the correct wavelength. Kate has given us some precious help, she showed us several writings from Planet and set us in the right direction.

  We can begin right away.”

  I returned to my Tasker. Arriving and departing from that infernal contraption had become much more bearable than at the beginning. Sven was working really hard and well.

  The‘normal’Kate had become more alert, she was better informed now even though still immersed in an ocean of stupidity compared with the real Kate.

  I decided to work with Sgrunff on the synthesis of my analysis regarding the‘out of body experience.’A lot of material had been produced about this and I had found a couple of interesting points.

  I put up my summary on the classroom screen.

  "Look Sgrunfio, all this information can be traced to a simple fact and correct me if I'm wrong .... here we talk about conscious dreams while at this point out of body experiences are described. Here below you can
see something about astral travel, while in the latter points there are my notes on near death experiences.”

  Sgrunff looked at my notes. He said,

  "This material is awaiting your feedback. Myself or the others are not able to weigh it up properly unless we are connected to a Tasker ..... and the only one crazy enough to volunteer for such a thing is you.”

  He smiled and looked at me, it seemed with admiration. I liked the feeling and resumed my explanation.

  "We can start from near death experiences. From the materials I have seen, and there are so many, it seems that people experience a switching off of the central black light in the upper diffuser. This event then projects them directly into the body of the dreams - they see the white diffuser light and then find themselves in Planet, detached from the body of their character. I have never had a similar experience, but I have the distinct feeling that they continue to stay in the game using the dream body.”

  There are those who claim to have seen other spiritual entities. We associate them with angels but in this particular case I have no idea how to respond.”

  Sgrunff said,

  “Good, carry on.”

  "As far as astral travel or out of body experiences, I can say that there are many phenomena similar to the experience of near death. The individual finds himself outside his body and moving in the surroundings as if he or she were floating.

  In practice it puts to sleep your character using meditative techniques or just lying down in bed trying not to think. You start moving using only your dream body.

  Sometimes you see and move in the environment, while at other times you enter a different scenario. One often experiences huge relief because it is no longer bound to the physical and emotional weight of the character.”

  Sgrunff, satisfied, was watching me. He asked,

  "What are your conclusions Kate?"

  "Well! Dear Sgrunfio, I think that in every case the individual is living that brief juncture of the game consciously using his or her dream body. Nothing more than that."

  I thought for a moment and then I asked him a question.

  "How come so much has been written about it? And ... how is it that so many people live through such similar experiences?”

  Sgrunff changed the screen page. A map of the universe that I had seen long ago appeared. He took his long stick light and pointed to the left of the area, the area of the United Confederation.

  "The beings that inhabit these areas are all spiritually evolved individuals. If you trap any of these beings in a game he will always have a slight awareness of his true nature.

  You can crush it and delete it using maximum power, but in the end, sometimes at the very end, he will always know the truth. He will always go in the direction of truth.”

  I paused to look at the map, thinking. I knew what he was saying was true. In the meantime, some strange names had popped into my mind.

  "What are the Theutoris, Sgrunfio?"

  Sgrunff pointed to a couple of planets.

  "These are the two planets where the race lives. They are beings devoted to the arts and there are many more."

  "So, what are the Nordik, Sgrunfio?"

  Sgrunff pointed at the area at the extreme left of the map.

  "You should know them Kate, however, the Nordic race inhabits this area at the extremes of the Confederation. They are considered one of the strongest races in this part of the universe. Not that they are really stronger or superior to others - they have capabilities that other races do not have and are able to radiate an amount of energy well above the average.”

  I was momentarily puzzled and asked,

  "Are they bad? ... is it best to keep away from them?"

  Sgrunff laughed heartily,saying,

  "Bad Guys? There is no malice in the Confederation zone; keep away? ... nahhh, you won’t find better friends. "

  I was getting into a field that was leaving me in confusion and starting to make me feel uncomfortable, so I abandoned my questions.

  I was reminded of what had happened during the last meeting. I was fascinated by mentally observing my hand which became transparent.

  I seemed to remember a dream, but I felt that it was much more real.

  I asked Sgrunff if we could ask Sven a couple of things and he proceeded to call him.

