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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hellefire" data-source="post: 3055653" data-attributes="member: 28129">Long Live the King?Long Live the King?Esid slowly ended his trance, ready for another day cycle. As always, his first cognizant feeling was one  of loss and despair. Six years, and still the death of the King ached inside him. Esid began his daily  ritual of brain-storming in the usual way - trying to convince himself he was still sane."The King died. They broadcast a holo-image to the entire fleet.""Holo-images can be faked. They never released the death pictures.""If they had released the death pictures, it would have detracted from the majesty of the High Court.""That's propaganda. Like the burial in space. We haven't had a burial in space in a few millenniums, since  the discovery of other sentient life. Bad for the intra-solar environment.""It *IS* bad for the intra-solar environment. But you have to admit, the King is a special case."Indeed, the King was a special case. In almost every way possible. That is how he came to be King, even as  a third-stage life form. Just thinking about his melodious voice helped bring Esid's chaotic mind into  harmony. His voice had so contrasted with the monotone language used by the Travelers.Esid let his dominant side take control of his mental functions. He wondered if that meant that the  conspiracy-theorist side of him had won the conversation. It was never easy being a split-personality. Of  course, he wasn't technically split-personality. Like all Travelers, he had been incubated along with his  twin. In some freak occurrence that nobody had been able to explain, the twins had joined. Both had been  fused into a single Traveler, physically. Mentally, Esid was able to have discussions with himself.  Sometimes it helped give him perspective. Sometimes it just made him feel nuts.Esid absorbed his morning nutrient supplement in his private quarters, as always. Interaction with other  Travelers was kept to a minimum as they approached planet X12-03. It was the sixth planet they had visited  which was home to third-stage life forms. All third-stage life forms looked basically the same, with mostly  external features and small eyes. Their molecular make-up and the components of their individual planets  differed, however. Each new planet required alterations to Esid's appearance and data-gathering sensors. It  took most of his time to adjust to the changes, and minimal contact with other Travelers was vital for him  to complete the transformation.Esid sometimes missed his natural Traveler's body, with its internal features, simple streamlined shape and  large eyes. His normal eyes allowed for better collection of data from the various spectrums. Thinking of  his eyes made him wince. They were completing his eye transformation today, and he hated that part most."You could just accept that the King is dead and not do this anymore," suggested his twin."Shhhh," Esid thought to himself/his twin, again bringing the King's voice to mind to steady himself.After morning nutrients, Esid looked around his elegantly utilitarian room with his natural eyes. "See you  in about a month," he thought to his room, and made his way down the private hallway to the reconstructive  surgery room. He refused to think about the possibility of not 'seeing' things normally within a month.The surgeon, one of the two Travelers Esid was allowed contact with this close to planet fall, greeted him  in the same monotone way he always did. "Lie down and remain still."Esid did as he was told. The Travelers society was built for efficiency. Their technology, their bodies,  their thought patterns, even their speech had evolved into the most effective way to assimilate and  communicate information. Emotions in all their myriad form had been removed to allow information to flow  without blockage. That was ideal. Or at least, that had seemed ideal, until the King had come. Esid caught  himself and suspended this new thought-path in order to pay attention to the surgeon."We are almost complete with adapting your body to its latest third-stage level," the surgeon was saying.  "I will be testing a new procedure today. We may be able to keep some of your fifth-stage functionality,  even inside your degraded body."Esid almost moved. Keep his functionality? He felt a surge of happiness. "And that," he mentally told his  internal twin, "is a good example of why emotions are important.""Of course," the surgeon continued, "this is a test procedure. It will also be less comfortable than the  normal operation."Esid felt a twinge of apprehension. 'Comfortable' was never a term he associated with this step. A voice  came inside his mind, unbidden. "And that was a good example of what?""Shut up," Esid told himself, and began his meditations. He survived these surgeries by keeping his mind  focused on the data regarding his mission.Fact: The King came to the Traveler Fleet 29 years ago.Question: Where did he come from?Fact: The King arrived in an unidentified spacecraft of intra-solar design, obviously built by some  fifth-stage civilization.Question: Who built the craft?Question: How did a third-stage life form get to be on board?Question: Why was the third-stage life form alone when it reached them?Question: How and why was the craft navigated toward the Fleet?Fact: Information flow is most vital.Fact: Emotions cause fluctuations and lessening of information flow.Fact: Therefore, emotions are undesirable.Observation: When combined with a certain spectrum wavelength, produced by emotions, information flow is  heightened exponentially and achieves new dimensionality.Observation: The King induced emotions in the correct