Chapter 65

Parallax

Perspective, the ability to look rationally at one moment of time from a different mindset. Perspective is often what is required to turn a failure, into a learning experience. Also looking at things from a different position, can cause parallax, the complete shifting of an object when viewed from a different point in space. I’m likely getting ahead of myself. There is a reason for that, my mind is racing as I am trying to understand everything I’ve just witnessed.

To no true surprise, I used my newest power, well newest to me powers, Total Recall to get both Goldie and me out of danger. I think I now have a better understanding of the power. Oh, and before you worry, we are safe-ish. Still, the power is not just a teleportation spell, as Wizard Kyle and Astra demonstrated. Total Recall is a psychic resonance related power.

To use the power, I must first be able to connect to a lingering trace of my own psychic resonance. To put it more simply, I must have been there at least once. Also, it seems that the more times I was there, the better. In a way this familiarity makes sense, as it means I have more psychic resonance to connect with, to create my temporary spatial link.

The only problem is that, by connecting through resonance, I mentally must follow the trail of resonance that led me to that spot. What do I mean? Good question. Basically, to get to a point where I was previously, I need to backtrack through my resonance trail to get to the intended location. For my teleportation from one end of the ship to another, this was easy as the trail was right there. For a trip through hyperspace, it was a bit more complex. At least it should have been.

Instead, I found the feed points that easily led me back through my previous days of shopping and haggling for a mechanoid unit. Then going back further, through the transition party. The Party.

Having a chance to look back rationally at a point, I saw things that scared me. No, none of them related to Goldie, well not directly. I saw things that caused me to wonder about the people who followed Goldie, in particular her handler.

I had just enough time to see thoughts and memories from a different perspective. The perspective of someone who was unstuck by position. Once I was unstuck, I could see the sleight of hands of the different performers. It was with this new perspective, that I realized why I felt so instantly attached to Goldie. I realized, and instantly felt nauseous.

Before you say anything, Goldie is the victim in this. I too am a victim in this. But there are things happening that I can’t quite accept. At least I don’t think I can accept this as an outcome.

The worst part, or a part that I only realize after the fact. Once I use Total Recall, I also burn away the bridge to where I came from. Effectively, once I go back with the power, I can’t backtrack and go where I from. Now this isn’t some all-powerful ability that grants me the ability to go back in time. Rather, it allows me to go back through places I once was and find a safe spot to appear.

In my case, I am on a hilltop where I first proposed to her, to Jess.

At least, this is the hilltop where I proposed to Jess in my previous lives. Only now that I am back here do I realize this is also the sacred hilltop where I also played my heart out for Mel.

Just thinking about her, causes a whole slew of emotions to come welling up inside me. I know these are the same emotions that seem to be forced upon me to bond with Goldie. At least that is what I think has happened. Now that I have had a second time through, experiencing the moment, and after seeing what I saw from the night of the party. I now have a different understanding.

I realize I can’t trust myself.

Sweat.

An icy chill runs down my spine, as I nearly collapse on top of the hill. This is slightly tougher than one would expect as both Goldie, and I are still in our mechanoid suits. Worse, we are on the human home world, on a military installation. One that I was forced to leave not too long ago. Still, this was the only place I could think of to anchor myself to. This was the only place that I could picture clearly, as it is the spot I often seem to go to, in each reincarnation. Even in this timeline, I find myself back here, even if it is as nothing more than a tourist.

My mind is splitting off into hundreds of directions all at once. But most importantly, I am still trying to process what I saw. There was a great glowing light being emitted from a bauble that Jenna Da’anvil had. One she activated under the table the night of the transition party.

As the bauble glowed, so too did my eyes. When I was traveling back through the scene, I could see the moment with crystal clarity. In fact, the energy being emitted by the bauble was so powerful that I nearly lost my psychic tether entirely. That was why I had to go back to this place, as it was a place I could connect to mentally.

“Where are we?” Goldie asks.

It takes me a second to realize that everything I saw and experienced happened in less than a second. The entire process, us being on the battle cruiser that was being destroyed by friendly fire. Our near-death escape, and our reappearance here, all less than a second.

“Did you see it?” I asked. Wondering if Goldie saw the incident that stood out to me.

“Saw what? All I saw was the impact from the missiles, the hull being breached by impact. Then you grabbed me. There was a trail of white lights all around, then we were here.” She answers.

I watch her, wondering if she is lying. Though I don’t read any deception on her face, I admit it is rather hard to fully get a good image of her through my grime coated cockpit window.

