[GE] Tonjin - Chapter 1

TONJIN

4.

In retrospect, Tonjin should have known that something was wrong. Everyone should have known the moment the Grey trade delegation first stepped off their voidship. He was distracted on that day of all days. Stupid, he would think to himself thousands of times later in reflection. Never get distracted again.

A trade delegation came from Gora, the Grey planet, every year, once a year, as scheduled for the past one thousand years since they first visited the Human planet Rien. Every Human should have been suspicious on this visit because it was the week of the Union Celebration, and for the first time in 1,000 years the Greys had asked to visit during this time, off schedule. And if there was anything positive to be said about the tiny species, it is that they were very punctual about their trade schedules.

The Greys always tried to avoid the Rothen. The Greys were terrified of them and, this being the most grandiose holiday celebrating the Human and Rothen Union, the capital city would be teeming with Rothen tribes. Most people assumed the Greys feared the Rothen because they were so physically imposing – the average Rothen was three to four times more massive than a Human, while Greys were about half a Human size. Rothen had huge, muscular limbs covered in thick fur, while Greys were thin and weak, their skin bare and grey as their name, unable to stand any sustained exposure to sunlight. A Rothen could squash a Grey without a thought. But their size really wasn’t the true reason for the Greys to avoid the Rothen. After all, the Rothen were a peaceful species. It’s because the Greys knew the Rothen were much better at sensing the Grey’s complex thoughts and limited emotional waves than the Humans were. They could read the Greys’ minds much easier. And if there was anything a Grey valued, it was their secrecy.

Despite their usually stone-faced demeanor, even most Humans that greeted the Grey’s trade delegation could tell that something was off about them. They seemed nervous. The Greys, usually suspiciously calm, moved differently this visit. That something was amiss was immediately apparent, yet far too few thought to question it.

Tonjin was on his final guard shift before graduation, so he was there when the trade delegation arrived. It was mandatory for all student-Elite to serve in the palace-tier guard and so, while Tonjin watched over the upper-tier starfield for the last time, the Grey voidship arrived. Tonjin was among the guards chosen to escort the Grey delegation to their guest quarters in the upper-tier merchant district. As Tonjin walked slowly behind the delegation, he couldn’t help pick up on their energies as they walked. They were scared.

Admittedly, there was a lot for the Greys to be nervous about. Something out there was attacking them, something new. For the past few months, the Human empire had been receiving intel from the outer fringe systems. Entire colonies were going dark and Elite pairs were disappearing from even more planets. Every Elite team the Empire sent to investigate failed to report back. From what the reports could tell, something had come through the Grey’s Space Flexers, the devices created to allow their ships to skip across huge swaths of space time. A species they’d never seen before – electrical beings of some sort – had suddenly arrived through the galactic doorways, and they weren’t leaving any survivors.

The Grey delegation claimed to have some new important intel but whatever it was, they wouldn’t elaborate until they could show the Empress in person. And so, an unscheduled group of representatives were arriving on the Human homeworld during their most anticipated celebration of the year. The Empress’ advisors all assumed the Greys simply wanted to beg for aid, a more personal plea than could be sent through message packets. Many of the Greys’ colony worlds had gone dark, trade was disrupted, and all of their systems were collectively suffering from the mysterious assault. So here they were on planet Rien, waiting on their audience with the Empress in the grand capital of the burgeoning Human Empire, Rienoth.

The capital city of the planet Rien stood on the northern edge of the Human’s side of the planet’s equator, so it had a mostly tropical climate. Rienoth had stood for thousands of years as a meeting point of many diverse landscapes, surrounded by ocean and desert, forests and mountains. Rienoth was immense and sprawled across valleys and mountains, rivers and lakes wending through Human metropolises. The Humans here had become experts at living in cooperation with their home planet’s ecosystems. Nature grew undisturbed by the layers of Humanity woven into every scene. The upper tiers of the mountainsides that made up the Palace district were reserved for the royal families and governing leaders, and was called the Palace Proper. This is where Tonjin spent most of his life, beside the great plains hunting trips he used to go on with his father and mother many years ago, Tonjin had lived a life of study and had rarely left the palace-tier. One day, tomorrow in fact, Tonjin’s studies would be complete and he’d finally travel the stars as a full-fledged Elite – the guardians that protected the Human and Rothen colonies as they spread to new and strange worlds.

Tonjin was a minor prince. The Empress was his mother’s aunt’s sister, making her Tonjin’s great aunt twice removed, or something like that. Either way, he’d only met her twice and was far removed from “royal” life, as he thought it. Tonjin had lived in the Elite student housing just below the palace-tiers for the past few years. Today was his graduation day, hopefully. If all went well, he’d never be sleeping in those dorms again.

