The First Technomancer by G. Aliaksei C

Author:G. Aliaksei C. [C., G. Aliaksei]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B081CBV4YM
Goodreads: 48758456
Published: 2019-11-10T23:00:00+00:00

1 : Life on the Waste Ring

Day 32

“AHHHHHHH!”

“What the fuck!”

The head splitting scream launched me out of my bed. I tried to clasp my hands over my ears, only to realize the screaming was in my head. The barrel of the pistol I drew from under my pillow searched for a target, finding none. Unable to think through the noise I rushed out of my bunker, where, finally, the noise ceased.

“JIM!”

“Good morning Mr. Frost…”

“There’s something screaming in my bunker!”

“…Inna is on her way.”

By the time the Innkeeper arrived on my tank I had probed out the line where the screaming began, and its area of effect around my house. On the sand I drew out a map of the bunker, and triangulated the center of the issue. Suppressing the headache of the noise I turned to greet my savior.

Inna hopped off the tank a distance away and walked up to me.

“So, screaming grasshopper?” She beamed at me with a laughing smile.

“What?”

“Telepathic, screaming grasshopper.”

“That’s a grasshopper?”

Inna raised a notebook. The solid, weathered cover protected a thick set of discolored pages. On the cover, in neat handwriting, were the words “Anomaly Manual”.

“This is what you open when you encounter something that doesn’t make sense,” said the Lady of War.

I snatched the book, carefully flipping it open.

Wheat infestation.

In case of wheat infestation, look for flowers on the wheat mass. If flowers are not present, carpet-bomb the mass with high-temperature charges. Ensure the scorched area extends at least twenty meters past the edge of the mass. If flowers are present, cover the mass and any infested area with a one-way energy dome. Use masers to increase internal temperature to over four thousand degrees Celsius. Fracture the resulting mass with explosives and repeat the process. Monitor area for residue wheat infestation for at least thirty days.

I carefully closed the book and looked up with blank eyes.

“See,” explained Inna, “when wheat is planted on the Waste Ring, it reaches maturity and then rises into a multi-ton biomass. Overnight. This destroyed several outposts in the initial colonization of the Waste Ring.”

“This is… wheat? The stuff you grow for bread and flour?”

“That, and several alien equivalents. It’s very deadly.”

“So that’s why the sandwiches tasted weird…” The twenty questions in my head reassembled into a comprehensive list, ranked by importance. I picked the one that bothered me the most.

“I never figured something out. This isn’t written in any language I learned.” I waved the notebook. “So how can I read it?”

“The same way you understand aliens that don’t even use sound, the same way you understand their gestures. We all have a matrix in our heads that transmits what we mean to say and signal, and receives what others are saying and signaling to or near us. Every form of communications known - smell, radio, visual…”

Makes sense. Instead of translating words, the implant converts everything into meaning, injecting and transmitting it directly into our minds.

“And this,” - I knocked on the book’s cover - “this sort of thing happens often?”

“I would say you are rather lucky not to have encountered any until now.

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