Hinn Ch. 57-59

Updike raised an eyebrow, looking at Emily for confirmation. Her boss nodded, smiling, and told her, "Part of the challenge on this one's keeping your mind open. Not something you usually have a problem with, which is another reason why Annya wanted you on this one."

Annya added, "I had a chance to talk to a couple of the Skepsi troopers Ray and Tauriz trained with last night. Their capabilities are astounding, Boss. Time dilation and nonphysical interactions."

"Wait. Time dilation?" Emily asked.

"Yes, Emily," Ray confirmed. "It was a shared, mutual hallucination that allowed for a significant increase in perceived time, but no actual physical actions. We sat there for three hours on the clock but experienced a week's worth of group effort. Since our bodies didn't move and only had three hours to deal with, we didn't need to take any breaks, either, although everyone was pretty mentally frazzled once we ended the session."

"Could you accelerate time and also act physically?" Updike wanted to know.

"Yes, but it gets a lot more complex. Most bodies weren't intended to handle the physical stress that that requires. If you're moving things, even tiny little switches, you have to reinforce the body significantly."

"So, you can reinforce bodies?" Updike asked.

Tomas chuckled, "Tauriz held me off the ground, in class IV armor, at arm's length. Yes, they can reinforce bodies significantly."

"Updike, this is Tomaz, Skepsi's local team lead. Tomaz, Updike. As usually is the case, they've been hired on for security, but also for strike if needed."

"Strike? You're planning on offensive actions, Ray?" Emily queried.

"Well, reactive strike, currently. Remember the Jann who Tauriz and I spoke with outside the Academic building? We're heading out later today to talk to one or more of their leaders, at their invitation. Tomaz has a team prepping to come along, in case something goes other than ideally. Annya, did you ever find out more about that invite?"

Annya shook her head, "No, Ray. Boss, someone activated Ray's phone remotely but left no evidence on it, or in any of the records I can get from the carrier. They maintained a link after the initial 'call,' for lack of a better word, and were able to listen in on our conversations. I'd had the first tier scrambler up and operational before that point, but there was no distortion when a different person spoke to Ray via the phone later."

Tauriz offered, "Our current guess, and I emphasize it is a guess, is that another branch of magic was involved. Some of our human practitioners shared some of their experiences with divinity. From what we understand, the lack of indicia matched with our experience from that call."

Updike was watching the discussion like it was a tennis match. "Wait, wait wait. Divinity? Gods?"

"There are people -- modern humans -- who worship and receive magic from some of the mythological deities of our past. It appears some non-humans..."

Updike interrupted Ray, "Non-humans?"

Emily chuckled. "I warned you this one was going to be a challenge, Updike. All this is under their NDA, too, don't forget."

Ray nodded, "Non-humans. There are several types of mortal beings on the planet we've met. Tauriz and, through a very unlikely event, I am considered to be Hinn. Hinn were the first mortal species to walk the planet back on Pangaea before it broke up. It appears the Hinn and other mortals were the cause of the breakup of Pangaea -- Mac's worked with some academics to get some new numbers published about that a couple days ago. We've met at least five types of mortals that were significantly different than humans. We're aware of quite a few other types which might still exist, as well as some non-mortals."

"We're way off course here, I know but -- non-mortals? Are those immortal?"

"The way it was explained to me a very long time ago," offered Tauriz, "the difference between non-mortals and immortals is that the truly immortal cannot die. Non-mortals won't die from at least some natural causes, but can still be killed in one or more ways. As far as I know, there are no true immortals, as the few who made a public claim of immortality were killed."

"We're aware we're giving you a lot of information that's off in woo-woo land, Updike," Ray told her. "We have some time, and I have no problem with answering your, or Emily's, or anyone here's questions while we have the time."

"How does this magic-like technology work?"

