Often Agilia, most senior of the three TELREC Monitors, would think on all that she was responsible for.
So much depends on us. On Mal. If not for our guidance over these eight thousand cas, there would be no Cuhli-pra, no order on Novan, and the Rell likely would rule over us all.
She leaned back in her chair, a chair slight and thin, with hidden gravimetric balancing tools. One of the finest engineering creations for personal use, the body hovered inches off the surface, and in extreme comfort. All of the Monitors possessed one, as they spent most of their roas sitting, reviewing summations of the billions of reports generated by the daily chronicles. All the TELREC agents in existence were at their immediate disposal, and no one except the meta-sentient computer called Mal was above them. Agilia would not have appreciated that she shared something like a favorite chair with her Rell counterpart, Uonil.
^Still no sign from Mal?^
^No, Agilia. The same as yesterroa,^ cast a young man sitting across from her.
Agilia was becoming increasingly agitated. Though it was part of the TELREC philosophy, part of their religion, to obey absolutely the commands of Mal, Agilia was anxious about Kolob. While agents reported on his every movement, there was still the element of chance, the chaos that was souman life that could somehow infect or alter Kolob. The TELREC took great care to raise their Cuhli-pra to be weak and absolutely malleable in their hands, and did not want anything to disturb that.
^I think we need to act.^ She tried to conceal her anxiety and indecision, but didn’t quite succeed.
Reltan, the youngest among them, surfaced from his surveillance assessments, and turned to Agilia. ^We have no directive from Mal to do such a thing.^
^Mal has not cast not to,^ Agilia replied.
Reltan sighed. ^That is poor logic, and beneath us.^
^We should consult Mal,^ cast Suldhaj, an older man with the beginning of a bloom of wrinkles on his face. An experienced TELREC agent, he had the most field time between the three of them. He wasn’t promoted to Monitor until later in his life, a fact that sometimes caused Agilia to pause in her management of him.
^We all know what Mal’s decision would be,^ cast Agilia. ^It would be the same as it has always been; ‘trust in me, and the future. Take no action.’^
^We should take no action.^ Reltan sat forward in his chair, engaging Agilia. Always the absolute believer, he said or did little that went against the commands of Mal. He had almost no sense of humor, and was always quite hard on new agents, and unforgiving of the mistakes of older ones. Agilia often hoped he would mellow with age, but he was still possessed with a brash, youthful temper and arrogant demeanor. ^Mal created the Grand Chaos Equation, the principle upon which our whole civilization is based. Mal has predicted with absolute certainty countless occurrences over the past eight thousand cas. Who are we to question Mal? Who are we to have doubt in Mal’s wisdom?^
^We cannot afford not to,^ she countered, projecting images of recent events to him. ^The Rell have been too quiet. Conflicts between our peoples have been infrequent, lower than the average for the past three hundred cas. They know our Cuhli-pra is maturing, and will soon Ascend. Who are we to question Mal?^ she asked rhetorically. ^We do not question Mal. We merely do what is in the best interests of the TELREC. That is our mission, our purpose in life.^
Suldhaj thought for a moment, as he was always the one to mediate disagreements between Agilia and Reltan. He was used to it — he was a father of three children, children Agilia knew always bickered and fought. ^I still don’t understand why we have left Kolob free. We should have imprisoned him, taken him into custody the moment he was born. We allow too much to chance, letting him roam free.^
^You know Mal’s thoughts on this,^ cast Agilia. ^Kolob must never resent our presence. He must see us as necessary, the only ones who can bring order to the Novan culture. If we were to keep him isolated, no matter how benevolently, he would resent us and yearn for freedom. He has it now, and every roa he grows more and more miserable.^
^You know how many other Monitors have paid the price for assuming they knew what was best?^ asked Reltan. ^We must stay the course, put into action only what Mal asks us to.^
Agilia, who was usually loathe to give up a fight, persisted. ^If Mal merely wanted commands executed flawlessly, there would be three meta sitting in these chairs instead of three soumans. Mal put us here for a reason. We are to augment Mal’s instruction with our intuition, with our souman decisions. We must take the chance, when it is called for, to solve problems in ways machines would not think of.^
She stood, and paced the floor of the Nexus, her thick sienna robes swirling around her. A thick mahogany, her reflection in red followed close behind her, giving even more depth to an already spacious room. The Nexus of Mal was situated in the uppermost point of a voidship named the Ehlios. The Ehlios was a testament to ancient TELREC engineering, filled with technology the likes of which no Novan had ever seen. And the technology in the Ehlios paled in comparison to the true miracle of the TELREC, the sentient sun called Mal.