Both of Tonjin’s parents were Elite. They had been sent out on an assignment when he had entered the academy five years ago and have been traveling at near-light ever since, so he had not heard from them in a long time. Sending and receiving signals was impossible at such speeds. They should be arriving at their stationed planet any day now. Tuikulos was a frontier colony world that needed Elite help in terraforming and Tonjin was eagerly anticipating receiving a message that they had arrived safely. Tonjin was even more excited to follow in their footsteps and bring honor to the matriarch by becoming an Elite himself; to bring prosperity to the Empire, and spread utopia throughout the galaxy. It was everything he’d been dreaming about since a little boy, and it truly started after today.

For months now, Tonjin had been completing his final examinations, proving his proficiency in Source knowledge and Ka bending; communication and combat; tactical reasoning and governing theorems; chemistry and calculus; alien studies; biome manipulation and terraforming; survival tactics and space flight. In other words, everything he needed to be of service to Humanity out among the stars. Tonjin, to his credit, was among the top of his class in every course, but had become a bit famous in the student-Elite population for his ferocity in Ka sparring. Tonjin’s connection to all four elements was exceptional among the Elite, and he used all of the elements in combat like a conductor orchestrating a symphony. Most of his opponents couldn’t even figure out what hit them when regaining consciousness on the sparring mats.

Tonjin was expected to be an Elite to be reckoned with. The only thing left for him to complete was the Challenge. The Challenge was the final graduation ceremony for the next class of Elite each year, and was more of a formality than anything. Tonjin knew he and his partner, Baer, would have no trouble passing, but still he felt nervous. The Challenge was held during Union Festival, the week of celebration in remembrance of the first Human and Rothen pairing, when both of their species, and their entire planet, transcended to the next level of their evolution and became the controllers, the weavers of their shared environment.

Only together, with their complementary skills and powers, could the Humans and Rothen sustain equilibrium in their environment. Only together was their survival assured. Without Rothen, Humans are too quick and destructive, too impatient. They are capable of moving forcefully with the greatest of natural currents but seemed to completely miss the intricacies that bind the Verse together. Their knowledge and control of the Source is powerful, but narrow. While much larger and more physically imposing, a Rothen’s Ka is subtler, gentler than a Human’s. Without Humans, Rothen are too timid. They sew and weave beautifully intricate tapestries of nature and dancing life, mosaics of natural processes that can sustain in tiny systems, but when spreading to a broader molding of the environment around them, the Rothen lack the force of will in their tiny machinations. Working together, Human and Rothen create miraculous systems of order that speed up the processes of life around them, terraforming through manipulation of the Source’s elements: apply steady frequency, align the vibrations, and life can grab hold. Provide energy at crucial points of growth, and life flourishes. The pairing of Human and Rothen was sacred, and pivotal to every facet of their shared culture.

And today was finally Tonjin’s pairing ceremony, when he and Baer would be named adults and their Elite training would be complete. This was the day Tonjin had been waiting for his whole life, but still was not what was occupying his thoughts. He had decided, amidst all of this grandeur, to finally tell Kota how he felt about her.

After escorting the Grey delegation to their guest quarters in the palace merchant district, Tonjin was walking across one of the palace-tier courtyards on his way back from guard duty, looking down at his feet and lost in thought trying to imagine what he’d say to Kota later, when he had an idea. Silly… but worth a shot, I guess.

Tonjin pulled up his wrist console and spoke to the meta-mind connected to it.

“Hermes, I…I have a question for you.”

Hermes was the royal meta-mind: artificial, coded, but a mind no less. Only the royal house had access to him. He was the most powerful meta-mind Humans had ever created. He helped the ruling class of Rien with anything they needed, probably knowing more about each of them than they did themselves. As an inconsequential minor prince, Tonjin only had limited access to the meta-mind, but that was still more advanced than most other houses' full systems.

There were hundreds of meta-minds serving the Human empire as it made its rapid spread across the galaxy, all of varying quality and functionality. Each meta-mind was tailored to a specific niche necessary for sustaining Human life out among the cosmos, and even more importantly for keeping the home world of Rien well cared for. Humans had been developing their own computers for decades before the Greys arrived, but their technological capacity advanced by leaps and bounds after first contact. Between the Greys’, Rothens’, and Humans’ combined understandings of the Verse, the meta-minds were born, or, created. Now most forces that could be programmed were maintained by the population of meta-minds tasked with managing the wellbeing of planet Rien, all divinely loyal to the three species who created them.

