Unholy Star, Beyond Faith

Bastian's w̶i̶r̶e̶d̶ weird family

Auger - Augmented human. Technologically enhanced individuals that use bionic processors, sensors, and/or mechanics to augment their natural characteristics and abilities. Accepted as a de facto subclass of human, the augers are found in all galactic regions and are born members of the various states, nations, organisations, and independent colonies. All augers are subject to the galactic treaty of supra excedo, which limits the extent of augmentation such that devices and mechanics must be contained within the natural extent of the human body. Further, the supra excedo specifies that the heart organ must not be modified in any way. The augers are organised by the Order of the Augi. All augers share universal access to the nextwork.

[Halls of learning, Qura Amara, the living platform]

"Bast? Bast, are you in there?" The boy auger heard Sen call from outside of his room. But he was unable to respond. The synchronisation routines of the nextwork had grabbed his body, so he was unable to respond or even move. "I'm here Sen!" he called out in his mind, unable to even vocalise the message. More, while attached to the nextwork, augers were detached from the Galactic Network, the two systems were sandboxed from each other, and mutually independent; this meant that in his current state couldn't even create a message thread to his friend.

He waited eagerly for Sen to knock again, to call his name. But she had given up and, no doubt, gone to play on her own. He had been comforted by her just being there, now he was alone.

The Order had given him instructions to meditate on upgrade specifications while idling in synchronization, but the twelve-year-old couldn't see the point of it and so refused the exercises. He was, however, free to explore the environment, a virtual world created ages ago by the mind augments, as a place for the radical and most ancient of the augers to live, rather than in their own physical environments. But, the place scared him, not only the seemingly infinite scope but also the people he had only glimpsed there: Boogiemen, he called them. He reached out to his brother, Maximal, the only other Auger that he knew personally, and even though he was half a galaxy away, was still contactable via the nextwork, but his brother had become too used to his baby brother's constant contact requests and had set his status on perpetual busy, flagging emergencies only.

Unable to even fidget, Bast's boredom was like a mega-itch unable to be scratched. This is why he welcomed the thread request, even though it was from an unnamed stranger. He scanned her profile; she was pretty and seemed important. He accepted the thread.

The woman materialised before him and Bast gulped. She was beautiful; He had seen beautiful women before. Xe' ed was pretty, Het was pretty, but this woman was a different beautiful.

"Hello, Bastian."

OMG! Her teeth are on fire, blue fire! "Hi." Whispered the boy.

"Do you mind if I sit down?" She patted a space at the end of his bed on which he sat cross-legged.

"Sure. That's okay." He felt the end of the bed dip slightly as she sat. He wanted to ask her about her teeth. To anyone without his visual enhancements, the teeth would have been dancing with purple-blue energy. To him, with built-in spectral analysis capabilities forming part of his natural perceptions of the world, her mouth, even in this avatar form, was alive with mystery. He had to know why.

"I bet you have some questions? Like who am I, or, why am I here, or..."

"...Why are your teeth flashing like that?" splurted Bast, then realised that he had interrupted. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise. We can start with my teeth if you like."

Bast nodded.

"You know how there are traditions and laws that prevent us from extending our abilities beyond outside of our bodies. We need to think of all kinds of clever ways of adding bits and pieces, enhancements, or modules as we sometimes call them.

"Well, these teeth are alchemaic modules. It's a long story, but I've been working with Zoro and Titus in an attempt to model some special particles. It's the kind of thing Titus does in his head. These are like the next step in realising some of his discoveries.

"So, the energy is real. It's not just cosmetic is what I am trying to say."

"It's so cool." admitted Bast.

"Thank you."

"Now, to answer the next question, why am I here? Many of us are watching you Bastian. Not only are you the youngest of our kind, and born with superior natural ability, you have arrived in the world at a wonderful time. There is so much discovery at our finger-tips, and there are other changes in the wind."

"Like the change that Sen told me about, how we are going to make the processors people again, like before the Robot Wars? Like that?"

"Yes, like that." She reached out to ruffle his raven black hair.

Bast recoiled. He didn't like to be touched.

"You have made quite a ripple in our world tonight. I'm not the only one watching you, watching what you see, what you hear--secrets. But it's okay. We knew what Zoro has been planning with your friend Sen. We have been helping him in his plans.

The visitor stood. "Do not worry, Bastian. You are our star, we will look after you. We, the augers, all of us throughout the Galaxy and beyond, we are your family. We all look after each other."

"I must go now. But first, a name. I am Wu Zetian. You can call me Wu. It has been good to meet you young man. Stay close to your friend Sen, she is also exceptional, and remember that we will be there for you.

"Goodbye. Bastian." The woman vanished as the thread closed.

Bast sat on his bed with eyes still wide with awe. The synchronisation had finished, he could move again. Quickly now, he had to find Sen!