wavelength to improve information flow in over 90% of  the Travelers. Those that were not affected did not lose any informational faculties.Conclusion: Emotion can be useful and highly beneficial.Question: How did the King produce and radiate the correct emotions?Question: How were these emotions received and used by others?Question: How can this effect be reproduced?Question: Can there be any harmful effects?Fact: The King reportedly died of 'natural causes' six years ago.Fact: The King's body was discovered by members of the High Court.Fact: The King's death holos were never shown to the public.Question: Did the King actually die?Question: Did the King actually die of 'natural causes'?Question: What were the 'natural causes' for his civilization?The questions always added up faster than the facts.Fact: The King's funeral was highly unortha-***OOOOOOOUCH***!!!!Esid was ripped from his meditation by a fiery pain in his right eye. [Picture 2]. His natural eye had been  removed, and a third-stage eye implanted. The surgeon had clamped the new eye open and somehow re-attached  some of the fifth-stage sensors to it. Esid though this would be ideal, but now he could sense all that was  happening with his full fifth-stage abilities.In a monumental effort of will, Esid managed to stay still. He couldn't even move to tell the surgeon what  was happening. His mind spiraled toward madness, as voices from both his halves screamed in pain. Somewhere  inside, the voice of the King came. The screaming became more focused and controlled. Then everything went  black.Waking up in the surgery room, Esid felt his entire being was on fire. The pain slowly concentrated onto  his face, then specifically to his eyes. The surgeon's voice came from the space next to him. "The  discomfort will go away in two days, and you will be able to use your new eyes then. Until that time, you  will remain here and I will monitor your progress."Esid heard the emotionless tone of the surgeons voice, and deeply wished he could project an image of his  pain into the surgeons head. Unfortunately, in this form he could not. Again wondering about the merits and  detriments of emotions, Esid lapsed back into unconsciousness.After two days of passing in and out of lucidity, Esid's condition did indeed stabilize. The cost had been  extreme, but his ability to use his full functions inside this new form was unbelievably empowering. While  he certainly looked different on the outside, the familiar incoming senses made Esid feel able, in control,  and even hopeful. "Maybe this is a sign," he told himself. There was no answer."Hello," he thought, "anybody home?"No answer.Esid began to feel panicked. He felt completely alone. "Surgeon!!""Yes?" came the flat reply."I cannot hear, er, find, er...my twin is missing!"The surgeon calmly came to Esid and attached some monitoring devices. He watched his monitors for about 20  minutes, then shrugged. "I cannot come to any definitive conclusions. Continue preparing for your mission,  and let me know if anything changes."If anything changes?? Everything had changed! Esid made his way back down the corridor to his room. The  rest of the week he spent reviewing and re-reviewing facts and ideas about the King. He constantly listened  for his twin, but there was nothing.Two changes occurred in Esid. First, he began to feel trapped and alone in his own mind. There was nobody  else there, and there was no way out. Second, he found new conviction in his belief that there was  information missing about the death of the King. The King was either murdered or still alive. He knew it!Esid awoke the morning of the day he would make planet fall. He had not been able to enter trance, only  finding some reprieve in sleep. Lack of trance was starting to take effect; he was worn thin and worried  about his twin. [Picture 1]. Trying to resolve these conflicts, Esid sat and contemplated the coming day.The TR-12, their ship, would come out of intra-space later in the morning. They would be in orbit around  X12-03, and he would make planet fall by early afternoon. If they could find a trace of the King's funeral  ship from orbit, it would make his job much easier. Of course, nobody had been able to trace the funeral  ship in six years. Esid thought, "That would definitely be a sign!" Still, no reply. He slowly stood up and  entered the public corridor for the first time in over a week.The crew of the TR-12 wished Esid success as he made his way to the teleport room. They each sent their  individual information regarding the King, so that he could assimilate any knew knowledge that might help  in his mission. He entered the teleport room, which sealed with a light 'clang', and he was again alone.  Esid sat on the teleport pad and waited.A light on the ceiling blinked red. The ship was coming out of intra-space. A few seconds after arriving,  communication sensors would come back online. This was always the point that Esid held his breathe in hope  and anticipation.Esid waited and counted. 30 seconds. 60 seconds. 