Outsider

[Laowai]

Continued......


He sat in the crystal chamber, the machine he had constructed over years sitting before him.
It looked like nothing. A collection of metal lined wiring an in box, swirling outwards and then congealing in a single point at the centre, surrounding a small orifice that looked built to hold something. Within this, small connection points, ultra-fine and barely visible to the eye lined its interior, each of them emitting a beam of light no more than a microscopic fraction of a measurement beyond itself.
Yet he knew it worked, he knew it was able to interface with the very specific technology that would sit within it.

He opened the container he always carried and took out the purplish crystal within, placing it carefully into an opening in the crystal walls, in his hand, he held another. The voice within his mind asked the question:

*** What does it do? ***

He smiled, saying nothing but thinking the answer *** its just a test, I know it can hear them, receive this kind of communication, I want to know if it can be manipulated the same way***

He had already boosted the receiving power of his own crystal by a vast amount, and barely a month ago, hed heard her for the first time, outside this system, whilst resting in quarters on Leon. This revelation alone had been a joy, amazement. But this was now a test of something else.

*** Ill place your crystal here *** he thought, and looked at the opening in the machine, *** and I want you to turn on the lights on its outside ***.

*** Thats it? *** Her voice appeared again *** turn on lights it seems like... nothing? ***

Laowai knew the test was small, yet if she was able to interface with this, most limited of technology it opened up possibilities that he now only dared consider. *** Youve been able to exert your will on things in the past *** he thought back to her.

*** But that was on people, and I wasnt. *** she paused *** like this, I wasnt dead***

He looked about him. He wished it was the time of the year he could see her, persuading her to try, to risk this would be so much easier if he was able to look her in the eye, touch her.
That was not this time however, but it still had to be tried.
*** This is no different*** he thought back *** this thing amplifies your ability to communicate through the crystal, I think it could do more ***
*** You want to see if I can control a machine *** she came back at him; he sensed immediately her feelings and the images that came with it. She had understood then that there was more to this than turning on lights, more than curiosity.

*** Yes*** he thought ***I want to take you out of here ***

He felt her emotion recoil. This sensation never ceased to amaze him, to feel emotions, real and tangible yet completely outside himself and disembodied. It was something a person could never realty get used to. *** I cannot leave! *** She came back at him *** I cant! If anything happens I will cease to exist! ***

Ben knew that she could move herself into her crystal and no where else. He had discovered this some years ago when she had accidentally done exactly that whilst he was trying to engage his own crystal with the chamber. He had knocked hers from its interface and it fell to the floor - her presence in the virtual reality that was created when they joined every 6 months immediately vanished. He only found her again when he detached himself and picked up her crystal, reinserting it in to the wall.

*** There is no danger, not in this room, not here *** he thought, calming his emotions as much as he could so that she would feel them.

*** Its not here Im worried about *** she thought back, *** its what could happen if this works ***

He understood her trepidation. In this chamber the Corsairs of Tangier had found a way to cheat death, to live in an altered state essentially forever, as far as they knew. By even allowing her to reside purely within her crystal, he risked that.
He could not risk losing her, he would not. It was why he had not suggested this these thirty odd years. But now, he had the position, the power, and the wealth to do something - and more importantly, his experiments on the technology, so expertly tested by his sister without her even knowing had proved fruitful. Thus, he was convinced the risk was minimal, almost negligent, he just needed to know if this could work.

*** There is no risk, here, now, in this room *** he thought *** it will just stay here and now, for now ***

She felt his determination, his stubbornness, and behind that, his utter conviction that this small step alone, held no danger. She felt misgivings, he felt her misgivings, she was worried, and he felt her worries. But behind the shadow of doubt she felt his hope, burning like a distant sun on everything she now feared could transpire - and she trusted him, implicitly, knew his mind beyond any level a flesh and blood human being could, and knew he believed in this.
She willed herself to inhabit nothing but the small crystal she was bound to which lay within its space in the wall. He tenderly lifted it in his hand and placed it into the interface on the machine, its opening designed exactly to match the shape and spacing of the crystal.

He watched it, feeling nothing now that she was not in the room and he was not touching the crystal. It felt strange in this place, to not hear her thoughts and feel her emotions. A flicker of doubt crossed his mind, a moment of sheer terror when he realised that if something were to happen to that crystal whilst she was in it alone, he would lose her forever.
Then the miracle happened before his eyes. The small diodes on the side of the machine he had placed for this exact purpose lit up.
Slowly at first, like a light switch with a fader being turned up gently, then brighter, brighter, and brighter again - he started transfixed as they reached their pinnacle of illumination and then suddenly and loudly in the otherwise silent room exploded with a pop and a splattering of broken glass and smoke.
He quickly retrieved the crystal, the moment his hands touched it he heard her *** it worked, but they were small, they couldnt hold me, I told them to be bright I think I broke them ***

He could feel her excitement, beside her doubts what she had done shocked even her. Placing the crystal back in its opening he felt her surround him again within the room instantly *** you did break it my love, but it doesnt matter, it worked, it really worked, you could interface and control the machine ***

*** What does that mean? *** She thought back it him, her excitement evident through her feelings but within that feeling he felt her uncertainty.

*** possibilities *** he thought *** infinite possibilities***

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