TALES FROM THE CYBERNAUT'S REST Hello once again! Suleana, barmaid at 'The Cybernaut's Rest' public house in Ourtown, with news of the latest developments here, and another tale for you. Well, what do you know? No sooner have I mentioned the fact that poor old P.C. Bill has no nice warm police station to escape to from the winter chill than bingo! One is built. I strongly suspect that The Mayor (that's Tony) picked up on my comments and had one installed immediately. I do find that old Constable Savage up there is not quite as friendly as Bill, though. I couldn't even enter the police station to make an enquiry! Still, at least the town is expanding nicely. As I write this, the snow is still thick on the ground, but by the time you read it, who knows? Perhaps the thaw will have arrived. Incidentally, the Christmas menu we were serving here is now finished. The back room of the pub is still open, but currently as a lounge. I'm considering making it into a games room or putting an arcade game or something in, but I'd like to know what you, my customers, would like. How about some suggestions? Come on, don't be shy! I've not heard from anyone except Cyber Sid so far - you can communicate through the letters page or even this article if you label your contribution accordingly, I expect - unless you've all spent too long at the Tower Hotel! Anyway, that's put you up to date with Ourtown, now here we go with another yarn from my vast collection of anecdotes. Actually, it's not so much a yarn this time as a biography. Those of you who are regulars may remember that I promised that I would tell you more information about Jack Peters this time. Those of you who are not regulars are probably wondering what I'm going on about. All I can say is, you'd better order a couple of back- issues of this diskmag, or you're liable to get lost. Particularly as I shall be making references to situations and characters I mentioned in the last issue! I must say, I am quite surprised that you don't know of Jack already. Okay, so I assume much - perhaps some of you do. Certainly, it seems that once one has become aquainted with Jack, he is not easily forgotten, though the reasons for this may not always be pleasant. Let us begin with some basic facts. Jack Peters has saved the universe on more than one occasion. True, he has, in the past, posed a large threat to a considerable portion of it too, but that is the nature of Jack. He is totally unpredictable. Jack is not Human, though he does have standard human features. He was briefly raised by Humans on Earth in his early years, but he is actually a native of the planet Zathania. This lies in a very distant part of your galaxy, and is inhabited by one of the oldest races in the known universe. They would have to be. The average life-span of a Zathanian is an incredible (to the mind of an Earther) one hundred thousand years. They grow to maturity at the same rate as Earthers, but once maturity is reached, they simply grow old very, very slowly. But they are by no means immortal! They can suffer injury and disease as much as any other life form, even though they are generally tougher, stronger and quicker of reflex than humans. The only race to match them is that of their neighbouring sister-planet, Kalthania. Together, the two races are collectively known as 'Zakanians'. It is not merely the physical superiority that makes 'renegades' such as Jack so feared, however. (Here, I should point out that generally speaking Zakanians have little contact with other species, considering themselves too far ahead on the evolutionary scale.) The main reason that a known Zakanian is feared is due to their incredible Psionic abilities, or in other words psychic powers, or powers of the mind. These abilities are not nearly as powerful as they once were before the 'Time of the Changes' (another tale for another time), and can be blocked by a substance called 'Aequo Animo', but they are still very considerable. The Zakanians amazing control of telekenesis even enables them to break down the cohesion of atoms. One of their most feared abilities is that of literally disintegrating a creature by breaking down the cohesion of its componant atoms and scattering them in an instant. Zakanians also have strong telepathic powers. I don't mind telling you that I don't, generally speaking, entirely trust anyone with the ability to affect or read the thoughts of an individual, but obviously I'm prepared to make an exception in Jack's case. So, if Zakanians have little contact with outside races, how did he end up being raised on Earth, and twentieth-century Earth, at that? Jack Peters was the first experiment in artificial insemination on Zathania, but that, of course is no explanation. Actually, Jack is a sort of living paradox. A sort of 'creation of time', you might say. Allow me to elucidate. When the invasion of the