Adrian saw a light on the band attached on the Sowir’s head go from green to red, and then over the next few minutes he watched as she woke. First, she moved slowly, as if she was still asleep, but the restraints prevented much movement. With every moment that passed, Adrian felt something else. Like a noise, a presence that he could see not with his eyes, but with his mind. A shiver passed over him. In some ways, it felt like the sphere’s beacon, only this one wasn’t distracting him. The beacon had been focused on him, a call, Adrian had realized. This was simply there. It felt similar to how it felt when he was in a room with someone but didn’t see them. He knew that they were there because his senses told him they were. Actually, it was exactly like that; his telepathic sense was telling him that there was someone with him in the room with the same ability.
“I can feel her,” he said over his imp both to Seo-yun and Iris.
“Can you speak with her?” Iris asked.
“She is not fully awake yet,” Adrian said, convinced that he was right. He could feel the presence grow. Then, as consciousness returned, he could see the moment the Sowir realized that she was restrained, because she stilled. Her small all-black eyes opened and probably saw him.
For a while, nothing happened, and Adrian just stood there looking at her. Then he felt the Sowir reach out to his mind. It was nothing like what he’d imagined it would be. As soon as she made contact, he felt her shock, longing, and joy. It surprised him, threatened to overwhelm him, and he felt as his telepathy cut her off, throwing her out. He had acted on instinct.
“Are you alright, Adrian?” Iris asked.
“Yes… It overwhelmed me for a moment, but I threw her out on instinct,” Adrian said.
“She tried to take over your mind?” Iris asked, alarmed.
“No, no,” he said quickly. “I think that she was just surprised, like me.”
“You want to continue?” Iris asked.
“Yes,” he answered.
Now that he had seen how she’d reached out, he tried to do the same. The Sowir had retreated back, her eyes open, watching him. He tried to use telepathy to reach to her, but it proved harder than he’d thought it would be. He sighed in frustration. “Can you do it again?” he said in Nel, knowing that it was likely that the Sowir understood the language.
For a few moments, nothing happened, and then he felt a presence on his mind again. Only this time it was more controlled. Then, again on instinct, he tried to reach out. He felt something change, like he made a connection.
“Hello?”Adrian tried to say. When she didn’t immediately respond, he prepared to try again, but was interrupted by a voice in his head.
“Who are you?” he heard in his head. Caught a bit off guard with the clarity of communication, Adrian took a moment to compose himself, and then he answered.
“My name is Adrian Farkas, I am leader of Warpath Clan of the Empire,” he sent, deciding to go with a more professional exchange.
“I am Clear Waters,” she returned, and Adrian got an impression of an immense body of water that was completely clear and pristine. She then continued. “How are you speaking with me? I see no device. But your Empire is devious in its advances. Perhaps something like your implants?” she asked.
“No implants. I am speaking the same way you are. Through telepathy.”
“That is not possible, your kind do not possess it. What is the purpose of this?”
“We did not possess it, true. But we have evolved. I am the first to have awakened this ability. More will follow,” Adrian sent. Clear Waters remained silent; he could feel that they were still connected. But somehow he knew that the connection was small, only for the purpose of communicating. He was certain that if he wished, and knew how, he could push further and read her mind. He allowed her time to think, and waited silently until she decided to speak again.
“How are you mimicking a connection to the Spirit of the Universe?” she asked, and Adrian could feel her unease.
“What do you mean?” He tried to feel around him, to try and see what she was talking about, only to fail.
“You do not appear closed off, like the rest of your kind, like all other races that we have encountered. You have an imprint and connection to the Spirit of the Universe,” she sent.
“Can you explain to me what you mean? I don’t understand.” Adrian asked.
She deepened the connection, and showed him what she meant from her perspective, showed him how she saw him. Adrian immediately recognized what she was talking about; he had been familiar with it for some time. What she had shown him was what the People called a telepathic echo. He could feel her reverence for what she believed to be some higher unifying force. Yet the People had believed the same thing to be nothing more than ambient noise.
He looked at what she called the connection to the Spirit of the Universe, what the People knew as simple telepathic feedback, feeding into the echo that existed everywhere in the universe.
But to the Sowir, it was so much more. Adrian could imagine how it had happened. From early in their development, they’d had telepathy; they could always sense the echo. Unlike the People, who had added telepathy to themselves after they had encountered it in a lower lifeform—after they had enhanced and improved it—the Sowir had evolved with it. And they had no mechanism to tune the noise out. And for a race that had evolved deep in the oceans, it made sense that they’d looked for answers to their existence. And it had been there, always in the background. They’d interpreted it as a force of creation, the same way as the early humans had looked at the sun, the moon, and the stars and had seen gods.
“I can feel it too,” Adrian sent slowly, showing her how he saw it, taking great care to keep his opinions to himself.
“That is impossible,” she sent shakily. “We couldn’t have been wrong.”
“You told us that you believe that only those that are connected to the Spirit of the Universe are true beings. And that you fought against other intelligent races because they weren’t true beings, according to your belief, at least,” Adrian sent forcefully. “But you never entertained the possibility that we could eventually evolve to the point where we could make a connection.”
“It never entered our thinking that you could one day become true beings. That we would not be alone,” Clear Waters sent, and Adrian could feel a river of emotions and thought go by too fast for him to identify them. But the stream calmed and he could feel her horror and shame. “We made a mistake.”
Adrian took a few steps closer, looking up at the taller Sowir, and yet he could feel her being intimidated. He locked his eyes with hers. “You did. Every life that you took was precious. Your belief might be wrong or it might be right; it is not on me to judge a belief. But you should not have taken it upon yourselves to wipe out other intelligent life just because they were different than you. But there is still time for you to help save lives. My people are about to start the last offensive against your kind. We will win. And if you force us, we will wipe you out completely.”
Emperor’s palace
Tomas Klein, ruler of the Empire, sat in his small office with three other people. Two of which were currently sitting on one of his couches, cowering under the wrath of Fleets Master Laura Reiss.