Chapter 11

The brass decided that I had enough seasoning with my super AI by now, so I was told of my future with the Galactic Rangers. Specifically, I was transferred to the Intelligence Branch to become a field agent. I liked this because it now let me be the one who provided the essential information for a mission, and I was pretty damned sure that I could do a better job than those clowns that I'd had to suffer with.

Unfortunately for me, this now cut Anfon loose from direct ties to me. She was promoted to platoon leader of the platoon that I had been commanding. As a result, we were going to face long terms of separation. Anfon was concerned that this would leave me sexually bereft, so she arranged for her friend Zyl to fill in for her in my bed. This was fine with Zyl, because she had wanted to sample my sexual prowess after hearing all about it from Anfon. Anfon and Zyl had been friends before they had been recruited into the Galactic Rangers, so they had complete confidence in each other.

Their plan, I had nothing to say about it, was that Anfon would sleep with me whenever she and I were at the base at the same time, but Zyl would sleep with me whenever Anfon was out on assignment. Zyl had a permanent assignment to the base, something to do with communications, so she was always around when I "needed" her. Of course, both females were free to seek sexual relief when I could not accommodate their needs. I was not too happy with that phase of the plan, but they both assured me that I would get used to it, and it made no difference in their feelings for me. OK, I was willing to give it a try, especially since I didn't seem to have much say in the matter.

To simplify matters, the three of us moved into larger quarters and had a sexual threesome every night for nine days. That was when I got my first assignment as a field agent. I was sent to a jungle planet, Midward, which did not have an obvious humanoid population, but did have some sort of sentient intelligence controlling the planet.

The planet had been discovered about 50 years earlier and had been put under continuous surveillance by satellites very shortly thereafter. The strange thing was that the satellites did not pick up any traces of sentience unless another sentient being was present, usually a technician sent out to do routine maintenance on the satellites. At that time, there was a blast of activity from the planet that closely resembled humanoid brain waves, but the activity ceased as soon as the technician left for his next assignment.

It finally dawned on somebody that these bursts of activity might be an effort to communicate with the technician, but that person had not detected any activity. In effect, it seemed like the mind on the planet was trying to communicate by some sort of telepathic ESP (Extra Sensory Perception), but the person being approached was deaf to the effort.

Anyway, somebody high up in the Research Department asked that the Galactic Rangers investigate to find out if there was something to this ESP thingy. If there was, it might serve to replace radio as the standard communication means for the Rangers. That would be great in preventing any enemy from eavesdropping on the conversations among the Galactic Rangers, especially during the course of a battle.

That argument immediately rang a bell among the Rangers' brass, so it was decided to send someone to do a personal investigation. Yours truly was selected as the guinea pig, er ... investigator. My already souped up AI was further enhanced with the equipment necessary to intercept these brain waves emanating from the planet. That was no big deal, since the entire electronic circuitry required was not as large as a pin head. The operation took about 20 minutes, and I slept through the whole thing.

My AI was exposed to the entire recorded history of the waves, but they did not make any sense that I could understand. The hope was that I could do better with it once I was on the ground at Midward, since something could have been lost during the recording process.

I was transported to Midward with the minimum of equipment: my replicator and my flying belt. I could make anything else I might need with the replicator, including food and shelter. I guess I caught the local sentience by surprise because I did not "hear" any sort of outside brain activity when I first arrived. However, in only one or two minutes, I was inundated with ESP waves.

This time, I could tell something about what I was receiving. It was a jumble of pictures, sounds, and feelings that was so densely packed that I could not comprehend what I was getting. I was suffering from a very bad case of "brain overload." The noise stopped completely as soon as I formed that thought. I breathed a sigh of relief, both physically and mentally.

That was when I consciously thought "at" the other sentient, "Thanks for cutting back on the flood of ESP. My brain cannot handle that many different feeds at one time, but I am sure that I can manage a less dense broadcast."

That's when I "heard" a single "voice" say, "Please forgive me for the impetuous way I acted a few moments ago. I was so overjoyed at last to have another sentient being to communicate with that my emotions overcame my good sense. I have lost track of how long I have waited to have someone else to talk to, and I just got carried away."

"No problem now that you have cut back on your torrent of ESP. I must admit that I am more comfortable with names, even though there are only two of us at the moment. Please call me 'Bill.' What should I call you?"

"I have no name, so you may call me anything that you like. Please choose a name for me."

"OK, how about 'Midward, ' since that is the name my people use to specify your planet. We can change the name anytime you wish."

"That is fine. Midward has a pleasant sound and feel about it, so I like it. You said 'my people' a moment ago. Does that mean that there are more of you?"

"Oh, yes, there are billions and billions of sentient beings throughout this galaxy. I have been sent here by our leaders to find out something about you and to learn if you would like to join our group."

"Join your group!?! You mean that I could have more than one person to talk to?"

"Certainly! If you agree, I could have several more people here in a few hours to converse with you. The new people would want to learn as much about you as possible and would be willing to tell you anything you would want to know about us. Of course, you would have to agree to this sort of thing. We do not want to butt in on your privacy."

"Oh, my!! Please bring them on! I would love to have many people to talk to. Please get them here as soon as possible. I can hardly wait!"

"Very well, please excuse me while I call headquarters to relay your request." I called in and gave a verbatim recording through my AI of the conversation with Midward. The result was a mad scramble to assemble a team of investigators to visit Midward as soon as possible.

"Midward, the people coming in do not all look exactly like me, but they are all going to resemble me in that they will all be humanoid. I hope that does not bother you."

"Oh, no, that will be no problem. I am so excited that the greater the variety the better."

"That's good. That will make it easier to find the specific people to send in the first group. They will..."

"The first group!?! Does that mean that there will be even more to come later?"

"Oh, yes. You must understand that you are a rare being in the galaxy, and a lot of people will want to meet and talk to you. I hope that does not upset you."