Introduction

I could feel it, a shaft of pure energy heading for my heart at post light speed. I’m asleep but it comes. I must retaliate; I must use my own Logic to block it. They say I’m strong but I’ve never really been tested. I’ve always had Khris with me, who is the attacker? Terran? I don’t’ know. Here goes the shield… AHHH the PAIN!
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Who am I? Where am I? Is this heaven? AH the agony, I feel my mind with my mind. What do I mean? A barrier? THE SUFFERING! The barrier’s gone, I remember now.

Chapter 1

I was born Joshua, I’ve forgotten what my last name was and it doesn’t really matter now. I am now Kheldar, Lord of Haven, one of the two countries in Epsilon, World of Logic, psychic power. I’ve come a long way from when I was born 40 years ago. Yes I have changed a lot and sometimes I do wish for a rest from the rigors of running a planet.  Life on Epsilon is… different; then life was on earth. Yet I’m sure you’re wondering how I got here, why an earthling rules a nation on a planet of Logic and of course how to come here yourself.

I was born, if I remember, in the United States of America. I had two parents, my mum and my dad. Later I had one brother. We were considered middle class and my dad could provide for us quite well. Early in life I traveled around various countries of the world and picked up a lot of tricks to fitting into new situations. When I graduated I studied commerce and science as my majors. When I finished college I decided to go into science as my career. I became a Geologist, for a company I don’t remember. I traveled to various different mineral rich sites across the Solar system to assess the effort and efficiency that a mining operation would need and yield. I also did a bit of mining myself on the side. So it wasn’t all that special that I discovered a sort of gateway/portal near a deposit of extremely rare Kyrian crystals on Pluto. No one is actually sure what composition Kyrian crystals are made of, all electrical devices shut down when near it. It’s great for anti vehicle weapons and robot suppression devices. I actually have a reputation for extracting Kyrian from the ground without the dreaded “Mechanical Mindlessness.” See, while Kyrian may shut down electronic machines, the mechanical sides of devices continue to operate without AI guidance. This often leads to dangerous actions of the machinery and often lost lives. Thus human controlled devices are often needed. Of which I was most proficient.

However back to that way gate. When I found it, I didn’t really notice that it was a trans-dimensional gateway. I mean things like this don’t happen everyday you know. So since it looked like part of the tunnel, I walked through it. Not the smartest thing in the world to do but yeah I did. As I stepped through, I walked into the most different world I’ve ever been in. First and foremost I stepped into a lake. That was part of the problem. The bloody gateway was above a freaking lake. So I was in a VERY different PLACE from where I was used to, I was soaking wet and to make it worst, Epsilon, as I learned was the name of the planet I had landed, was in the middle of winter. So I was bloody cold. The only thing that was going for me were my knives. Oh I didn’t tell you? I’m an archaic weapons freak. I used to have a sword in my room; I now have a few other weapons instead. So just my luck I also had my combat knife in my left thigh holster, my throwing knife up my left arm, my Swiss army knife on my belt and of course my multi-purpose survival knife in my boot. However there was not a knife that I loved more then my jet-black 6.2-inch, ½ pound, single sided butterfly knife. Just the right weight, just the right length, the perfect knife for me.

Luckily my knives are all made of plasteel. Non-corrosive, unbluntable and almost unbreakable so while they were wet it didn’t really matter. Well I imagine when Selron found me I wasn’t in that great of a condition. I was wet, cold and probably dying, and I looked slightly different then he did as well. But nonetheless he picked me up and placed me in his vehicle. He told me a few months later I was rushed to a hospital where I was given the finest medical assistance, but since I was only suffering from hypothermia it wasn’t that serious. And that is how I woke up. Semi-naked, with none of my knives on me and in a strange environment with weird looking humans around me. Of course my next course of action was to bolt. However, the nurses had other plans.  Halfway through my spring out of bed my body stopped moving, as if bands of soft iron had wrapped around me and prevented me from moving. Here was my first experience of the psychic power of the Epsilonions.

Now let me give you a quick overview as to where the Epsilonions came from and why they have psychic powers. Essentially they were humans from Earth. According to the current calendar it is the year 3058. Around the year 2560 a group of earthlings left Terra to find a plane to settle. However, after 20 years of light speed travel, Earth lost all communication with them right after they discovered a planet to inhabit. Since then they have been assumed dead by the original planet Earth. The Kyrian crystals, a natural mineral of the planet, have prevented the colonists from developing in the electronic technology department. This was the reason why their communications have shut down. However after two hundred years of settlement a few colonists discovered that they had the ability to move thing with their minds and also to talk to each other over distances. Soon the entire human contingent of Epsilon had psychic ability, albeit of varying degrees. Inevitably the individuals with the highest power of psychic ability or highest “Logic” started battling for power. Out of this battle with modern weaponry and psychic destruction emerged two nations. In the Southeast lay Seringor, home to the supposedly devious and vicious Serons. Once led by their leader Ringor, his powerful and evil son Shappus has taken over in his father’s dying days. In the Northwest lived the honourable but powerful Mavrons. In the beginning led by their great mage Roven, Roven died during the War of the Minds and left his leadership to his son, Selron. Yes the same Selron who rescued me, and now back to the story.