"Intent-driven, will-focused, powered either by the essence of life or another primal force. Humans historically have been limited to utilizing their personal life essence in most situations, but other types of mortal might be imbued with other primal forces. For reference, Hinn are bound to samum. Samum is roughly translated as 'the devouring flame' and is very, very good at destruction, but it can also transform. As an analogy, think of a kiln or forge. Other types or perhaps species of mortals are linked with other forces. The Jann, the kind we'll be visiting tonight, embody qalb alqamar, which translates as 'the heart of the moon'. While not as destructive as samum, they are quite powerful, and are both as changeable as the moon and as relentless as its endless repetition.

"Each of these essences have different strengths and weaknesses. Samum is preeminent of the forces I'm aware of being embodied in mortals in terms of raw destruction. The Jinn, yet another class of mortal, utilize a force that is preeminent in illusion and distraction. Others, which we haven't seen but existed at one time, were preeminent in working with life force, or with space, or intelligence. Most of these have been exterminated by Jinn, save for the very few enslaved."

"Enslaved, Doctor?"

"Yes, but please, call me Ray. Enslaved. There was a huge breakthrough a long time ago -- mortals learned to enslave each other magically. At the same time, they discovered a new primal force, and for currently unknown reasons, only these enslaved mortals can use it. This combination is the basis of the myths of wishes. This process was said to create genie, which were tied to physical objects that trapped them if they broke free from a master, or that master died.

"The upheaval from this revolution lead to battles using forces so powerful and destructive, we now call that period the Permian-Triassic extinction event. A little more than two hundred and fifty million years ago, over seventy percent of land-based species became extinct, and over ninety percent of ocean-borne species. It was such an incredible upheaval it took the world multiple millions of years to recover from a few brief years of conflict, and even these powerful beings suffered in the aftermath.

"Some of those mortals enslaved at that time still live today, Tauriz being one of them. Yes, she's hundreds of millions of years old, and unwillingly enslaved. We don't have the ability to free her, either, without forcing her back into the object they tied to her. Yes, I'm her master, as someone sent me the object she's tied to, and I unwittingly released her and thus became her master."

Updike turned and looked at Tauriz, "Are you OK?"

"I appreciate the concern, Updike, but given the incredible power any master has over their genie, I could believe myself to be perfectly fine but, in fact, have no hope of resisting any of that master's commands. I do not believe myself to be in dire straits, Ray is by far the least controlling master I have ever had, and I have dealt with over a dozen with power over me over my existence. There is no reasonable way I can think of to assure you of the truth of this."

Ray added, "Finding a way to free Tauriz from her enslavement is one of my goals, Updike. The resources we have available do not address any significant details about the enslavement process. We have begun leveraging human techniques to gain more details on how magic works. This is something that, as far as we can tell, has never been done with Hinn."

"What do you mean 'human techniques'?" Emily wanted to know.

"Hypothesis, experiment, analysis, and repetition -- the scientific method. A few odd individuals created the few major breakthroughs underlying the modern Hinn. There have been to date no systematic, iterative analysis, prediction, and trial process. We -- Tauriz and I -- have begun trying to remedy that. We'll have to wait and see how we do."

"By the way, Boss," Annya interjected, "Tauriz put together a very big book on magic from their point of view -- thousands of pages. It's available on a local secure net -- I'll get you both linked to it later. What I've been able to get through so far is pretty fascinating reading."

Tauriz explained further, "To be fair, I copied out and merged the work of many others. I did not create any of it, I am more like a translator of Aristotle's Principia Mathematica."

"Did you take the time to read it? Does it make sense, from your point of view?" Emily asked.

"I did something faster but similar to reading it, and yes, it does," confirmed Tauriz.

"And from mine, but she's much more skilled at this stuff than I am," Ray added.

"I guess I'm glad I got a chance to sleep on the flight!" chuckled Emily.

Updike verbally stepped into the conversational space after everyone's amusement at Emily's statement. "That training simulation-thing you ran with Skepsi, Ray -- can we reuse that? I'd think it'd help us get through all that material a lot quicker."

"Perhaps -- I'll have to look at the technique later, to see how much we can automate it, if at all. If we can automate it, we can probably enchant something that we can offer for use. If not, it'll take either Tauriz or me to run it, and as you can imagine, we've got a lot going on right now. We'll also have to look into safety issues -- how to safely break it remotely in case something happens like a fire or whatever while someone's in the field."

