Under a Starless Sky novel Chapter 6

“They say you’re supposed to see forever. Given the right questions, I can see precisely ten light years in any direction. My Sphere of Influence has a radius of ten light years. I could see things, I could push things, I could bring things, and I could travel,” Shen said.

This required explanation. Psychic spying, otherwise known as remote viewing. With the right handler, a person could theoretically see all of eternity, all of space/time from cradle to grave. One could see microscopically or macroscopically. One was only limited by imagination and perspective. He could move things telekinetically. He could push objects, sending them from one place to another. Bringing an object to him was easier. They’re referred to apports. Is magic was usually small things, like if he was hungry manifesting an apple out of an empty bag. Traveling, the ability to visit other realities by creating a doppelganger in a remote location. He had some limited experience teleporting, mostly utilizing portals. His present lack of abilities bothered him. He might have thought it all a dream, or perhaps another life, except for the fact, his present body was his body, as he was at this age.

“My name is not Shen. My name is Jon Harister, and I am the Captain of the Galactic Confederation Space Ship, My Enterprise.”

This meant nothing to them. There was no way for him to explain it. They thought he was insane. He heard his own words and thought “I’m insane.” There was one star in their entire Universe, their sun. There was no other lights in the sky. There was no moon. His ability to see was presently limited to the village, and he didn’t know why. He could see everything within the village, if he focused hard enough. Most the time he was experiencing too much many emotions to focus. He was not able to push stuff, retrieve stuff, or in any other apparent way affect anything or any person, with two exception. Before this moment, he had been reasonably sure he was affecting Lanore’s emotions. He was definitely sure he was affecting Tama, but clearly not in the same way he affected their mother. He was also not sure how he was affecting her.

“You remember a past life?” Lanore asked.

“No, not a past life. I wasn’t reborn,” Shen said.

“I was there. I saw you born,” Tell said.

“No. Yes,” Shen said. He couldn’t argue that, as he remembered being born. He remembered being in the womb, though he had found no way to measure time. If he counted heartbeats, he fell into a trance. Or fell asleep. “You saw me born, but this isn’t a new body. This is my body. This is what I looked like when I was four. This is the exact same body, minus broken limbs and scars.”

“You had scars as a baby?” Lanore and Tell asked.

“Well, not at birth, but…” Shen’s hands shook. He remembered his whole other life with a clarity he had never previously held. His eyes watered. He forced himself to breathe. Lanore also began to cry.

“What is this?” Lanore asked.

“I don’t understand,” Shen said. “I have all the memories but no emotional control…”

“You are only four,” Tell said.

Shen nodded. That made sense. He had yet built up enough brain mass to control the emotional fall out of his memories. Could that be the explanation for it all? He simply lacked the brain mass and circuitry to perform as he had before? It didn’t bother him that he had his memories without the brain, as this still fell into his metaphysical paradigm where memories not limited to or even localized in the brain. It didn’t stop him from considering if perhaps his perceived access to his past memories was an expression of remote viewing. “Yes. I should have realized that. Candace and G’Ma are right. I am stupid…”

“You are four,” Tell said again.

“I am going to be different,” Shen said. “I am going to lose everything I had and knew. I don’t want to forget.”

“Why would you forget?” Lanore asked.

“If it’s as you speculate, the more I develop, the more I lay down new neurons and open to neural circuitry. A different brain map will lead to different outcomes,” Shen said.

They didn’t understand him. He went to the desk and took up a pencil and tried to illustrate anatomy. He was instantly frustrate with an inability to draw a simple brain. He threw the pencil and wadded up the paper.

“Fuck!” Shen said.

“Men can’t draw,” Lanore said. “They can’t write.”

“If that were even remotely true, you wouldn’t block me from learning your alphabet,” Shen said.

“That sounds valid,” Tell said.

“Whose side are you on?” Lanore asked.

“There’s not a side. It’s not men against women. We’re all in this life together,” Shen said.

“Men and women are different…”

“No, L’Ma,” Shen said. “You’re a Seer. I am asking you to view me and the complexity of this situation from another perspective. Use Tell’s balloon, if you can’t do it with Heart.”

“Balloon?” Tell asked.

Shen described it.

“How do you know about that?” Lanore asked.

“I remember everything,” Shen said. He told them how Tell led Lanore and party out to see the balloon. It was a very crude basket, from Shen’s perspective. It was amazing it was flight worthy at all, but with Tell’s heat magic, he supposed if you pumped enough hot air into anything, you could fly it. The envelope was even crude, more of an upside down beaker shape. He added more detail, recounting how a boy of about six picked up a stick to whack at bushes as they walked and was severely beaten for having picked up a stick. Men were severely punished for using sticks in any manner that resembled a female using a staff. They were allowed to carry pole bundles with water pots attached to go fetch water from the river. They were allowed to carry pole bundles that had bags of fruits or potatoes or rocks. That was it.

Lanore got up from her pillow and walked to the door. She removed her staff and opened it.

“From today forwards, you will not sleep in my house,” Lanore said. “You will not enter my home, or my study. You will sleep with the men.”

“I will not,” Shen said.

“You tell me what you won’t do again, and I will beat you,” Lanore said. “This is my village. You are mine, not just by blood, but because I am responsible for your wellbeing.”

“Then beat me. Kill me if you like, I will not sleep in the barracks,” Shen said.

Lanore grip on her staff tightened severely. It glowed. Tell stood up. Lanore raised her staff slightly, and then tapped it on the ground twice, grounding it, allowing the energy to return to Earth. Tears fells.

“G’Ma is right, I have failed you. I favored you too much, tolerating your refusal to eat meat, protecting you from the other children,” Lanore said. “Don’t sleep in the barracks. Go chase glow beetles for all I care. If you leave the protection of my Light, don’t come back.”

Shen bowed. He left Lanore’s home.