Soon after my mental suppression a young man of about 20 walked into my room. This was the dude that rescued me, though I didn’t know this it at the time. He placed his hands on my head, from which I was unable to flinch, and then he spoke, not telepathically, vocally.
‘Greetings Joshua, you are welcome to the planet of Epsilon and the land of Haven.’
Well as you can imagine I was very surprised to hear English coming out of his mouth. So I ventured a question. ‘Um if I am on a different planet, how do you know English?’
Now it wasn’t the world’s most intelligent question but Selron didn’t really answer it correctly, not to deceive me, but because he himself didn’t know the answer.
He said ’we have always spoken this language, though you have a few different words, I have divined them telepathically from your mind’
Now if we had just followed this conversation till the end we could have avoided many years of conflict and suffering, but I guess my life wouldn’t have been quite as exciting as ended up being if he had learned where I came from.

But sadly the doctor came in and politely but firmly told Sel to leave. However I was fully fit and minutes later I walked out of the hospital to see for the first time the planet of Epsilon.

It was nearing dusk and the stars were coming out, not surprisingly I was on the edge of a body of water and just over the top rose a moon that seemed much larger then most moons I’ve seen. Selron then stepped in front of me.
‘That is our moon, Pluto’
‘Pluto?’ I said ‘I was on a planet called Pluto before I stumbled through the portal into this place.’
‘I don’t know why’ he said ‘but lets get you home to meet my family, like it or not you are a very special person.’
It’s at that point that I realized he was right; I was the first sentient life form to ever communicate with this planet, which made me famous. And really, famous didn’t really cut it. For in the next few days I would undergo so many tests, I felt like I had lost my stomach three times and my head once. I am very fortunate that I was one of a kind and sentient or there is no telling what they might have done to me.

But that night I rode in Sel’s “Hovar” his sort of hover vehicle that he said could reach speeds of 300 kph and could rise 1 km into the air for almost indefinite amounts of time. He slyly added that should the power fail he could always propel us with his Logic around the world. It’s then that I realized two things.
Shit, these people are psychic.
This Selron must be a pretty powerful to be so cocky about his powers.
And as it turns out I was right, on both counts.

When I arrived at Selron’s home, I was thoroughly confused with the powers of Logic and how to achieve it. Deep inside I was also wondering how a different planet spoke English but sadly I never brought it up and after that night didn’t think about it for 40 years. I didn’t have much time to reflect on seemingly inconsequential things. For that night was the most fateful night of my life. It was the start of my ascension to power and of the fulfilment of my destiny. That night I met Khris.

Khris was Selron’s sister. Her Logical ability almost rivaling his, she was a formidable opponent and a just as formidable ally. She wasn’t gorgeous in the most classic sense of the word, most people would have wrote her short stature off as uninviting, actually she wasn’t really that short and Khris was beautiful to me and more importantly she was gorgeous in her heart. When I walked into the house, the first thing I noticed was well… Khris. She wasn’t looking at me, and neither was Sel but inside my heart knew that there was someone that was worth a whole lot.

After Sel had informed his sister of who I am (and of the political implications) she walked up to me with a cheerful grin.
‘Hi my name is Khrisine, but everyone calls my Khris.’
I held out my hand to shake hers. She somewhat hesitantly took it and then dropped it very fast. Sel came to her rescue
‘Epsilonions don’t often touch each other physically as it strengthens the telepathic link between the two people and often leads to the stronger one overriding the weaker’s shields just by mistake.’

Ok here let me explain a bit of how the Logic of the Epsilonions worked. All people on Epsilon have some sort of Logical ability. However this ability may range in strength. Selron and Khris were rather special people as their Logic ranked in some of the highest in the Epsilon and the highest in Haven itself. Logic is often used to determine rank, as people with higher strength and ability often end up with higher military and political power. There are a few exceptions but not many. Logic is also used by soldiers, for while Epsilonions fight with swords and knives or the equivalent there of, Logic is a great advantage in a battle and is used in all things from drawing wrist blades to hooking enemies’ feet out from under them. People with low Logical ability can still be important and famous, but the road to success is often harder. So simply, like on Earth people who are smarter often do better in life. So too people with more Logic do normally advance further. However power in Logic doesn’t mean intelligence, which is just as important in leadership (thankfully Sel and Khris had both). The only problem with this system is that people can’t get stronger in Logical ability, you’re born with it, and it’s mostly genetic.