Many members of the royal houses had interfaces hidden throughout their persona in order to consult and take cues from their meta-mind helpers. Ocular and auditory implants were common among the top classes. Tonjin preferred only a small forearm access panel. Implanting Hermes into his head seemed too unnatural to Tonjin. And he didn’t know how he’d be able to concentrate on the Source with too much artificial stimuli, so he kept it simple with his wrist piece.

At the mention of his name, a projection of Hermes’ synthetic humanoid-self appeared to stand on Tonjin’s upheld wrist. “Of course, Tonjin. How may I be of assistance?”

“Well, first, can you keep a secret?”

“I will keep your query private if that is what you mean.”

“Good enough. Okay…you know Kota Sorelli?

“Well of course, sir, she is a most talented Elite-in-training. She is hard to miss.”

“Do you think…”

“You like her don’t you, sir?”

Tonjin felt himself blush and looked around for an answer. Stupid, letting an artificial mind embarrass him so easily.

“Well, yeah…do you think she’d want to dance with me at the banquet tonight?”

Hermes apparition smiled at Tonjin.

“I think she would be very honored, sir. You should not doubt yourself so.”

He was surprised, but Hermes’ words did make Tonjin feel better.

“Thanks, Hermes. I think I’ll ask her tonight.”

Tonjin dropped his wrist, cut the Hermes image before the meta-mind could say anything more and looked up at the palace district around him. Terraced settlements rose in the mountain sides that climbed surrounding the high Royal shelf. Most everything, even the Human structures, were an earthy green and brown from the neatly trimmed flora and fauna that covered all, interrupted here and there by bursts of colorful flowering plants or tall, proud standing trees. Early morning sun danced calmly in the sway of wind-brushed foliage, birds fluttered lazily in the wind, and slow clouds rolled overhead. It was a breathtaking sight. Tonjin was often taken aback by this view of the palace district.

Suddenly, Tonjin felt a pair of massive hands grab his shoulders from behind and launch him twenty feet into the air. He would have been more surprised, but this was one of Baer’s favorite games. Tonjin hated it. He could hear Baer whoop and laugh as he flew skyward, Baer’s great lungs making his booming laugh echo around the courtyard.

At the apex of his unexpected flight Tonjin turned his head back toward Baer, reached for a slice of air above him and with an arc of his hand blasted Baer in the face with it. Then he grabbed the air around him and spiraled it downward like a cyclone to slow his descent. Tonjin touched down lightly as Baer laughed even harder at the air blast he had received, ruffling his long mane.

Baer stood a solid eight feet above Tonjin, but that didn’t stop Tonjin from sending his meanest glare up at the massive Rothen. Baer grinned at him, enormous fangs showing.

“Do I look majestic?” asked Baer, still shaking his dreads. “You should blast some air from your boots next time, I’m sure the smell of your socks woulda knocked me out!”

“Very funny,” said Tonjin. Not a bad idea, and with a thought he immediately began shifting some air from his boot and sent it towards Baer’s face. Baer of course noticed immediately and doubled over pretending to retch. “See, it works!” he said, grinning between fake sputtering noises.

“You know I hate it when you do that,” said Tonjin.

“Yeah, well I saw you moping about over KOTA and wanted to get you out of your head.” Baer purposefully boomed Kota’s name for the entire courtyard to hear, trying his best, as usual, to embarrass Tonjin.

“Shut up you fur face!” Tonjin had regretted it the moment he had told Baer his plan to talk to Kota a few days ago. Baer had been goading him incessantly ever since. Tonjin wouldn’t be surprised if half the castle and Kota herself already knew of Tonjin’s intentions. I’m never telling Baer anything again, thought Tonjin.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” Baer’s grin wasn’t convincing.

“We have to be in sync later. Why are you riling me up right now?” Tonjin asked him seriously.

“You’re just too easy!” Baer laughed.

Tonjin glared some more.

“Fine, really, I’m sorry,” said Baer, looking at him seriously this time. “Besides, the Challenge is going to be no problem. You know we’ve got this.”

Tonjin knew Baer was right, they were the best in their class and whatever the Council threw at them, he knew they could handle it. Still, he was letting his nerves get the better of him more than he should. Something just felt off, like something was about to happen; something bad.

Shaking the feeling for a moment, Tonjin returned Baer’s smile. “Yeah, I know, buddy. We are the best.” Only a moment, and the feeling was back. Tonjin sighed.

“Wow, very convincing.” Baer rolled his eyes.

“I just need to get centered. I’m going to go meditate in the gardens. I’ll see you at the stadium later.”