The Ehlios orbited Mal, the lone supplicant to its radiance. It was the closest object to Mal, and had been in orbit for four millennia. Mal itself was enclosed by a great toroid; the initial mechanism that created Mal’s nuclear core, that funneled Mal’s consciousness into the solar plasma. The sun that was Mal spun at a ferocious rate, with solar plumes often spilling out through the openings in the toroid. No one who was not TELREC knew of the true nature of Mal. Any Rell would gladly sacrifice a thousand lives to learn of Mal’s exact location, learn of Mal’s true nature, while a million TELREC would die to keep its location secure.
Surrounding the sentient sun and the orbiting Ehlios, two hundred platforms formed a sphere in its orbit. To all outward appearances it looked as a moon until one came close and could see the sunlight peering through the separations between the platforms. As the Ehlios housed the Monitors, and their families, so the sphere of Malhrer housed most TELREC assigned to administrative or Extra-Novan activities. It was a great privilege to look upon the sphere of Malhrer, a greater privilege to see inside, and behold the miracle of the sentient sun.
The Nexus of Mal was built almost in defiance to the technology that surrounded it. Wooden floors, animal-skin chair coverings, even potted plants inhabited this room and most other souman living quarters on the Ehlios. Each room was spacious, conveying a feeling of freedom, of luxury instead of isolation. Brass, copper, and other archaic materials adorned every room, reward for the agents that called that ship home. The families that lived on the Ehlios lived there permanently and couldn’t imagine another home. Reltan and Suldhaj had their families on the Ehlios, and from their families would inevitably come more agents. Agilia thought of them now, thought of their deaths should she and the other Monitors displease Mal. She knew of Monitors past who challenged or disputed Mal’s authority and experience, whose whole families paid for their insubordination.
^Mal is not a machine,^ stated Reltan, his eyes like cold nails, precise and focused. ^Mal is Holis. All seeing, all knowing. We cannot second-guess Mal.^
^This is too important,^ countered Agilia. ^We should send an agent to retrieve Kolob. It is too close to the Ascension. Mal has given us possible times for Rellcist attacks. We should not wait. At the very least, we can do a thorough mental scan, to determine if there are any abnormalities. The Rell will not sit idly by. Their Kal-Alçon has already assumed command of their operations on Novan. We have all seen the irregularities in chronicle. It points to a Rell base on Novan. Until we find it, we must be ever vigilant, and take every precaution.^
She sat down and relaxed in her chair, her thick burnt sienna and gold robes flowing over the sides. She looked long at one of the three pillars surrounding their area, gleaming gold in the soft light. Inscribed in those pillars was the original code that created Mal, inscribed so small it was impossible for the souman eye to see. The pillars were forty feet high, supporting a glittering blue dome above. Bel
ow them lay Mal’s auxiliary central processing chamber — the sphere of Mal — where thousands of TELREC and meta maintained his hardware, should any problem happen with the toroid that surrounded Mal. Above them rest the locus of Mal, a chamber in which Mal would cast to the Monitors and hold bands of energy that were his consciousness.