120 seconds. Then the voice came through the ships comm  system. "I have it. The voice of the King! Streaming now!"Through the comm system came the voice. The voice of the King! It was unmistakable. It was unique. It  contained the emotional spectrum that had changed the Travelers. But, it was also intermittent. There were  other voices in the background. Other emotions. Some emotions Esid had never experienced. He felt  information going in every different direction at once, and it rather hurt. Then, silence."The voice of the King is here," stated the comm system, "but we do not know if it is live or  re-transmitted. There are also many other voices, which are affecting us adversely. We have to block them  all out in order to function. We have also traced the funeral ship!" Esid's mind went into overdrive. "The funeral ship! We've found it! Answers, at last!" The King was here,  and apparently alive!"Because of the informational shift of the voices, the trace is only approximate. You will be placed in the  proximity we have for the ship, but we do not have a precise location. Prepare for planet fall."Esid stood up and went to the middle of the teleport pad. Hardly able to contain his good emotions, and  still confused by the new emotions which he did not know how to filter, Esid was having trouble thinking  clearly. He meditated on the voice of the King, and awaited planet fall.The teleport was instantaneous. It always was, but the change in center-of-gravity always made Esid stumble  when he arrived. Luckily in this case, because a large object passed through the space he had landed in a  fraction of a second after he fell out of its way. A life form inside the object said something loudly and  with unpleasant emotions, as the object continued on its path.Esid backed away from similar moving objects, and inspected his surroundings. There were third-stage life  forms around him, all walking and talking at the same time. Their voices were a strange mixture of monotone  and emotional inflection. They certainly did not project the same emotions as the King, but they just as  certainly projected some kinds of emotions. A couple were pleasant, but mostly they were confusing and  somewhat painful.Taking a deep breathe, Esid filtered out the emotions as much as possible and surveyed other objects. There  were primitive (and highly emotional) dwellings and commissary-type buildings. The civilization appeared to  use entirely land-based transportation without much management or reasoning. Esid wondered why the King  would come here? Or if maybe somebody forced him to come here? The life forms could certainly use some  harmonious emotions.Esid began walking with the local life forms and checking for useful information. The emotions present were  almost overpowering, and Esid wished that he could filter his fifth-stage sensors. In addition to visual  and oral form, Esid found information in printed form. While he knew that some civilizations restricted  their information flow by capturing it inside little prisons, he had never actually seen it. There were  apparently thousands of these little knowledge cells, and Esid wondered how he would free enough of it to  find the King and the funeral ship.Esid began investigating written information. How strange these little jails were. Apparently information  was not only captured, it was also hidden from some life forms! While inspecting one of them, a life form  approached and began speaking with extremely negative emotions about 'buying' it. So information was held  and only offered in limited form, for a certain value. At another location, a life form physically removed  the prison from Esid's hands. Approaching physical contact! The arrangement was so incomprehensible to Esid  that he was at a loss as to how to proceed.Esid transmitted this information to the TR-12 in his hourly report. He filtered out as much emotion as he  could from the data, because he knew that too many emotions would corrupt that data.Sitting down on an object being used similarly by local life forms, Esid glanced into the commissary-type  buildings near him. Suddenly he felt a surge of hope as he saw it. One of the little prisons, with a  picture of the King on the top! Esid had found that they were designed to indicate their prisoners on the  cover. Was it possible, that the King was inside that prison? Esid ran into the building to find out.Opening the prison, Esid found information only regarding the King! It even had his name in it! Absorbing  the information further, Esid found that the King had been here prior to coming to the Travelers Fleet. His  heart dropped a bit, because there was no indication of the King being here now. There were, however, some  oddly-familiar ideas. It seemed that the King had been here for 42 years. He had been with the Travelers for 24 years. That  looked like an interesting re-arrangement of digits. Searching further, Esid saw another re-arrangement.  This one was using the Kings name, and indicated that the King may be alive! With these thoughts still in  his head, Esid re-arranged other numbers and words. When he came to his own name, he though of his twin and  felt an extreme sorrow. Deciding, or maybe hoping, that coincidence played a part in some of the meanings,  he stepped back outside.As he glanced around, Esid found many examples of captive information. In front of one building was the  word 'Greyhound.' In front of another was 'Ho Que's Chinese Restaurant.' Why would anybody capture  information in a non-mobile form? As Esid was trying to understand the logic involved, one of the large  objects that were part of the primitive transportation system moved. Esid gasped.There it was! The King's funeral ship! It was upside down, where it had possibly crash-landed, and had  filled with water. But there it was! He had found it! [Picture 3].Hastily pulling out his hand comm device, Esid sent an emergency signal to the TR-12 to open a  communication channel. He sent it twice, to indicate a non-life-threatening emergency, but do it NOW!  Seconds later, a confirmation blip came out."I found it!" Esid said into his comm. He was trying to shout or add emotion, so that the data would not be  corrupted. "I found the King's funeral ship! I have no definitive proof yet, but our hypothesis may be  true! King Elvis may be alive, and may have been abducted by these aliens!"</blockquote>

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