“Hey, Tonjin.”

“Yeah, buddy?”

“May your three selves be aligned,” said Baer, giving Tonjin the traditional farewell.

“And yours,” Tonjin replied.

---

The gardens were Tonjin’s favorite place in the whole palace district. They spanned for miles across most of the upper tiers of the city. Jam packed with flora, fauna, and wildlife from throughout the galaxy – trophies from throughout the Verse – the gardens were designed to showcase the most splendid environments Humans and Rothen had come to dominate, all cared for by the royal garden keepers. The royal garden keepers were some of the best eco-weavers to ever live. It was a profession in which many elderly Elite ended up. and Tonjin loved to sit in the garden to feel their work coursing around him. The environments were always shifting, growing, evolving, so you never knew what you might find walking along its paths.

Tonjin walked a somewhat familiar route through the upper tiers of the garden. He passed tropical waterfalls with lizards swimming in H2O pools, a desert-like, sandy area, until you looked up and realized the cloudy dim lighting was caused by tangles of vibrant floating flowers and vines grasping at each other up above, and a misty forest overgrown by leafy green trees where the sounds seemed damp and close. Tonjin kept walking until he reached the edge of a saltwater shore. It was really only a tiny lake, but it was filled with some of the most outrageous aquatic life to be found. All of it was harmless, and Tonjin loved jumping into the water to float on his back with the lion-otter pups.

For now, he needed peace, so Tonjin decided to meditate on the sandy shore and watch the lion-otters dive and swim in the shallows. Sitting down and breathing deeply, Tonjin lowered his mental guards to feel for the natural vibrations of his surroundings. Loosening the firm physical hold from his body, he reached with his mind’s Ka and meshed with the currents of life around him.

He started with the basics, like air flow, moisture evaporation and condensation, terrain. Tonjin could feel it all. Eventually he became aware of the more subtle movements of life the tiny ecosystem contained. Deeper, smaller, Tonjin continued to explore with his awareness until even the most intricate of biological processes were revealed to him, down to the ebb and flow of bacterial processes at the seafloor 50 feet below the surface. He could feel the pulse of spores being released from fungus on a dead platy-mouse buried a few feet away where one of the lion-otters must have hidden it. Tonjin sat with his eyes closed and felt it all. He surfed the currents of life energy with his mind and breathed deep, letting himself go, allowing himself to be nothing but the awareness of ecstatic universal order around him.

Life was so beautiful, but so fragile. Life needs perfect balance or it is plunged into destruction. Introduce disorder and chaos takes hold, diminishing life as if recoiling in fear until you look closer and find life made smaller to fit into the micro-crevices of the chaotic current. Like crabs on a rocky shore, clinging to their prosperity in tiny holes battered by salty seas, chaos grabbing at their backs, little claws clinging to a precarious existence. Look closer at every microcurrent and you can find life, clinging like the crabs.

Finally, Tonjin relaxed, his breath mirroring the swell and surrender of the waves on shore in front of him, and his mind danced rhythms with the drips of moisture falling from the trees around, flowing with resilience like the swooping frog-birds above him. Alone in the endless back and forth; the eternal give-and-take. This is all there ever was, and all there ever will be. Tonjin heard one of his master’s voices inside his head.

Finally relaxed, Tonjin pulled his Ka back inside himself and focused. Time to find center.

Only in his body now, Tonjin continued to pull his awareness inward, back from his fleshy attachment – searching at his core for the Source. Behind the images created by his eyes, behind the darkness of his mental processes, further back, deeper there was nothing. A deep nothing – all of nothing – and further at center there was a beam of light. Source.

Finally, when Tonjin had drawn himself completely into the beam of light, let it engulf and transfix his awareness, then when he finally let go into it, he felt again as he had so many times before. The beam of light was already everywhere. The light was already encompassing every layer of life and chaos around him. It already projected from each plant – each fluttering butterfly-wasp – and reverberated from inside everything, there was nothing else. The Source was all around them, you only needed to tap inward to tap into it.

Tonjin breathed deep, his worries blinded by the beam of light he carried with himself. After sitting like this for the better part of an hour Tonjin’s awareness returned to his body. His mind felt purified, his dark thoughts burned by the light of the Source. Feeling better, Tonjin opened his eyes and smiled at two lion-otter pups wrestling in front of him on the shore. Everything would work out as it should, he thought, and left to prepare for the Challenge Ceremony.

