“The stories were entertaining and interesting but I thought they were fiction.” She glanced over at Dalton. “But now we know the virtual world is real in its own way, right?”
Dalton didn’t say anything, not wanting to interrupt the thread her mind was unraveling.
“My mother told me the story of the Roma and of those the Roma came from. I promised her only to tell it to my own children, but I think it is important I tell you this now, given all that has happened. It might mean nothing, but-” She shrugged.
“What you tell us stays with us,” Dalton promised. He looked at Hammond and Barnes. “Right?”
Both nodded their agreement.
Jackson rubbed her palms over her eyes for a moment. “Mom-she said that the Roma were special. I told you earlier that the rest of the world calls us Gypsies because a long time ago it was believed we came from Egypt. But we actually came from India. Far northern India on the border with Tibet, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Even that place, though, wasn’t where we originated from. My mother told me that much at least, although where we came from before there, she could not-or would not-say. Other than to speak of a people called the Droza. I’ll get back to that in a moment, but let me work from what I know to what I’m guessing about.
“We-the Roma-were outsiders there, of different background from the others. Long before Hinduism swept through India and divided all the people into castes, my people were despised and threatened. We learned to survive by making ourselves useful. We made up a large part of the Ksnattriya-the warrior class. We fought and died for others, so much so that there were those among us who realized something had to be done.
“Some advocated rebellion. We were warriors after all. Others pointed out how terribly outnumbered we were and espoused escape. In the end, that was the decision that was made. The Roma left the lowlands and went into the mountains. They knew they had to find land no one else would want-someplace desolate and remote.
“They found the isolation they sought high in the Himalayas. They did such a good job finding what they were looking for that in just a few generations, there were few Roma left, given the harshness of the land. Then they met the Droza.
“Even my mother could not tell me if they were real. She told me about them as if it were only a story, a legend.” Jackson closed her eyes as she remembered. “In the high mountains of Kharta Changri the Droza came down from mountaintops. Our people ran and hid from them for a fortnight, but when it was clear that the strange ones meant no harm, our people came out of their caves.
“The Droza let my people know that they came from a special place they could not mention. And that they could not return from whence they came. They were trapped here. With my people, they built a new place to live. Their homes they hid underground, a great city called Agharti. The Roma were given a fertile valley hidden deep in the mountains near Kharta Changri called Shambhala.” Jackson opened her eyes, returning to the present. “I think this is where the modern legend of Shangri-la comes from.”
“What do the Droza have to do with the virtual plane?” Dalton asked, disturbed by this talk of creatures from the mountaintops and underground cities. He had traveled all over the world in his military career and seen many strange things, the Psychic Warrior program being foremost among them, but this was stretching the boundaries of reality too far. He immediately corrected that thought-he had no idea what reality was anymore.
Jackson searched her memory for the words her mother had told her. “The Droza were mostly like us, but different in some key ways. They had a strange power. Vril it was called. The power to see things that they could not see with their own eyes; to see places a long distance away. To know things that they should not have known. To see the thoughts of others. To see parts of the future. And they taught the Roma some of this. As much as my people could learn and do.
“The two groups intermarried until there was just one people-the Roma. Even with the help of the Droza, though, it was still a very harsh life in the mountains and food was scarce. The men wanted to launch raids to the south, but many feared this would bring enemies into the mountains to hunt us.
“While all this was happening, the women, who had for centuries stayed at home while the men went off to war, had been focusing their energies inward with the help of the Droza, into their own minds and souls, and they began to develop an ability that we now call being a psychic, working on the vril.
“The women saw a path out through the mind. Most of the men would have none of it. They were warriors and believed in the power of the body, of the sword. Except they swore they would never fight for anyone else ever again, but rather, would make others fight for them.
“This time the Roma fragmented and the parting was bitter. Most of the men, with some women, left to go to the west and gain power in the real world. Most of the women, with a few men among them, went even further into the Himalayas to dwell there, to perfect the path of the mind.
“A small segment, eschewing either path, scattered, determined never again to place down roots in land, but to preserve their sense of self in the group, not in the country they happened to be living in. This last group, the ones my mother drew her lineage from, are what you call the Gypsies.”
“And the other two groups?” Dalton asked. “What happened to them?”
“That, Sergeant Major, is a very good question. I think it might be possible that the one group that stayed in the high mountains of the Himalayas might still exist, might still be living in Shambhala, or Shangri-la, and it might be their spirits that we sense on the virtual plane at times. Or-” Jackson paused.
“Go on,” Dalton prompted.
“Or maybe we are sensing the Droza. If they ever did exist, then they still might. Maybe not all of them intermingled with the Roma. And the pure vril‘they have is the power to be on the virtual plane.”
Dalton checked the faces of the others who had listened to Jackson ’s story. Barnes was shaking his head, seemingly having none of it. Hammond looked thoughtful, which surprised him.
“If there are others on the virtual plane,” Jackson said, “they seem to mean us no harm.”
“As far as we know,” Dalton said. “And let’s remember that what we know is far outweighed by what we don’t know. Here’s the deal. We’ve been lied to, and we’re being used. I tend to look at those things in a negative light. Regardless of what’s out there in the virtual plane, we have a real problem here in the real world, right here in Bright Gate. Add in the fact that someone has planted a bug in Sybyl and has been monitoring the computer and I would say we have to be very careful. I think we need to make a plan to cover our butts in case something goes wrong.”
“What kind of plan?” Hammond asked.
“One of the first things we do in Special Forces when we plan a mission is make up an E & E plan,” Dalton said.
“ ‘E & E’?” Jackson asked.
“Escape and evasion,” Dalton said. “There’s an official one that we turn in to the commander taking our mission briefing just before we go, but we also make up a team-member-only plan that we have just in case we get abandoned.”
“A little paranoid, don’t you think?” Hammond said.
“I think we need to be getting paranoid,” Dalton said. “Don’t you? Or are you going to go with Kirtley? Do you trust him? You didn’t tell him about Barnes breaking off from the mission or what you learned from checking Sybyl, so I have a feeling you don’t feel very comfortable with Kirtley.”