  I explained to Sven what I thought I had understood about the dream body and he told me that it was much more likely than I could imagine.

  "As I told you before, my dear Kate, within the game a change has been made to sleep while the prisoners of the External Federation saw some films, Confederation players could use this dream body, wandering around in the game. Every time they put their character to sleep they continued the game in that mode.

  Anyone if they so wished could put the game on pause and exit from their Tasker.”

  “Interesting, that explains a lot,”I said, satisfied at seeing things correctly.

  I asked him at what point the work was. He said he had found almost all the circuits and in actual fact when I wanted we could work together to remove them. Some had been deactivated while others were so near to delicate parts that he didn’t want to risk causing damage. It would be better to overload them and send them into short-circuit.

  I said in the coming days I would be willing to work on the fear element even if I was in fact a little fearful of the procedure myself.

  I left Sgrunff and made my way to my office.

  THE MANAGERS

  Passing near Matt’s office I saw Mario and Jack and I leaned in to greet them.

  Matt asked me to stay. They were talking about the fact that the department was in full production and the warehouse had no more space.

  Shortly after Sonia and Denise came in. We sat around Matt’s large desk and he explained to us that it was time to increase sales since Sven had activated all the micro transmitters hidden in the photovoltaic cells.

  It occurred to me that the people were present in the transit zone. Are they all part of the crew, I thought?

  I had already seen Denise come into the classroom but I had not given the matter any thought before.

  Valdes came in as well. I found myself looking at written reports on the desk and remembered something about a mission.

  Damn it Kate! - my memories were playing tricks on me. I was under the impression that N Technology was about to flood the market with a focused marketing operation ... or something of the kind.

  I thought it would be best to consult Vidmer in Purchasing, but with perfect timing he then showed up a few seconds later.

  I asked him to show me exactly the costs related to the production of photovoltaic cells and he filled me in on the various details.

  I turned to Sonia and asked her what would be the maximum discount applicable for large quantity sales.

  “As far as we are concerned we might as well give them away, but this would arouse too much suspicion."

  We did not want one of our missions to be blocked so she came out with the figure that she thought would have been adequate.

  I explained to Matt and Denise.

  "If we make sure to provide all our competitors with a concessionary and advantageous price, that is ensuring our products cost slightly less than theirs, this would mean that each manufacturer and installer would acquire material from us. If they produce at a cost of ten, we will sell our high-performance cells at nine. This should guarantee us a huge market share.

  Sonia agreed, while Matt interjected,

  "Very well then, fix the correct price and pass it on to Denise.”

  Everyone got down to work.

  I don’t remember exactly why, but we had found the best way to infest Planet H with this strange signal.

  "Sven’s magical vibrations!"

  I smiled at the thought. It would be a good TV slogan.

  I went into my office, greeted Alice and made her aware of the new sales tactics. She found it very interesting. She said,

  "I'll take care
of sales coordination, production and inventory, don’t worry Kate."

  I looked into her eyes. Her eyes were shiny too, even brilliant. My thought regarding the crew came into my mind once more.

  She smiled in response, amused.

  I said goodbye and walked to the‘Archive’door. Alice had told me she had never entered but at that point I had serious doubts.

  Most of the people who worked there had a very active and alive look, a certain brightness shone from their eyes.

  They weren’t quenched like those of the people I'd met on the outside. With those thoughts in mind I directed my steps towards the infirmary.

  I found Bones there and I put a question to him.

  "How many patients could a medical officer like you take care of?”

  Bones looked at me smiling and said,

  "I must confess that I don’t have a degree in medicine."

  His response gave me pause for thought. I then said,

  "Explain this to me if you don’t mind."

  Bones sat down on the couch and began.

  "I see that you already know something about the various races that inhabit the Confederation areas. Well, I have developed a capability with telepathy.

  I can go much deeper into the mind of an individual so that it can help to dredge up annoying memories for him that are difficult to reach."

  I looked at him and asked him what this had to with being a medical officer.

  "Nothing! I just like that part! Doesn’t the white coat suit me? And anyway ... I often help people who play video games for too long. Very often they end up with an aura of confusion for extended periods. I give them a hand to remember how they were before playing, and this helps them to clean up their mess.”