Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Threads of fear hum through the Honeycomb on a continuous basis these days. Everyone is so scared. Telling them we’ve decided to consciously tear the PsyNet into pieces risks catastrophic panic.
—Message from Ivy Jane Zen, president, Empathic Collective, to Vasic Zen, Arrow (27 August 2083)
KALEB HAD ALWAYS thought he’d be the one at the center of the breakaway PsyNet island the Ruling Coalition had been planning since it became clear that the vast sprawl of the PsyNet was fragmenting at an unstoppable pace. He was the strongest, a dual cardinal who could hold the island together through brute power alone.
“That’s the problem,” Payal had pointed out during the decisive meeting where they’d agreed to this attempt. “We have only one Kaleb Krychek. For the plan to work, the psychic island has to be maintained by ordinary people.”
So here they were, about to gamble a hundred volunteer lives on the shoulders of those same volunteers. The group stood on a large football field where medics and empaths could monitor them with ease, and where their physical reactions could be recorded by multiple watchful cameras.
Others stood ready on the psychic plane, prepared to make note of every tiny fact.
Each volunteer had spent the past month interacting on the psychic plane with the others so that they could create a temporary net of their own if the separation from the main body of the PsyNet led to their complete fall from the network all Psy needed to survive. Lose the biofeedback and they’d die in a matter of minutes if not less.
There were no children in the experimental group. The risk was too high and children could not consent. Kaleb would’ve vetoed the idea had anyone floated it, but he’d forgotten that the Ruling Coalition was no Psy Council. For one, the President of the Empathic Collective was a member of the Coalition—Ivy Jane Zen’s mere presence meant certain things were simply off the table as a matter of course.
Today, he sent one last telepathic message: I am linked to all of you, and can literally throw you back into another part of the PsyNet if the experiment fails. Do not panic.
Their agreement was a murmur of voices at the back of his mind. And maybe it was Sahara’s influence, but he found himself following up what should’ve been his final statement with: You should be proud of your courage. Today, you fight for the survival of our very people.
Because if the PsyNet failed with no alternative in sight, the vast majority of Psy would die. It was that simple.
The people in the field stood straighter at his words.
Brace, he warned, then began his task: to deliberately isolate the solid area of the PsyNet to which the volunteers were linked. It didn’t take much energy—he and the others had chosen this section for the experiment because it was a single undamaged piece surrounded by thin patches prone to failure.
The medics sent him continuous updates as he worked, as did Payal on behalf of the anchor responsible for this region.
Stable.
Stable.
Stable.
Kaleb cut the island’s final link to the PsyNet, and was almost at the point of believing it would work when a shout went up from multiple M-Psy: Physical collapse! Neural shutdown in progress! Activate emergency procedure!
Kaleb was ahead of them, had already wrenched the experimental group into another part of the Net—one that remained connected to the larger whole, for all that the whole was badly damaged.
Status?
Stabilizing rapidly, was the response of the head medic. They didn’t lose their connection to their piece of the PsyNet at any time, so I don’t know why their brains began to shut down. Not enough biofeedback perhaps?
That can’t be it, Kaleb said, not when the LaurenNet was much smaller. He’d asked Judd’s permission before sharing the full details of the Lauren family’s successful defection from the PsyNet.
“Share it if it helps,” the other man had said after quickly confirming with the other adults involved. “We understand the consequences if you can’t figure out a solution to the collapse.”
Annihilation.
Millions of minds dead, ninety-nine percent of the Psy race erased from the planet.
The reminder of his discussion with Judd made him reconsider their plan. A hundred was the wrong place to start, he telepathed Payal. We need to begin small, and work our way up to the maximum viable number.
Possible. But the more we fragment, the less certain I am that my anchors can service these islands. The LaurenNet had no anchor, but was heavily skewed toward high-Gradients—including a cardinal. I was hoping we’d balance that out with the larger group.
Kaleb had hoped the same. We need to try regardless.
Agreed. But we need to check with Ivy Jane on the advised recovery period for the volunteers.
The answer was two weeks.
I know it’s a long time with the increased degradation of the Net, the empath said, but this definitely won’t work if our volunteers are exhausted.