In fact, I wonder how I could even have seen everything I think I saw, with such a dirty window. Part of me wonders if this was all part of PTSD. We saw a life harrowing event that we barely survived and now my mind was seeing hallucinations. Making me question members of my team.

“Okay.” I respond, as I begin to breathe and relax somewhat.

“We did it, we survived.” Goldie says, excitement evident in her voice.

“Yeah, we did.” I respond.

“Now, where exactly are we?” Goldie asked.

“Put your hands up. You are trespassing on a secure military facility.” A voice on an intercom speaks up.

We look to find that a hmmwv, or Humvee, is driving at a mad dash towards us. From the side of the vehicle that is oddly missing a side door, a Drill Instructor is hanging out, with a megaphone in his hands. I am certain that this breaks some type of military safety regulation somewhere, but they seem to be in a hurry. Worse, while the one jeep is the first to arrive, while still more vehicles are being loaded and are enroute towards us.

Seeing the vehicle, I raise up my mechanoid arms into the air. Or at least I try to. The damage caused to the left arm is so severe that it barely manages to raise above my waist before its movements come to a complete halt.

Within moments we are surrounded, then we are demanded to extricate ourselves from our mechanoid war machines.

By now, some of the military cadets of the campus have made their way out to witness what happened. From their point of view, I can easily agree. Two weaponized mechanoid units just appear out of nowhere and in the middle of a military compound. In retrospect I could have chosen a better spot, basically anywhere else. The only problem was, now when I chose, I had a hard time focusing. I just went with the first place that truly felt like I would be safe.

Upon seeing both Goldie and me coming from our respective mechs, a silent murmur comes across the gathered crowd. From there we are promptly arrested and taken back for questioning.

***

Hours later, General Sharma comes to talk with me. Out of habit I flash Revelation Sight at her to see if I get the golden hue. I need to get better at using that power more actively. I also make a mental note to use it around, her, the woman who all but screamed to be shady. At least that was how she appeared to me, during my moment of fear, after I was nearly exhausted, had just defeated a Prolaxian Infiltrator, and began the process of teleporting across nearly all charted space to get here. So yeah, I was beginning to question my whole take on reality.

The only problem, well there were a lot of problems. But the main problem, with her at least, was why did everything feel so familiar. See these are the types of questions I begin to think about when I am left to sit idly by for hours in a holding cell by myself.

“You have nothing else to add from your initial report?” General Sharma asks.

I turn to her and wait for the moment she locks gazes with me. It is easy to see, as that is the moment a slight tremor of fear runs down her body.

“Do you think it is worth your time to come here and question me directly, general?” I ask.

Hearing that, the General’s eyes flash silver for a second. I can tell I have struck a nerve with that question. The old me would have flinched in fear. Now. Well now, I don’t know what I feel. I don’t feel fear, that much is for certain. I just stare at her calmly, letting her get through whatever forced vision she is enduring.

Finally, after a long minute, her eyes stop pulsing with energy, and she visibly relaxes.

“When it comes to a potential inter-galactic incident. Where a former student of ours, who has gone on to become a registered representative for the Dwenvarians. While also being a highly sought-after person for the Endarians, related to a world tree. Then that same person who was reported as dead, according to operations, randomly shows up here on my grounds, with a Dwenvarian Delegate. A Dwenvarian who is all but royalty, yes. Yes, when such a matter happens, I make it a personal point to come in directly.” She pauses. Seeing as there is nothing for me to add, I sit there and let her gather herself. “So, I will ask. I know you have told this to others. But please, for my sake. Tell me, what the hell happened?”

“Well, since you asked nicely. I will tell you. I had just purchased my new mechanoid suit.”

“The lime green scrap heap?” She asked.

“Harsh, but yeah. She probably needs a good buffering or two.” I admitted. When I got out of the suit, I realized exactly how terribly I had been to the suit. There were huge metal divots, several holes likely from kinetic rounds, then several dried slime and burn marks. All in all, I have to say, it was a pretty good test run. I almost wonder if I can get the seventy-two-hour return policy? You know, buyer’s remorse and all that. But I guess a lot of that depends on how long I am detained here for.

“Still, what happened?” Sharma asks, her joking demeanor gone, as we are back to business.

“We were on a milk run, a simple travel along as hired muscle. There had been reports of hyper-lane pirates at work, but nothing suggesting the large-scale operation that was going on. We were attacked in the hyper lanes with strip-mines.”

“To be clear, you mean mines that are long and linear like a strip of tape?” Sharma says, making sure to be precise as this conversation was clearly being recorded.

