A Simple Truth

© 2008 by Albert Ball.
All rights reserved.

All characters appeari
ng in this work are fictitious.

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

1
   
A
wakening

Chattaka's fear of the darkness was absolute.  The prospect of enduring again that torment was unthinkable, the memory was a nightmare.  If ever a being had the will to live it was Chattaka, for the alternative was immeasurably worse than death.

Yet
,
in the far distant past
,
there had been a time when da
rkness was of no concern to her,
a
time
when all she knew was darkness.  It was
a
time when she had no knowledge of sight, of sound, of pleasure or pain.  These things were part of the material world, a world that for her did not exist.  Her world was a world of the mind, her own mind, a world where nothing happened, nothing changed, a world where there was consciousness and nothing else.  But even the fact of her own consciousness was hidden from her.  Her mind held no thoughts.  She was without experience of any kind, and a being without experience is without thought.

For how long she had drifted there was no way of knowing.  It was not important.  What was important was the instant of awakening.  She remembered well that instant.  She remembered too the shock that had reverberated through her being like a bomb blast.

She could see.

At first she could not comprehend this strange and terrifying experience but from that moment on there was no going back.  Her state of nothingness was irrevocably lost.  Sights, sounds, sensations of all kinds flooded her mind.  Movement,
hunger, pain, heat, anger, fear;
all these things were suddenly a part of her.  Like a new-born animal she struggled to adjust to her new circumstances, and within a remarkably short time had taken what was for her the equivalent of her first few faltering steps.

She learned quickly and forgot nothing.  In the space of only a few
months
she understood her surroundings better than the creature whose mind she now shared.  There was so much suffering, so much waste.  Starvation, disease and death were everywhere.  Always there was hunger; hard, cold, gnawing hunger
, and hunger's close companions;
conflict, violence and fear.

It was her urgent desire to help that led to disaster.  Her mind was more powerful by far than that of the poor creature to whom she had become mysteriously joined, and it was easy to overrule its demands.  The creature's body responded to Chattaka's will and for a while she was able to direct events towards a more promising future.  But tragically she understood only the external world; she had neglected to study the nature of her host.  With a little more sensitivity perhaps she might have heeded the signs, but by the time she was aware of something amiss it was too late.  The poor dominated creature, tortured by its sudden and irreversible impotence, had lost the will to live.  Desperately Chattaka fought to save the situation but to no avail.  The creature that had unwittingly given her life died in misery, and left her in darkness once more.

She had plenty of time to reflect on her mistakes.  There were no distractions now.  She came to understand many things that she should have understood earlier.  Knowledge was hers but the power to act was gone.  Trapped inside her own mind, all access to the outside wor
ld lost, she remained tormented,
locked in a perpetual state of self recrimination.  She lamented the poor creature whose death she had so carelessly caused.  The creature whose name and identity she had assumed for herself, for she knew no other.  She lamented the suffering of her friends and the family she had grown to love; there was so much she could have done for them.  But most of all she lamented her own plight.  The knowledge of what she had lost was unbearable.  But bear it she must, there was no way out.

Then, miraculously, after what seemed like an eternity, there came a second chance.  Her mind merged with a remote descendent of the same species, which by another miracle had managed to survive.  This time she trod very carefully.  Her experience had taught her wisdom.  This time she studied her host, observed the operation of its mind, watched and learned, learned and remembered.  She explored her own abilities, gently and carefully feeling her way, testing her strength, discovering what she could and could not safely do.  She found that the creature's conscious mind was merely the visible fraction of a much greater whole.  She became captivated by the deeper mental levels and watched them working, marvelling at the extent of control exercised over every aspect of the creature's life.  Through its mind she came to understand how its body functioned, how tissues grew, how movement was controlled, how a million other intricate functions operated, and all under the direction of the all-powerful mind.  There seemed to be no limit to the mind's domain.  Each and every component of the body was continuously monitored in complete detail; nothing ever happened that the mind was not instantly aware of.  And where the mind had access, she had access.  She studied the strange link between herself and her host, and in time identified those characteristics that had allowed it to develop.

