Planet-H: The End of the Beginning

by J. T. Winterlord

  They try make us sign contracts very restrictive, they want insurances and they ask for additional discounts on merchandise. They are also making veiled threats like "We are a major company so if you want to become our suppliers you’ll have to ...." and so on without specifying the consequences, as if it should be us kneeling at their feet begging them to become our customers.”

  Sonia laughed,

  "Classic Planet H tactics! Look, Denise, reverse gear with these idiots. Let them know that we already have too many customers to provide for and that, given that they have continued to pull our strings for so long we have already begun formulating contracts with their competitors.

  If you talk to the person in charge personally, just finish the sentence with an“I'm sorry but ...”and deliberately leave the situation open.

  In a few days they’ll begin ordering and they’ll drop all their absurd demands.”

  "Well," said Matt, "things seem to be going in the right direction, and .. yes Denise, use the tactic that Sonia advised and I’m sure we’ll see a sharp turn around; what percentage have we achieved? "

  Denise flipped through some graphs and stopped at the bottom of the page. She said,

  "We are at ten per cent; in a year we should get to sixty percent.”'

  I looked at Matt; I was wondering if I could speak freely. I smiled and nodded: "They also do their part of the crew of the Nemesis, just as you had already figured out earlier»

  So I said,

  “We need to inject a signal into Planet which is expected to hit the playing characters. The vibrations can be used to slightly increase the consciousness of the beings trapped within .... and what if we timed this to coincide the important date of 21st December 2012?”

  Sonia asked,

  “What is supposed to happen then?”

  "You don’t know?”' I asked, surprised.

  Matt explained to me that I was the one most intensely involved in this strange game, they only lived it very superficially, so they were not aware of everything I had learned, being on the inside. As he was talking I made all the information available to them mentally.

  Sonia smiled,

  "Sounds like a good idea, if on that date they expect a change, they will be more attentive to whatever happens."

  Matt nodded and added,

  "We’ll change the Nubiriumh orbit, the space station, so it can be vaguely glimpsed. This should awaken curiosity and interest even more.”

  The meeting ended there and everyone got up together.

  I went back to the office and the phone rang.

  "Hello Kate! You know what? Today they showed me the ultralight that I will learn to fly and guess what ... my instructor is Sammy!"

  Irina continued to talk enthusiastically. She said the languages study was going well and that her‘slave’was always busy.

  She left me almost no time to talk but I listened to her with pleasure. I still could not believe she was just a few miles from me. I promised myself that I would invite her to the estate soon to sample some of the delicacies prepared by Serena.

  She said a rapid goodye. She always had some‘important’responsibility to take care of. I put down the receiver and made myself more comfortable in the chair. I wanted to wait a few minutes before going back to Sgrunff.

  Sven and Sgrunff were waiting for me - the screen wall was on and there was a visible map of the three universes.

  Sgrunff began.

  "The External Federation is made up of approximately fifty percent of low-level beings who are quarrelsome and treacherous.

  Their idea of sex, as you know through Planet, is largely that of sadism.

  They are extremely possessive and their creations are dark and heavy.

  There exists however a remaining approximate fifty percent that can be considered almost norma. They stay away from the low-lifes and they chose to live on planets far from the hypothetical center. They do suffer however from the invasion and the oppression of the other inhabitants of that system.

  "Fionis I is the headquarters of the Externals,”he indicated a planet towards the center of the right side of the universe,“a terrible fool has appeared as the self-proclaimed Regent and it now appears he's going to appoint himself Emperor of the External Federation.”

  Sven spoke up.

  "From what I've seen in the changes made to the Taskers all the worst features of the External races have been entered creating a sort of conflict between the two diffusers and an accumulation of energy between them.

  This energy stagnates in the area of the heart and lungs and if not released it causes a strong feeling of suffocation in the area.

  It can also vent upwards towards the upper diffuser causing wide disfunctions that you have defined with the words anger, rage and hate.

  So we have to work very carefully and efficiently to remove all this. I have already identified some changes to be made.”

  I weighed up the information carefully, then asked,

  "But why were the1y allowed to use Planet H? I mean, knowing that they are quarrelsome, stupid and unreliable ...?”

  "When they made their request they just asked for help, there were no ulterior motives, otherwise we would have seen through these and we would not have agreed," began Sven.

  "It looked like that universe was trying to rid itself of the baser elements.

  With the coming into play of the Regent, the real betrayal began.

  He gave the orders to make those changes and trap every individual that could be annoying to him. They also held captive beings of the Confederacy. They used trickery and took possession of the existing structures. Then they created new ones by copying and modifying those that were available.”

  “But ... how did you discover all this?”I asked, surprised by the new information.