Sometimes, when Agilia looked deep enough into those pillars of the original code of Mal, she felt she was closer to Mal, could understand Mal’s divine purpose. She looked now for that enlightenment, but found it was not coming. Lately she had dreams, dreams like she hadn’t had since she was a child. For some reason, she thought of the past, when Rell and Novans were united as the ancient Iqui. She dreamt of them smiling, as a Holis, looking down upon her, lightly laughing as if she was a child. Yet she knew how the world looked in Iquitian times, and it looked nothing like in her dream. She couldn’t tell if it was the past, present, or future. One of them would cast to her.
^Time-Line Reconstructionist? Hmmph. I remember those. How small we once were.^
No! She would scream in reply. We are TELREC! We have ruled Novan for nine thousand cas, and will forever!
They would smile at her, and gently laugh. ^We are now Overmen.^
She always woke screaming for Mal, begging for guidance, yet seeing only the kind faces of the Iqui, surrounded in a light that could only have been divine in origin. It was on nights like those, when her pillow was wet with sweat, her hands shaking with a fear thick and unknown, that she looked next to her, and hated seeing no one there, hated seeing a bed with no impression, no memory of another body, just the cold expanse of a sheet unwrinkled and unused.
^Well, Suldhaj. What cast you?^
Suldhaj was being groomed to take Agilia’s place. A unique man, he was a product of the most recent selection. Agilia personally supported his selection, looking for balance between herself and Reltan. The outgoing Monitor, Onam, commented to her that the selection was getting thinner, time after time. Onam was an old man, who outlived many groups of Monitors before him. While others died of old age or paid for their mistakes with their lives, Onam was to be honored by Mal with retirement; to live a life on Topside with his family. Agilia thought on him often, as he always knew the right course, struck a balance between being proactive yet heedful of the word of Mal.
I fear I am the poorer without your counsel, Onam.
Onam never begrudged her position — Mal’s decision to make her the lead, with only two cas as a Monitor, when she was only twenty-one. She was a special case herself; the only Monitor to ever be personally selected by Mal. She never knew why Mal favored her, as she found out quickly it was best not to ask too many questions of Mal. She was young, eager, and terrifically scared of the faceless entity she must spend every roa with. She didn’t have many friends, but what few she had deserted her after her promotion. ^To know of Holis is one thing, but to know Holis, is quite another,^ Onam would tell her. He always urged her to take a mate, and have a family, before it was too late. After fifty-two cas, she was beginning to feel it was well past too late.
^Does Mal know we are having this cesct?^ Suldhaj cast as he looked at her with anxious eyes, tapping the side of his chair with his fingers, a habit that continually annoyed Reltan and Agilia. But he held great sentiment towards his family, and was continually worried the wrong mistake could end their lives.
^Do you mean do you think Mal foretold it?^ asked Agilia.
^Yes.^
The Monitors often questioned major decisions in this way. They believed Mal had absolute prescience, and as such, knew in advance decisions made by them. If Mal did not want those things done, they believed Mal would have cast something.
^Since we have nest nothing from Mal,^ ventured Agilia, with growing confidence, ^we must either assume this is the correct action, or that it in some way fits into Mal’s master blueprint of how things are to be. Agreed?^
^Agreed.^
^Agreed Reltan?^ asked Agilia, now appearing as the lead Monitor that she was.
Reltan thought for a moment. ^Agreed. Why not have Rhonva bring him in?^
Agilia went to the window through which Mal could be seen. The toroid stood as thick black lines on the surface of the sun, almost seeming to restrain the terrible force within. She never drew comfort from looking on Mal as the sentient sun, though most other TELREC did. To Agilia he appeared as a terror in that manifestation, a being with power never before dreamed of. Even as she watched, a great solar plume rushed towards the Ehlios, rocking her back and forth as its shielding absorbed and deflected the plume’s energy.
Am I sure? I risk much by committing to this. I have never had to face the wrath of Mal. And I know I would never want to.
^That would identify Rhonva to Kolob as a TELREC, when we may still have use for his cover. Use Listras. And may Mal have mercy upon us.^
Chapter 9