Also, on Epsilon, the inhabitants have found a way to shield their thoughts from other people reading them. This is called shielding, which is also the name for blocking a psychic attack and preventing others from using their Logic. It is very impolite to get behind other people’s shields and even the weakest can often detect it, but it is sometimes done, maliciously or benignly by accident.

However for me, I had no mind shields, so quite unintentionally, Khris read the front of my mind, and what was I thinking of? Why, how beautiful she was of course. And since Khris has a rather low esteem of herself, she was rather shocked. Sel just thought she was being plain shy so he quickly apologized for his sister and moved along to dinner.

Dinner was unfortunately very much like home; ok they had a sort of beef, with a type of rice and some small roundish bright blue vegetables. There was soup and there was a drink that tasted a lot like orange juice. On the whole I was rather surprised, as the beef tasted just like beef back home, the rice just like normal rice and the vegetable actually like peas. All these things were indicators of the truth of Epsilonion origin, I only wish I could have known.

So that night I was talking in the living room with Sel about his world and mine. I was actually trying to learn as much as I could cause I was kinda resigned to the fact that I would be staying here for awhile. Epsilon has a 26-hour day, which is very close to Earth’s. So at about 11 o’clock Sel decided he was going to turn in for the night. He showed me to my room, which thankfully had a very traditional bed, and bade me goodnight.

Now I don’t know about you, but I generally think a lot at night, and this night of all I had a whole to think about. So I was tossing and turning at night while thinking of the past events. I was also thinking of Khris and all the things that implied. It’s then really, that first night, when the thought really hit me. I was on an ALIEN planet, with people I don’t know and may never be able to go back home. I then sat up right then and there and said
‘Shit’
Then I heard a noise coming from the hallway outside my room. Then a quiet knock sounded on my door. I called ‘come in.’

Surprisingly Khris opened the door. As you may imagine, I was rather shocked, girl, room, night? And I had thought better of her. However my fears were groundless, explained away by her words.
‘You called?’
Me called? What? So I replied
‘No, not really.’
‘But I could hear you call my name in my room?’
What?!?! I was trying to sleep, I was just thinking about her, and…
‘Were you reading my mind Khris?’
‘No I most certainly was not’ She looked very shocked
‘Well I didn’t call you’ at that moment I wished Selron would come in and explain to me what had just happened.
‘I’m very sure I heard you Joshua in fact, it almost sounded like you were talking in my mind.’
At that very moment Sel walked in. ‘You called Joshua?’
‘What is this?!? Both of you think I’ve called you but I haven’t said anything.’
Selron replied ‘I distinctly heard you say, “I wish Selron would came and explain what had just happened”
I was totally stunned, I hadn’t said anything, but I had just thought it. I told Selron as much. His mouth dropped
‘Joshua, you must have gained some telepathic ability, damn; our earliest ancestors took years to pick up traces of what you are doing in a few days. Here try and pick up this chair.’

What happened next would be a family joke for years to come. I picked up the chair all right, but when I turned back to Selron and Khris they were both standing on their heads 2 feet in the air.
‘Put us down you nitwit’ screamed Khris, whose nightgown and skirt were falling around her. I quickly dropped my focus and they both tumbled into a heap on the floor.
‘We didn’t anticipate a lift so we couldn’t shield’ explained Selron as his sister darted out of the room. ‘I’m afraid Khris is a bit picky about what others see of her’
‘I’d say she has nothing to worry about, she’s very beautiful’ I semi-sighed.
‘You kidding? She’s not that hot, now my girlfriend is different…’
Right after he had said that I picked him up logically and threw him out the window, or that’s what I wanted to do, suddenly I found myself suspended in the air and my mental abilities useless.
‘Sorry Josh I was just trying to get you to use your power. You should know that you’re almost as powerful as Khris, and you may be getting stronger…how the hell did you do that?’
For while he was speaking I had broken his shielding and pinned him against the wall, logically since he was actually stronger then me physically. ‘I don’t know, what wrong with it?’
‘You can’t break a shield! No one can, once you’re shielded, unless you’re far more powerful then the other person there is no way you can break a shield. Besides when you break a shield the shielder often blacks out and at the best has a splitting headache. What you just did was impossible!’
‘Well I’m not from around here so I’ll take your word for it but would you care to try again?’
‘Sure’
And once again I was suspended in the air, shielded, and once again I broke it without hurting Selron. Only years later scientist figured out why I have such strong powers. Actually I’m not breaking shields, I just tend to slip out of them, that’s why I don’t have to be so much more powerful then Sel, I just slipped out of his shield rather then overrode it. We suspected it’s because I was from a different place then they were. But we will never know.