  "By chance," said Sgrunff,"pure chance."

  He sat in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

  "A friend of mine said he'd played the Planet game a little. At the time we were resting up, finishing the construction of the Universal Library on one of the planets of the Free Zone.

  I never saw him go back.

  I tried with telepathic communication and other friends lent themselves to act as a bridge. In a short period we explored every corner of the Confederacy.

  There remained only one place, the place where the playing connection was. I asked Sven’s help to try to locate him, but we did not receive any signal.

  Bones also helped us. He is particularly gifted with telepathy but even he could sense nothing.

  When we were in one of the Tasker buildings we discovered the tragic reality .

  There were guards and attendants everywhere. You could not see what beings were inside the Taskers. The buildings were packed with players….. too many.”

  He sighed, immersed in the memory.

  "Something definitely wasn’t right. We found ourselves at the Library wondering why we could not hear any signal from those stations relevant to the game, they seemed really all the same.

  As many as four planets in the Free Zone had been filled with similar structures. They were all prisons. We summoned a meeting of all the Confederation races and decided to act.

  Thanks to you, we understand why it has become impossible to perceive beings within the Tasker.”

  I looked at him, surprised.

  “Why?”

  “Kate, you're really a one-off," he smiled as he replied,

  "Remember your performance in the gym? Your struggle in the mirror? Well, that's the reason. The being trapped in the Tasker does not know who he is and it gets worse! He's afraid of himself and he’s made to fight against himself."

  "Explain yourself please Sgrunff.”

  "OK, let’s start from the beginning," from his upraised fist he lifted an index finger, "First. The player, let’s say the prisoner, is not really aware of where he is; he is convinced that he is really in the game. Second. He does not know what he is. If the question were put to m
e I could give an answer like my current employment, or the race I belong to.

  But for a Planet player it would be an answer that always belongs to the game.

  Third. He has not even an inkling of who he really is. He would say he is a human being who does this or that job and who is part of that family. In summary he is completely captured by Planet into thinking there is nothing outside of it.

  I thought back to my analysis.

  "But there are people who understand that there is something else outside of this game. There are people who are looking for a higher truth, many things have been written about it."

  "It's true Kate, but as you yourself have noted, these concepts were sunken in a sea oflies. How much written material did you have to analyze and discard during your research?"

  I saw mentally the enormity of stuff that I had worked through before. Sgrunff was right, the truth was buried by huge piles of trash.

  Sven interjected.

  "Igot to see your notes and I have to say that someone has done a lot of work on the technology of dichotomies, but unfortunately he has not been given due importance.

  Using a method similar to that used by you to weed out the circuit that amplified fear, they touched superficially on the various circuits inserted by the Externals.

  The technique was to mentally repeat key phrases and use the imagination to activate the energy of these demon circuits.

  Unfortunately, whoever used this technique satisfied themselves only that the circuit was over-powered and blew out. Each circuit within the Tasker has the ability to repair itself, so taken to the extreme it has to switch off. I'm talking about a real short circuit. But I saw that these techniques were abandoned .... inexplicably abandoned.

  But they gave me great insights to understand exactly what to look for.”

  I asked them if it was not the case for action to get these techniques known.

  Sgrunff said,

  "I'm afraid it's hopeless. From what we noticed we suspect that some of the prisoners of the External Federation have been indoctrinated to break into any place where a truth can be born. Their purpose is to alter, mislead and confuse everything.

  They often occupy key positions in various sects and religions so as to change the way people adhere to various movements, both religious and philosophical.”

  Effectively this was something that I had also noted in my research.

  The only way such a thing could return to work would be to create something new. We need someone who is knowledgeable about these things, these technologies should be re-opened and put back into operation, taking care that they are applied correctly.

  But this is a different solution from the one we are trying to put into practice.

  We have missions that work from the outside towards the inside ... of course it would not hurt to get some help from the inside!”

  I well understood this and added,

  "Well, anything let’s take into consideration anything that can be of help. At the next meeting we’ll talk about it calmly and evaluate.”

  The two nodded, it seemed that some points had awakened interest, even if Sgrunff saw it as very difficult to accomplish because the Planet players tended to change certain things by the very nature of the videogame.

  I decided to take a short walk to process the new information that I had received from my instructor and Sven.

  I left, walked across to the estate and spent the night there.

  SWEET IRINA

  The next day I was in the office, intent on seeing how things were going. Sonia had hit the mark with her suggestions about the difficult clients - they were already asking if they could make some

  purchases. There were satisfied smiles all round.

  Denise came to me to show me the sales graph and it was evident that since the new sales strategy with competitors had started we had tripled our business.

  This meant that we were going full sail towards one of the main objectives of our sci-fi mission.