High Ones was well under way, and Jack Peters was establishing himself as their worst enemy, The Guardians began to fear that the High Ones may try to strike at his past, so they arranged to have the baby substituted, and placed Jack where they thought he would be safest and his presense never suspected, on the relatively primitive planet Earth of the twentieth-century in the hands of unsuspecting Earth foster- parents. As you know, however, things did not go entirely as planned, for the High Ones did attempt an assasination of the child Jack - but only after they had uncovered the relevant information on his whereabouts from the Guardian files. The odd thing about this, of course, was that as I related last time, this led directly to Jack becoming a Guardian himself, and therefore the enemy of the High Ones, thereby leading to the neccessity of placing him on Earth for his protection in the first place. Do you see what I mean about a paradox? Anyway, Jack was Eight years old when he was taken to Homeworld (as we shall call the base planet of The Guardians), and he continued to be educated on Earth history as well as Guardianship of Spacetime. Jack passed the Guardianship exam with flying colours, and was awarded his own access portal. His rebelious nature soon became apparent, however, and he was eventually exiled to Earth for a while, where he was assigned to watch over a small town which is a known spacetime anomaly area. This is a seemingly insignificant place near High Wycombe, known as Droftraad. If you saw the last issue (21) of this diskmag, then the chances are that you have actually visited the town center of this place, though I suspect that only the general store, Police station and cafe were open at the time, even if no-one was about! Anyway, this was where the High Ones first appeared, and Jack met one who was to become a long-time travelling companion, Daniel Donaldson. It was only after some time of association that each discovered they were from neighbouring worlds, Danny Donaldson was a Kalthanian! Danny had made his own way to Earth, arriving via the spacetime anomaly. He could not explain why he had such an interest in so primitive a world in so far-flung a sector, however. It was only much later through my own studies that I discovered the reason was purely genetic. I'm not going to go into details here, but the implications must be obvious. Well, I don't want to end up writing a whole biography here! I only wanted to give you some general information about Jack so you'll understand something about his nature when I relate some of his stories, but I seem to be going off the track a little! I've mentioned Jack's 'rebelious nature' and his unpredictability. That about sums him up. You really can't say what he's likely to do in any one situation. He can be a force for good or ill. He has been 'heroic', but also an anti-hero. He's an ace with a knife, and pretty handy with a blaster. He's also highly trained in the ancient Japenese art of Iai-jutsu, Ken-jutsu and other sword arts, and his favoured weapon is the katana, or Japanese longsword. He is also an exponant of the 'Preying Mantis' style of the type of fighting generally known as 'Kung-Fu', and a little-known nerve- grip technique known as 'Ju-Atemi'. He prefers to use his physical abilities over his psychic ones as much as possible. He's sired a few sprogs and been married twice (myself being the second) that I know of. Not that this is surprising. Even though he is not particularly tall (about 1.75 meters), and somewhat stocky, he is rather well-built and his most stunning physical attraction is his deep blue eyes which make many females go weak at the knees! He is also thirty-thousand odd years of age, though he appears of early middle-age to an Earther, which brings me to another aspect of Zakanians that I wish to mention, their selective memory. There is no way that a mind can contain thousands of years of memories. Zakas only have a slightly higher memory capacity than other races, but can selectively erase 'unimportant' memories in order to retain new ones. This also enables them to continue to lead an exciting life in spite of their incredible longevity, since they can conveniently 'forget' an experience in order to learn all over again. Humans also have this ability in a limited capacity. What were you doing on, say, May 4th 1986 at 6.45 p.m? See? A more extreme example is Amnesia, of course, but that is not selective. Anyway, that just about covers all you need to know about Jack, I believe. It will help you appreciate the tales more. Next time, I shall probably tell you about the first occasion I met Jack, which is not the same as the first time he met me (as I told you last time), though thanks to his selective memory, he thinks it is. (He can remember nothing about his childhood on the farm, you see.) See you in Cyberspace! Suleana.