OVER THE SILVER SKY TO THE WORLD OF NEVER : Part 236 - Fact Me.

Never one to miss a trend I've spotted the fact self help books sell in their millions. If you look at the top ten best selling non-fiction works you're guaranteed to find at least one. There's one on curing depression that's sold millions of copies. Others about becoming a millionaire are even better sellers. Despite the reality that depression is a growing problem and 99.9% of the people who bought the millionaire book are not millionaires. That's the thing with self help books. They fly off the shelves even though they are fucking useless. With this in mind I intend on producing a few self help books of my own which are completely pointless. They will include, in no particular order : How To Feed A family Of One On Less Than $300 A Day. - 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Masturbate. - Uncovering Misery. - Overcoming Cheerfulness- How To Nail Your Cock To A Tall Tree. - AND - Counting Your Feet For Dummies.

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Having disturbed Pip with his steely eyed gaze, Jake looked at what she was doing instead. Not focusing on it. Allowing it to become a kind of screen saver. Meanwhile his distracted thoughts continued to stray along unwanted pathways. With the amount of images cascading over him it was impossible to discern which were most important. A grander version of what had been happening to him since he'd been on his home world. Constantly changing circumstances throwing him off balance continuously. She was good at what she was doing. That was the only conclusion he reached. About anything. Switching between views and inputs seamlessly. If she came across a barrier or block she either circumvented it or found a work round. Her newly written bits were spreading out through the Fafindi internet. Bringing her more and more information. Way too much for her to handle. So she wrote a few algorithms to do that for her. If only he could show that level of concentration. Impossible now with all that kept smothering him. Impossible before with his total lack of focus.

"Is it okay if I ask you questions about The Wanderer?" She asked without breaking her concentration in the least.
He thought about that for a while. Pip carried on with her immense task. Tutting when she lost an opportunity to send that message to Ugo.
"Actually I'd really like it. I think it will help me connect to that me more completely. Nobody has really talked to me about it. Hardly anyone has even asked me anything. They've told me a lot more of what I'm supposed to be."
"Scarlet told us not to. You don't think..?
Her pause was all he needed to hear to know where her logic was taking her.
"That she intentionally did so to prevent me reaching my full capabilities. Meaning she was well aware I was the Wanderer from the very beginning. That her apparent doubts were a ruse to keep me in line so that she could manipulate me and use me for her own ends."
"Yes."Pip exclaimed pleasantly surprised.
"No nothing like that has ever crossed my mind." He quipped.
She chuckled.
"Your memory palace. It's not what I expected."
"What do you mean?"
"I expected to see things in it. Granted I've only been to that one memory. It didn't really contain a lot though. Some very nice scenary, a great view and a few people who didn't seem to be there for any purpose. The orange robed monks I mean."
"It's not a picture perfect replication of an event, generally at least. There are a few... in proportion to the main ones. Things that are directly copied from what happened. Mostly it's a series of images, smells and a pathway through them that awakens the actual memories. A story if you like. One that isn't true, yet leads to the truth. It's a bit like putting a knot in a hankie."
She cocked an eyebrow at that.
"Not an idiom I'm familiar with."
Of course not.
"Sticking a reminder in your firewave then. Is that better?"
"Yes. I'd worked out what you meant. I was being contrary." Her eyes flicked towards him then away. "You seem to be worried about what we may be up against. That's hard to believe. I've seen you best the entire crew of the Harlot and destroy the Artificers Guild in Palamar. Both without raising a sweat. The Wanderer always wins in the end."
Should he tell her? Mollycoddling Pip didn't work. She resented it. It was best to prepare her for what might come.
"I'm like the Maginot Line I suppose."
"And? What is the Maginot Line like? I've never heard of it."
"It's from the history of my earth. A huge impregnable fortification designed to prevent a foreign army invading. Took up most of the defense budget for years. The trouble was instead of going through it, they went round it. I'm one man. I can't be everywhere at once. It's very easy to go round me." The decision was made, this one by him for a change, no backing out. "The Wanderer doesn't always win Pip. Those legends are about the successes. The failures get forgotten along with me, the person. I've lost far more times than I've won. Even when I win I mostly die. Scores of times when I tried to reach the Well Of Creation. What burns most is the number of times others have sacrificed themselves with me. Without them I wouldn't even be a myth. I'd be nothing."
He saw her swallow the lump in her throat. It was best she knew.
"Y..you must have seen some very impressive sights in your time."
"Yeah. I once saw 2 neutron stars collide. That was impressive." He replied.
"You died didn't you."
"Six seconds after they collided. Which was a lot longer than I expected. I was there when they nova bombed Trineva from far orbit and when the entire earth fleet engaged the the Salusi during the Eternal War."
"Those killed you as well didn't they?"
"They did."
"Have you got any happy memories?"
"Those are the happy ones."
A little wry smile on her serious face. It was for the best. No point her thinking this was a done deal. Raising false hopes and overly optimistic expectations. What was to come could be extremely dangerous. The alarms were going off deep in his instincts. Pip jerked to attention.
"Shit." She exclaimed. "This is bad. At least I think it is."
She was flicking through those tiles, bringing up extra screens and overlays. None of which meant much to him.
"You'll have to be more precise than that I'm afraid. Technological illiteracy is my middle name."
The furrowed brow and squint did not bode well.
"I'm deep within their systems now." She advised. "My little spies are picking up so much information I can't process it fast enough. I've got news and it's all really bad for you."
There was a certain sense of satisfaction in being correct. Even though this would hurt.
"Fact me."