The Logical power of the Epsilonions stems in part from their sun and part from their Kyrian crystals. The crystals emit a sort of radiation that is what blocks the transfer of electronic data. When this radiation enters the human body and combines with the radiation given by the sun it changes the chemical composition of the brain very slightly. However this change sparks a reaction that eventually allows the human to move things with their mind and become a Logic. The reason I picked this up so fast was my evolutionary age. Because the Epsilonions were 500 years more evolved then I was they took longer to change the composition of their brains. I was relatively younger and accepted the change easier.

Using your Logic can really tire you out. In fact it’s almost as bad as doing it physically, so after that very amazing night, I went to sleep for quite some time. I woke up 18 hours later, to a small breakfast and 3 days of testing and 3 nights of learning to use my talent.

Three days after my arrival, I was fully checked out and it was decreed by all the medical experts that I was very closely related physically to Epsilonions. However the only difference was that I seemed to have a less evolved body. So I was slightly shorter then most Epsilonions and they had larger muscles and organs. 20 years later we figured out this was because they were a lot older then I, but at the time we wrote it off to alien differences.

However Joshua was a very unEpsilonion name and both Selron and Khris suggested that I took a new name to be more accepted. So when I was presented to the nation of Haven, I was named as Kheldar Dagashi, powerful Logic and swift blade fighter. I was most impressed. They organized a banquet for me, to which all the mostly Logical and powerful people were invited. It was to be held in 2 days.

For the next two days both Selron and Khris taught me the etiquette of Haven. At this particular time I was considered equal in power to Selron himself, which made me one of the most powerful Logics on Epsilon. I was shown how to put up and keep up mind shields and how if I wanted to, how to override shields with tactile contact. It was during these sessions, with Khris, that I discovered my second very special talent. I was practicing my mind shields when Khris walked into the room and said she would teach me how to override other shields. In walked one of her maids, who was far less Logical then Khris or Selron. She said ‘This is Asha she’s my maid and you’ll be practicing how to read minds through shields on her as she is fairly weak.’
‘Isn’t that a bit harsh Khris’ I said with disapproval of such pride in her own abilities.
‘Oh shut up Kheldar, she knows she’s weak and she’s also my friend so she doesn’t care.’
‘Oh’ I was suitably chastened. So I held out my hand to Asha and said ‘Hi’ She took it and immediately I could read all the thoughts in her mind, as if she had no barriers at all. She was indeed Khris’ friend and she was also a damn good cook. She liked to swim and she had a boyfriend. At which point I decently stopped intruding into her mind before I knew too much. However Asha hadn’t detected me picking her mind and was looking at me expectantly. Khris was getting impatient. ‘Well, read her mind, or try at least.’
‘I did Khris’
‘As if you did, she hasn’t felt anything’
‘But I’ve read her mind’ And I then proceeded to relate all the things I knew about her stopping short of Asha’s favourite cuddle spot.
Khris was dumbfounded. ‘You never cease to break more rules everyday, do you? Oh well it won’t be so easy at the banquet, everyone there will be very strong in Logic.’
‘Oh’ I said ‘in which case I guess I should practice on someone a bit stronger’
‘Yes I think you should’ She somewhat haughtily replied.
‘Ok lead me on, oh great teacher’ I said and extended my hand. She then somewhat unconsciously took my hand and ensued to take me to see whomever else she had in mind. But it was all a trick, by me, to gain tactile contact with her, and at that moment I could read Khris’ mind like it was wide open. I found out she liked daffodils instead of roses, that she was rather insecure about her looks, that she adored her older brother, and surprisingly that she was afraid of me for some reason. And lastly but most importantly, I read that she thought I was kinda of…CUTE?!? Me CUTE??  WhatEVER. But I most graciously didn’t scream at her because I was so happy at discovering that I could read anyone’s mind. So I was walking with her; my hand still in hers, which was somewhat pleasant, and I said ‘so what colour are daffodils on this planet?’ She looked at me funny.
‘Why do you ask?’
‘So I can recognize them when I pick some for you this afternoon.’
‘You’ve been talking to my brother haven’t you?’
‘About?’
‘Me loving daffodils’
‘No actually I picked it out of your mind, along with the fact that you adore your older brother, that you’re afraid of me and that you think I’m rather cute.’
At that particular moment Khris dropped my hand and bolted. Or tried to, I stopped her in her tracks and asked, ‘what are you afraid of Khris? That I’ll overthrow your brother? That I’m evil? Or is it something else?’
‘That none of your business! Leave me alone! Don’t you know it’s very rude to use Logic to imprison others? Especially your friends!’
I let her go, and turned around. I heard her shoes skeeter off into the door. I was most unhappy. Why was she afraid of me? I could always pick it out of her mind, but I loved her too much for that. Wait a minute? What did I just say?

It was then that I realized what I felt for Khris, I loved her, and it’s then that I also realized what she was afraid of. She loved me too but didn’t want to for some reason.