Floppyshop 2/Floppyshop - 2.zip/Floppyshop - 2.iso/diskmags/4671-5.790/dmg-5541/our_tale.txt

Text File | 1987-04-21 | 11KB | 165 lines

                 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.