Suddenly
, in a flash of deep insight,
she saw the potential of her knowledge.  All the separate and unconnected bits of information came together to form a complete picture, and the implications both exhilarated and frightened her.  She, Chattaka, could herself intervene in the operation of the creature's subconscious mind.  She could direct the construction of the reproductive cells, and it was just possible that she could secure the birth of offspring with mental characteristics compatible with her own mind.  She was overcome with excitement and hope.  Now she had a purpose, she could really work towards a very definite goal.  She was now more than just fascinated by how the mind and body functioned; she had a direct and deep personal involvement.

For years she laboured, tirelessly and tenaciously studying every aspect of cell fabrication and trait codification.  She experimented and theorised, tried and erred, time and again.  Eventually her perseverance was rewarded and success was hers.  The future stretched ahead endlessly; through her children she had achieved immortality.

For countless thousands of years she nurtured and cared for her flock, and in response they prospered and multiplied.  With delight and devotion she watched as they evolved and grew in wisdom and strength, and as they grew her aspirations grew also.  Through them
she studied every living thing to which her children had access.  She even
sought out and
assisted in the evolution of other beings. 
Always she acted with the utmost care, discreetly observing and learning, never directly interfering, never allowing the slightest reason for fear, alarm or suspicion.  She
dared to conceive of a harmonious future, when, with her help and guidance, all conscious minds everywhere would share all knowledge and understanding.  All would unite in a universal family, each member an individual, yet an integral part of the whole.  The future was sec
ure
,
her children were thriving
,
life was very sweet indeed.

***************

Things were very different now.  Now she had encountered the evil ones. 
B
eings
who
were without scruple in ex
tending their power and control;
who used their remarkable ingenuity and single-minded determination to subordinate and domina
te all that were of use to them
.  They were clever and devious,
they were beings
for whom cunning and stealth, deceit and betrayal, were as natural as breathing.  Beings
of
such
nature, in her naivety, she could never have
imagined
.  These were people whose very presence represented a threat to stability and order.  The fact that they existed at all was a shattering revelation to her.  A revelation that forced her to realise that they could not be alone, that there must also
be
others
, perhaps many others,
with similar
ly nasty
and dangerous
characteristics.

With a sickening clarity she came to realise that
such
beings had within their soul the potential to infest and tyrannise the universe.

She
knew that she would have t
o encounter them again,
b
ut next time she would be
better
prepared. 
Next time she would act directly, bring about a confrontation, but on her own terms. 
By then she would understand the basis of their evil nature, and she would counter it with her own powers of subtlety and deceit.  By then she would have developed the tools to neutralise their relentless drive towards
complete mastery
,
to neutralise it
in them and in any others that a perverse evolution had allowed into existence.

But she was so vulnerable.  Who knew what powers the evil ones could bring to bear against her?  Theirs was no sharing philosophy, no matter how abundant the riches.  She knew that she had to stop them, and knew also that failure meant oblivion, for there was
no possibility of compromise.

Above all,
and at any cost,
she must conceal
both herself and
her knowledge from them.

2
   
Mendeleev
O
bservatory,
F
arside

If there was one thing that Arthur Lincoln hated it was being awakened after only an hour's sleep.  He knew the reason would in all probability be a good one, but that knowledge did nothing to dispel the intense resentment that he now felt towards a young and very agitated Sergio Baldoni.

"What's the matter
?"
h
e snarled.

"A message from Jack Arnold
,
" began Sergio nervously.  "There's been a message from Jack Arnold."

"Arnold sends messages all the time for pity's sake
,
" broke in Lincoln.

"Yes, but he says that some radio signals have been received from Procyon."

"Oh
?
"
s
aid Lincoln, curiosity overcoming some of his aggressiveness.

"Yes a message from Procyon in plain English and it's been repeated over and over."

Lincoln propped himself up on one elbow and sighed.  He could see what had happened now.  Poor Sergio, he was as sincere as could be, but someone who knew his reaction to being awakened was playing a joke on the unsuspecting newcomer.  It was surprising though that he had been taken in by so childish a trick.  "Who sent you down here?"

"Dag Fransson, and if you're not interested then that's fine, but I am
,"
he retorted in a sudden burst of indignation and then left before Lincoln could say more.