  I spent the morning in the office checking documents and data. Alice was very busy at her work station.

  While I was busy searching the web for information I was suddenly distracted by a terrible thought.

  "Irina!"

  A terrible image flooded my mind like an avalanche of mud. I saw her slump to the ground with a knife stuck in her stomach!

  I tried to dispel the image that was disturbing me as just a figment of my imagination. I thought

  I was over-tired also but the image reappeared. I saw Irina slumped over with her eyes dulled and I was seized with anxiety. In the same image I saw Kurl and his henchman escaping.

  I began to get agitated. I was shaking and there was a lump in my throat. I tried to relax but I could not go back to work.

  What I had seen was too vivid ... "Irina, No!" The thought was upsetting, the image of my beloved sister stabbed on the same street where I had met her only recently. I couldn’t stop shaking.

  Hot tears began to furrow my cheeks ... something had happened, I felt it!”

  The anxiety turned into panic. I needed to take a breath, the weight was oppressive and threatened to choke me.

  I left the office.

  Valdes saw me in that state and took me to the infirmary.

  Everyone was silent, Valdes held my hand and after a pause he just said,

  "Irina," nothing more.

  I was in despair, bursting into tears.

  Valdes stayed close to me. He told me that they had found her slumped on the ground and that the rescuers had not been able to do anything.

  I screamed in desperation. Bones mademe inhale something, he tried to give me one of his concoctions but I did not want to see anyone. I ran out of the infirmary and with tears in my eyes took the car and drove.

  I stopped somewhere in the surrounding countryside, screaming and crying. I could not believe I had lost my sister, my beloved treasure.

  I don’t remember how much time I spent in that state.

  I steeled myself and drove to the estate. I didn’t want anyone around and I threw myself on the couch and cried for most of the night. A part of me was gone.

  I would much rather have taken her place, that tender little blonde I now missed enormously had left a big void inside of me.

  I woke up and did not even remember falling asleep. I was still sobbing, took a shower, feeling dehydrated. I continued to cry and ask 'Why?'

  I had cried all night and my eyes were black-ringed. I put on a pair of sunglasses and went out, sobbing. I wanted to go to my sister.

  In front of the coffin that had been placed in a private room of the academy I was able to look at her. She was beautiful and I could not giving her a kiss and crying on her cheek.

  The despair of having lost someone I loved so much hit me hard. I was crumbling from within.

  I spent a very long time with her, finally going to Valdes who took me off for a walk. I could not even look at him and neither of us spoke.

  I spent that day and the next day in a trance. There was the funeral but I had not had the courage to mention it to my parents.

  I cried like an automaton, I was empty, useless and lost.

  I went back to the estate. Oddly, loneliness was the thing that mademe feel better. I thought back to the images that had come into my mind two days ago and I focused on that of Kurl running away.

  An almost pleasurable warmth was born inside of me and an uncontrollable rage seized every single particle of my being.

  I knew where he lived, that filthy piece of shit. I imagined breaking down the door of his house. He was there, looking at me and trembling. His henchman came from the kitchen with something in his hand.

  Seeing me he let it drop. Kurl stuttered and pleaded and I looked into his eyes which had a black sheen to them. I always knew he was a slimy coward.

  I saw them standing motionless, trembling and becoming pale.

  I imagined a force from within their bodies pushing them to explode into a mil
lion pieces.

  I had the image of the jam that was all that remained of those two smearing the walls of the room where they were. The red of the blood that dripped on every object around me left macabre strips, drawn down slowly by an invisible force creating drawings of death.

  I didn’t care for those images so I threw them out. Imagining the slaying of those two bastards gave me a slight sense of relief but no amount of revenge would have brought Irina back.

  Two more tears dripped down cheeks and I felt a cold internal detachment beginning inside me.

  I began now to suppress the urge to cry that had wrapped itself around me recently. A change was taking place. Soon I began to feel ruthless, cold, emotionless.

  I felt a total detachment from everything - I was not interested anymore.

  It wasn’t that I cared any less for my friends, but these feelings had become lodged in what felt like a deep abyss.

  ’Damn videogame’was a final thought in my mind before it was invaded with cold fury.

  This was the condition which most suited my current emotions. I didn’t want revenge but I felt I could feel no love.

  It didn’t matter - cold fury at that moment fitted me like a glove.

  I turned on the television. I wanted to eat something after I had showered; I hadn’t eaten for days.

  Absently listening to the news, I took a long hot shower. I seemed to see the outlines of things around me slightly more blurry and luminous. I thought it was due to the fact that my body was mostly without energy.

  After the shower I ate something. The television news was headlining a local crime and I found myself again thinking about that shitty place.