Chapter 18

“I’m impressed with your use of micro pearls to exceed light speed, as well as using them to bypass a Kempu shield,” Lowas commented.

“I think you didn’t figure out that you could wrap a shield around something because you didn’t have experience with how the Kempu shield worked,” Lomav said

“My power never had any trouble seeing through any of my shields, and I knew that the scanning system that Poolnar had was about as effective as my ability to sense with my power,” I responded.

“Creating a duplicate to encase a spaceship with your own skin to create a shield is ingenious,” Lomav said approvingly.

“I see echoes of our gatherings in the rituals you devised for your followers. What do you think, Lomav, convergent evolution, or something hardwired into the Kempu?” Lowas asked.

“I don’t know, did you notice the obsession with red stones prior to the age reversal? Even now he wears a ring with a red stone,” Lomav commented as if I wasn’t there.

“What do you mean?” I asked, curious.

“From your early memories I noticed that there were depictions of gods on your world that resemble both Lowas and myself. Their word for ruby jewelry is Kempu. I have no memories of ever encountering your species, how about you Lowas?” Lomav asked.

“No recollection of ever being in this galaxy before,” he said.

Lomav sighed, “After all these millennia there is so much we don’t understand. Kempu seem to spontaneously arrive, and have certain character traits, and the same abilities, but they grow and are discovered in different ways. You are the first new Kempu in over 50,000 of your years in the explored cluster of the local 900 million galaxies.”

“The last one wasn’t exactly new,” Lowas said.

“You are correct, but we found him about 50,000 years ago. He was a wanderer, self taught. He had been wandering his home galaxy for many millennia before we found him,” Lomav said.

“I heard about him, traveling the galaxy looking for females to add to his harem,” I commented.

“He never discovered twinning, or self replication. It’s amazing you figured that out on your own,” Lomav complimented.

“Well what is it that I still need to learn?”

“Storing spacetime,” Lomav replied.

“Conjuring spacetime,” Lowas simultaneously added.

“Of course he’s going to conjure it, that’s a given,” Lomav said.

My power reached out, focusing on the space above the atmosphere in the dyson sphere. I tried grabbing onto it with my power, but I only stored the wisp of hydrogen pushed out by the small star.

“I just tried, and all I got was gas,” I said.

Lomav chuckled, “Watch me, I’m going to store the spacetime that this cup is sitting in,” he said lifting it in his hand.

The cup shuddered as my senses examined it. It squeezed to a point as if it had been suddenly transformed into a blackhole, and rebounded back.

I tried the same, but just stored my cup. I conjured a fresh one. “I’m just not getting it,” I said.

“No worries,” Lomav said, “You’re young.”

“He probably needs to learn to forge spacetime first,” Lowas suggested.

“He can already,” Lomav offered.

“I can forge spacetime?” I asked.

They both looked at me, “Yeah, that’s the problem,” Lomav agreed.

Lowas looked at me, his large eyes staring at mine, “Altering the speed of time is only one way to forge spacetime.”

“You need time for your power to grow, I think. You’ll get there,” Lomav encouraged.

“So what is our power?” I asked again.

“I like to think of it as the conscious potential of the universe,” Lomav replied.

“I like to think of it as the ultimate lottery ticket,” Lowas added.

“Is it something I discovered, something that discovered me? Would a duplicate of myself without powers get the power again?”

“I’m sorry about your lost duplicate. He’s not going to get powers again,” Lomav consoled.

“That nasty machine was the result of an attempt to increase the numbers of our race. Lord of Souls and Moons had an interesting idea, but he shouldn’t have let the technology out of his hands,” Lowas added.

“Lord of light and shadow is coming, it will be interesting to see what he does to your dyson sphere,” Lomav announced.

I looked up and reached out with my power as a giant bird conjured into the space above. The sky darkened immediately as it passed overhead. It transformed itself into a bird headed man, as it landed on the front porch. My power reached out and examined the additions Lolas had added.

I answered the door, pulling it open after the first light knock, “Welcome neighbor, come in have a seat. Would you like a drink?” I asked.

“Greetings I am Lolas,” he said, the translator already applying the acronym for his name in my ears.

“I am Lord of Seas of Stars,” I replied.

The bird headed man with bright yellow plumage, and the hooked beak of his owl like face, stepped in. He gave a brisk shudder as his feathers puffed out, and settled back. His big eyes glanced at the others, and he gave another bird bobbing nod to the other two.

They nodded back as his talloned feet tapped across the floor, where he conjured a padded backless chair, and settled.

“We were just discussing what our powers are, and where it comes from,” Lomav told him.

“We are the hands of the universe, we do it’s bidding,” Lolas said.

“So everybody has their own explanation?” I said.

“Pretty much,” Lomav said, then turned to Lolas, “Nice work,” he told him.

“Thank you, I built something similar, but smaller, long ago,” he replied, then looked at me. “The mountains and Valleys are nice, but you’re going to need to fill them with water to get the temperature and weather balanced correctly.”

My power reached out and examined the two hollow quarter sphere slices rotating around the star at the middle of the dyson sphere. They were slowly rotating around the star, casting a night’s shadow across the sphere. At the north and south ends the two quarter slices converged at their tips. They were connected by a ring that let all the sunlight shine thru continuously onto the north, at the south end they were connected by a round plate that blocked all light from passing.

“The temperature difference will help the weather systems form. Your atmosphere is thick enough for big storms, but not so thick that you’ll generate permanent cyclones. Nothing that good building regulations can’t handle,” Lolas informed me.