“No, the kind that forces all your clothes to fall off.” I pause, then continue. “Of course, mines that are in laid out in a runway strip.”

“Okay, stupid question. Then what?”

“Then we adjusted. The ship was nearly destroyed in the opening, but Goldie and I made it…”

“Goldie?”

“The Goldhammer, her transition name is Goldie.”

“Ah. Okay.”

I pause, wondering if she is going to interrupt me again. When it seems that she is done for the moment I continue. I break it down, how we worked as a team. How I clung to her back and took out all the life forms first, then crushed automated turrets. While she used a disabled freighter as a shield to approach the first destroyer. Then I speak about our entering the ship. How we fought our way through everyone to the control room.

I then pause, not wanting to explain what happened next.

“So, what happened when you got to the control room.”

“I took out everyone but the captain with Mind Rend-X.”

“What did you do about the captain?”

“We fought him and survived.”

She paused at that, as she stared at me. Her eyes flashed silver, and then her eyes went wide with shock. Finally, once her vision was over, she paused as she looked at me. “That’s it, hard to believe that one admiral would be able to muster much resistance against the two of you. Especially considering you were both in mechanoid suits.”

It didn’t take a genius to noticed that after her vision, she went from calling the captain an Admiral. This of course implied that she likely knew who the person was, at least before they changed. I still don’t know who the person is or was. I know the basics, he was allegedly a beastkin Admiral of some kind, but other than that, I don’t know. Then I realize she is phishing, so I decide to try to be vague.

“I didn’t say we had any resistance. I said we fought him and won.”

“No. You said, you survived.”

Hearing that, I bite my lip at my obvious slip of the tongue. “So, what do you want me to say? That the admiral was tougher than we expected? That beastkin truly are dangerous creatures?”

“No, I want you to tell me the truth. To tell me that you saw the admiral change into a corrosive monster of death. One whose blood that got on your suit, managed to burn holes in the reinforced metallic compounds. We had to end up burning away the remaining blood particles, as anywhere drops of the glowing green blood landed, caused immediate plants to wither. A scientist tried to grab a sample, only for it to burn away the protective gear they were wearing. I want you to know that it was likely a good thing you came here, as your suit likely would have been burnt away with any real exposure to space.” She says, then pauses, as she lets that sink in.

I look at her, then nod. I guess there was a reason I didn’t want to take my chances in space. Especially as the thought of somehow breaking free of the battleship’s hull, then darting across space, to fight the second battle cruiser never crossed my mind. It didn’t, instead all that crossed my mind was finding a way to get out to safety. That was when I thought of the open hilltop of the military academy and how we would be safe here.

Realizing that I am not going to say anything more on the subject, she continues. “So I guess that leaves the final question. How exactly did you get here? And how can we prevent it from happening again?”

Hearing that, I smiled, if only slightly. “It’s funny, before today, well maybe yesterday at this point. I am not quite certain how long I have been here. Regardless, before this time I would have said I had no clue how I got here. Now I can safely say I got here from psychic resonance. To be more accurate, my ability to follow my own psychic resonance.”

I pause as I let that sink in.

“Your own psychic resonance? How does that work?”

“Well, when a psychic interacts with the world, they leave behind a trail of energy. Even when they don’t use their powers, a trail or impression is left behind. This is called resonance…”

“I know what psychic resonance is. What I am asking is how did you get here by following psychic resonance?”

I smile, then raise my hands in the air in a what can I say gesture.

“You aren’t going to say.”

“Nope.” I pause then add. “As for your second question, the prevention one. I can safely say that the longer you keep me here. The harder it will be to be able to stop me from coming back.”

Hearing that she just nods in understanding. Finally, she pauses as a look of resolve comes over her face. “You know you could come back.”

I hear the words, the pause as I try to wait for the punchline. When I realize no punchline is coming, I laugh anyways.

HAH!

“You know. I have been arrested three times. All three by the human military, and twice by you directly.” I point out.

Her eyes flash, then she tilts her head to the side as if in confusion about something she is seeing. Clearly, she is recognizing something as being true within my statements, but she is having a hard time processing what I am saying.

Only after that, do I realize that technically one of the times didn’t happen. The one with the alternate universe, though judging by her expression she seems to be able to see that I am telling the truth.

“You aren’t lying. I don’t know how, but you aren’t.” General Sharma says, then leans back in contemplation.

There is a long awkward pause. Then finally a moment of inspiration fills her face, as she suddenly lurches forward and locks gazes with me. Then with our eyes locked, she asks in complete sincerity. “You can travel through time?”