"So, you can set up magic that others can use without needing your help?"

"Yep! For instance, the squad of Skepsi we're taking with us on this trip have some disk-shaped gems that we enchanted to assist with general medical tasks -- anesthesia, closing wounds, that kind of thing. We've got a deep library, for lack of a better word, of enchantments we have access to, and we can go beyond those billions of years of detailed expertise as needed."

Nodding thoughtfully, Updike turned to Emily. "Boss, I'd like to kick open your special project from lab three. I suspect it'd be quite helpful."

Looking thoughtful, Emily slowly nodded. "I think we can do that, but it'll take a bit to get the hardware shipped."

After bouncing the idea off Ray via Hinn, Tauriz offered, "With your permission, we can replicate the hardware at a sub-atomic level at will, if you perceive urgency in doing so."

All three Tongxin staffers stared at her in shock. "You can do that? Without having seen it, or even knowing what it can do?"

"We could," Ray confirmed, "but we won't without your approval. I know we haven't signed any NDAs with you folks, but we figure that turnabout is fair play. I won't be using your secrets any quicker than you'll be using mine, as long as we're working together. And even after that, I wouldn't outside of life-threatening situations."

Emily eyed her coworkers, discussing the situation without words. Coming to a consensus, she asked, "What limitations do you have on this replication capability?"

"Ever hear of the magical theory of contagion? Basically, it states that everything you interact with leaves a link, an impression of what you've touched or considered. It's more true than not, and it's also somewhat of a limiting factor. Anything we are aware of, in appropriate detail, we can leverage to expand our perceptions and knowledge. You mentioned the capability and have significant experience with it -- it seems you're even the primary source of many of its breakthroughs if I understand what some of my newest senses are telling me correctly. Since you did, we can, um, bridge from your physical presence here to gather more about its intent, design, location, and capabilities. I've deliberately blocked myself from going too far down such rabbit holes without explicit intent, or else I could never do anything due to information overload. I've recently found that most humans have an incredible breadth of contacts and experiences, closer to Hinn on average than the other mortal species our records indicate. Exceptional individual mortals can have greater breadth, mind you. Humans, in general, have expanded their numbers and depths of connection to the point they beggar any other mortals other than Hinn. Maybe once the Binn, those that embodied the essence of intelligence or reason, could have been close, too. As such, trying to comprehend all the capabilities that specific humans link to would be a very difficult task."

"So, anything I or any of us have worked on, you'd be able to recreate?"

"In short, can we? Yes. Will we? Not without your permission unless we feel lives are on the line, and no better options exist. We also need to get a lot of detail about whatever it is to be able to recreate it, so in most cases, we'd also need to take additional steps to get to the point where we could. These steps could be done in many different ways, with or without your assistance, frankly."

"That's unexpected," Emily said thoughtfully. "Is this covered in that book you provided us, Tauriz?"

"Indirectly, yes," she confirmed. "The book covers magic as understood by Hinn, but outside of samum there are lesser degrees of completeness. What you are likely looking for though is not an appreciation of magic in general, but rather an explanation of Hinn itself. Hinn is effectively one pinnacle of magical capability, as it is precisely the combination of the life experience of all Hinn."

Interjecting, Ray said, "If I may, I should clarify something here for you. The names were confusing to me originally, Emily. There's the mortal species, Hinn, but there's also the capability which this species considers their defining feature -- the ability to sort through nearly the whole of each Hinn's experience, back throughout the bulk of the species' existence. This retrieval happens effectively instantaneously, allowing someone to find the most optimal response to any given situation that another Hinn had previously attempted or envisioned. This body of knowledge and the ability to access it is also called Hinn."

"How can that not be overwhelming?" Annya wanted to know.

"It's been polished and improved on ov generations of Hinn, and a Hinn generation is a dozen or more human generations. Each generation has also built off of the direct and complete experience of the prior generations. They optimized it pretty well, but even so, I understand that the vast majority of mortals who got access to what we now call Hinn without growing up with it have had significant problems. For whatever reason, I seem to have had very few of those problems. I blame much of it on the oddities of how I got access to Hinn, but other experts have told me that some of it comes from my mental oddities and experiences. Either way, I'm still growing in my ability to access and use Hinn."