---

On his way out of the garden Tonjin came upon two of the Grey delegates he had escorted earlier in the morning peering into the trees and talking softly to each other. Tonjin had studied Grey language since starting school, almost as expansively as their own language was taught. Even so, he wasn’t able to catch what they were saying before the Greys caught sight of him emerging from the woods.

One looked up and gestured to the other for silence. Both Greys stopped and stared at him, then gave bows and did hand gestures of respect and friendliness towards him.

That was strange, Tonjin thought to himself. The Greys’ behavior was starting to bother him; it was too suspicious. He would have thought more about it but then he saw her. Kota was making her way out of the gardens as well.

Tonjin’s heart jumped up into his throat. She had this effect on him every time he caught sight of her. He froze. It was so embarrassing.

There wasn’t a challenge the teachers put in front of him that Tonjin would back down from, but meeting Kota’s piercing gaze made him want to run away; not to anywhere in particular, just run. How pathetic, he thought to himself.

“Hey Tonjin!” said Kota, smiling at him.

Tonjin returned her smile then looked down nervously. Should I tell her now? No, wait until later, until after the ceremony. When we’re both Elite.

“You in there?” Kota asked, smiling at him.

“Oh yeah, I’m just a little nervous about the ceremony,” Tonjin said quickly.

“Yeah right!” Kota laughed. “You’re the best one of us, Tonjin! You’ll have no problem. I just hope I make it through. Peja would be so disappointed if we failed.” Peja was Kota’s Rothen pair.

“Oh, you’ll be great Kota, I know you will,” said Tonjin sincerely.

Kota gave him a funny look then turned away. “Well, I’ll see you…ouch.” Kota winced in surprise and slapped her arm. “That’s weird.” She said holding up her arm – a bug squashed on her forearm. “When did they add biting bugs into the garden?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure. Maybe they had to introduce a natural predator to fight back some encroaching bacta-maggots of some sort.”

“Encroaching bacta-maggots, huh.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“You’re really good at talking to girls, you know that, Tonjin?” Kota said, rolling her eyes at him.

Tonjin didn’t know that.

“Hey Kota?”

“Yeah?” She said, turning back toward him.

“Want to have a dance later at the banquet?” asked Tonjin, his voice a bit higher-pitched than he would have liked.

Kota looked up and to her left for a moment, then directly at him with a small smile.

“Sure.” Then she spun on her heel and walked quickly away.

Tonjin had only taken a few steps further when Hermes chirped at him from his wrist implant, “Sir, you have a message directly from the Empress, she would like you to meet her before the Challenge Ceremony.”

The Empress?! She had never spoken to Tonjin directly once, now she was requesting an audience before the Challenge. Tonjin knew this couldn’t be good, and that nudge of intuition in his chest that kept telling him something was terribly wrong pulsed a little stronger.

---

Lor Ship Logs

Entry Subject: Species – Rothen

Man’s best friend, the Rothen, evolved on the same mother planet, Rien, alongside Humankind. For a while, Humans and Rothen did not even know of each other’s existence. Their species first emerged on opposite sides of the planet and for many thousands of years they did not find each other, separated on two different continents with hemispheres of ocean in between. It’s been hypothesized that Rothen and Humans did at some point have a common ancestor. They have similar primate body structures, but Rothen are three to five times bigger than the average Human and covered in fur.

Besides the Mereyim, Rothen are the most naturally peaceful species in the known galaxy, but you could not tell it from looking at them. Massive and intimidating in countenance, Rothen are human shaped, but bulkier and much hairier. Like an earthly gorilla, but three times the size.

The Rothen’s response to their surroundings is as opposite to Humans as their location of evolution. Their Ka was of assimilation, stillness, cooperation, augmentation. When roused, a Rothen could be the most fearsome beast to behold in the galaxy. But that was not their natural way. Rothen seek to understand, to enrich and enliven their environment and with it, prosper.

Finally, after years of exploration, Humans – lead by the great King Gamesh – found the Rothen holding out in high mountain forests, isolated and alone in pockets of small villages, almost wiped out by the nightmarish predators that stalked them. As the Rothen had created more synchronicity in their world and their environment became more bountiful, so multiplied the grazing creatures of the world and, with them, their natural predators. The Rothen created a world where they could no longer compete, and their numbers were failing.

King Gamesh formed an alliance with the Eng Kidu of the Rothen. They gave aid to each other and were the first Human and Rothen pair. Through training, Humans could harness the Rothen’s Ka capabilities to augment their own power. And after centuries of learning from each other, they began to reshape their world to a level of fertility and bounty that would have been impossible through natural processes alone. Synchronicity was harnessed and applied and life flourished. Together, Humans and Rothen became the masters of their world.

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