The Watchers: A Space Opera Novella Read Free Page B

mother, how the process affects the administrator, the hospital staff and to note any specific thoughts of mutiny, particularly outside the mother.
    Breathe. A thirty split shouldn’t be bad. Not as bad as splitting among hundreds, Watching for the Unification thought: The thought that will lead to the people of the Ancillary Universe to realize they are not unique, but an offshoot of our Universe. Thousands of years ago, the old Imperium during the Yersemic plague sent humans into another Universe to experiment on, a guaranteed quarantine in effect. They discovered the cure, but the Yersemic plague was already too advanced, the catalyst for the Imperium’s fall.
    The people in the Ancillary Universe were left undiscovered for thousands of years as civilization in the Prime Universe recovered. When they were discovered, the Watch was formed to monitor them. They had been exposed to diseases unique to the Ancillary Universe, diseases that would likely cause an epidemic if they were allowed to return. Plus, these humans, confined to one planet so late in their evolution had turned violent and warlike, competing over limited resources. There is concern that though their military capability was initially inferior, their strategies and cunning surpasses our own. And now their technological level is almost near ours, heightening the worry.
    It’s difficult to skim for the Unification thought. It’s not one thought per say, but a train of thought backed by scientific and mathematical ability and knowledge. It requires both a surface skim and a deeper pass to assess, which is difficult to pull off. The deeper pass is usually what sucks me in, and I have to be pulled back by Joslyn.
    This isn’t my first solo gig, but it is the first without a senior Watcher observing. If there’s trouble, it isn’t likely that the Regency official posted in the room to monitor me will be able to help.
    Official Delphine is an attractive woman, with a hard face that immediately suggests dislike of whatever she happens to be looking at. Her hair is short and black, tucked in behind her ears up off her collar. In a station where everyone is bald by convention and security (who’s a Watcher and who isn’t?), someone with hair stands out. There’s a sheen to it that I find I like.
    She seems to know a little about the consciousness projectors, how to secure a person into it and how to set the location on the control panel, but not much beyond that—it’s expected the Regency would have intelligence on the projectors and would have even tried running a few of their own. But there’s a secret to them reserved only for the Directorate.
    She flips the switch.
    Slow, steady, breathe in through my nose, controlled exhale out through my mouth. Close my eyes, find peace in the darkness. I am not Emre. I am not a single person. I am neither a man or woman, nor adult or child. I am neither. I am both. I am all.
    I am the Watch.
    Slip .

CHAPTER THREE
    NEW FLORENCE , nighttime. Saint Thomas Hospital, four birthing mothers. Two have already given birth, tests completed, no positive results. The third, Anjanette, is delivering the placenta. Her child’s test is running. The official is a small man with a cleft chin, Gino, standing at the nurses’ station in the nursery. The test is taking longer than the other two he had done earlier. Sweat starts to form under his arms; he worries dark circles will form and that he’ll smell as a result. He thinks the cute brunette nurse keeps smiling at him. What will he tell the mother? The results: negative. The other mother, Sumiko, a petite woman of Asian descent, is in active labor, expected delivery several hours away. Her husband is held up at work. No drugs, the pain … no, it’s her anticipation that overwhelms. The pain is there, a necessary, even welcome, step. Their first child, a culmination of three years of trying. But where was Karon, her husband?
    New Florence. Northeast Memorial Hospital. One