"Would we have access to Hinn?" asked Updike.

"We can export information from Hinn for you, as Tauriz did with that text on magic. I think we may be able to set up something like searchable access to Hinn as well, but that would be significantly more complicated and require some trial to get it right. As far as accessing Hinn-the-knowledge as Tauriz or I do, that's been tightly tied to becoming Hinn-the-species, and would be significantly more difficult than just getting you access. Plus, you'd probably develop cognitive problems when you got access to it."

"I'd kinda skipped the downsides," muttered Mac. "Gettin' access to it might be a problem fer me, huh?"

"As Ray said, very few mortals have done well with coping with Hinn once their thought patterns matured," Tauriz replied. "Given the knowledge both Hinn and humans have gathered, we might eventually be able to improve those odds, but we might not be able to as well. It would simply be a gamble at this point. With your unique nature, Mac, the risks would likely differ from those humans experience."

"Back to the previous point, I'd like to hold off on the lab three capability for the moment," Emily decided. "While it'd be helpful, we have too much on our plates as is."

"Fair enough. Roughly how much space would we need if we were to recreate it?" asked Ray.

"Approximately half the size of one of your basements, plus significant power and liquid hydrogen level cooling support."

Nodding, Ray said, "We're already looking at expanding into one of the adjacent properties. While we could create a fourth basement level if we needed, I'd prefer to use existing space if we could. So if there's an urgent need for space, ask, and we'll see what we can do then, but we're working on getting more elbow room at the same time."

With the people around the table nodding their understanding, the conversation hit a gap. After a moment, Tomaz asked, "So, our immediate priorities haven't changed, then, Ray?"

"Nope! We're still planning on driving to the airport in about four, four and a half hours and heading up to Lake Placid."

"Is that where these competitors are meeting you, Ray?" asked Emily.

"Yep, the Jann asked us to be on top of one of the islands in the lake at sundown. With the scheduling such as it is, we'll need to leave here before eleven. We expect that the meeting won't be there, but rather some sort of conveyance will show up there, and we'll end up meeting with their leader someplace else. Which is the point of all the electronics in the pack Annya provided."

"It covers sonic and broad-spectrum EM, with specific capabilities in optics, lidar, GPS, wifi, shortwave, and cell, Emily."

"Pretty hefty capabilities. Good. Threat detection?"

"I didn't have much I could throw at that quick, boss. Sorry, Ray."

"It's fine -- this is more than I would have expected as is. Anything above this would almost be gilding the lily," Ray commented as he mixed up a mug of coffee. "Hey, Emily? How do you handle commendations?"

"I take your point, Ray -- she's earned one."

"If it's expensive, I'll split the cost with you, Emily."

"We can do that, thanks, Ray."

"Yes, Ray -- thank you!" Annya beamed.

"Positive reinforcement is a GOOD thing!" Ray replied.

"So. Back to the trip. I take it Annya is staying back here?" asked Emily.

"Yes, I'd wanted her to bring you up to speed, and I hadn't been sure if Updike there'd be joining you this quickly or not. Glad to all three of you here, though."

"We'll get started today and start shifts tonight. You'll have at least one of us awake and available going forward, Ray. We'll be automating system warnings as well, but we'll go over that more later if that's OK."

"Perfectly fine. I hope you won't mind if I hope you three end up being somewhat bored with your primary jobs?"

"Ray! With all the reading we've got already, I really, really doubt we'll be bored. Just getting all your electronics up to snuff is going to take us quite a while," Emily said.

"Oh, and Emily?" interjected Annya. "We're helping Skepsi set up the perimeter. We've got a bunch of sensors ordered, some of which will be arriving later today, the rest within a week. Ray's gone for getting them up and working quick versus perfect, and then going back and tweaking them. We'll camouflage what we can after everything's dialed in. We'll have a cleared install team here starting the end of the week for at least seven days straight, more if we need them. I figured we'd get everything running and see where we go from there."