In no particular order, Pip revealed what she'd discovered by going over the Fafindi database. Since discovering some holes in it. Most of which were connected to Clan T'nanga. More was coming in as she explained her findings to him. The patriarch of this clan was Debara. Who was in fact the patriarch of Taini and Ydrie. Not that this indicated any complicity on their part. The brother and sister were exactly as they seemed. Two naive innocents, who were unaware of any machinations going on behind the scenes. And machinations there were. They were being used. Had been used for over two decades.

Clan T'nanga had studied the crashed spaceship for years, before giving up. Unable to gain entry or scan the thing. They'd obtained nothing from it. Taini had been part of the scientific team assigned to this study. A "friend". Pip's quotation marks, had encouraged the young woman's fascination with the ship. It was perfectly placed. Out in the middle of nowhere, near the border and in what was considered neutral territory. No clan had claim to the area. Taini and Ydrie were in frequent contact with what they thought were bosom pals, but were merely handlers. Anything Taini found out about the craft would be shared with her handler. As well as this, their closeness to the border and Nour meant they provided intelligence from the traders that passed through. Either as a simple stop off or having journeyed through Fafindi from all points of the nonexistent compass. Things like that were major events which were shared with all their circle. In addition anything of interest to her so called pal, was detailed and sometimes shipped to one of several different laboratory facilities. Weapons mostly.

In addition to this, as far as the young woman could see, they had weaponized other Fafindi technology. As well as greatly increasing the size of their militia and law enforcement agency. In a country with no crime and no enemies, that did not look good. It was also apparent, from the latest data she'd just mined, that Clan T'nanga had been doing human experiments. Forbidden human experiments. The Fafindi did not allow resurrection of the deceased. They were either genetically engineered or had evolved to be completely resistant to this. Their DNA could not be cloned or cultured. Her final revelation was equally disconcerting. Not only were they manipulating the genome to allow for the dead to be revived with their memories intact, they'd also begun to enhance volunteers. Giving them far superior strength, durability and speed. She couldn't be sure, but she suspected Debara had been one of those enhanced. He'd spent several months at one of the medical laboratories involved in the work.

This was a country where civilians were not allowed to carry arms, visitors were generally given dispensations on this. Only the militia's and law enforcement officers could carry weapons. There was no need for protection or even sports firearms. Life was completely safe. If you wanted to shoot you could use the holographic simulations for an experience that perfectly mirrored reality. There was no way round this. Debara was planning a coup. He had already gathered allies from two other clans. With their combined forces they were more than a match for the rest of the clans put together. None of them had been preparing for a war. Jake felt confident Ugo had no knowledge of this. The man was working on innate brain power and wisdom gathered over the centuries. He'd sensed something, even though it was hidden from sight. Only the presence of Pip had led to the secretive work being uncovered. It was even more important to get that message to him now. There was one glimmer of sunshine on the dark horizon. Pip had discovered how much energy was stored in Chiro.

"There's one big snag. There's so much energy stored in this ship that it's going to be very difficult to control it. The systems aren't sensitive enough."
Jake knew she was right on the money. However he wasn't sure what she was alluding to. It could be important he understood.
"What do you mean?"
"Well imagine you can only go up or down in increments of 1%. Where 1% is heavy damage, but low loss of life and 2% is devastating an area the size of a major city. Then 3% is a continent and 4% is a planet. There isn't a lot of room for nuance here. I can only use the energy in the smallest quantities the systems permit. Anything larger will risk causing death on a catastrophic scale."
It was what it was. No point resisting reality. As he'd already discovered it didn't care about feelings. And it didn't like being ignored.
"We'll definitely need that ace I spotted then. It's more of a Jack really, given what we might be up against."