Effect

Cupertino, California

October 5^th

2:02pm

"I am ready for that. Oh, I'm so ready for that."

You need to proceed cautiously. When first exposed to the Overnet, there is the tendency to try to tap too much power. This can cause feedback loops that may result in the destruction of the entity and the surrounding area.

I could see what Monitor meant. Even just using the passive sensory capabilities of the overnet had been almost overwhelming, like hitting the pleasure center of the brain directly. Being able to change things must be an insidiously powerful feeling, and even now I could hear it calling to me. Without Monitor there, I had to admit that there was a good chance that nothing would have held me back, that I would have rushed headlong into the use of that power.

For the first time, I understood at a gut level the maxim that "absolute power corrupts absolutely." I had never really believed it before... but seeing how difficult it was for me to not run out, to fly, to create or destroy things as I saw fit, I had started to believe it.

There is another danger. The usage of power is like lighting a flare. We must be careful to not attract the attention of the Core.

"Okay, how do we do that?"

We will start with extremely small steps and build up. We will stay below the level at which it can be perceived by the Core, although there is always a risk. Please fill the bathtub with water.

I went back into the bathroom, plugged the drain, and filled the bathtub with water.

Now I want you to try and heat the water in the bathtub.

“How should I visualize it?”

The visualization turns out to be different for every person. You will have to find your own metaphors.

I summoned the Overnet without problems – the odd mental twist that had first blocked me was trivial now. I first tried to perceive the bathtub at the level of individual molecules, tried speeding the individual’s molecular motion up in the hopes of heating up the water. I closed my eyes, tried to concentrate, and visualized the molecules moving faster and faster… I opened my eyes, looked at the water, and then dipped my hand into it. Nope.

I stepped back, and thought for a moment.

I raised the level of abstraction. I saw the water, and imagined a bright yellow stream of energy pouring into it, heating it up, coruscating with raw force, turning the water into steam.

Nothing.

So, instead, I closed my eyes, and I didn’t just imagine a stream of energy pouring into the water, I instead knew that energy was pouring into the water, heating it up.

I looked again. Nothing.

Okay. I envisioned hot pokers being dropped into the water. I pretended that there was an imaginary faucet pouring hot water into the bathtub. I saw little Maxwell’s demons running around the periphery of the water, letting all the slow moving molecules out and the fast-moving molecules in. I pretended elves were churning the water with their feet, making it hotter and hotter.

Still nothing.

“I can’t find it.”

This part takes substantial practice, and you are not of the Core to begin with. But the need is pressing.

I tried, then, for half an hour more, but I was finally getting frustrated, the work of trying to come up with different metaphors for heating bathwater finally getting to me. It was like previously, when I had tried to tie into the Overnet for the first time – there was no feedback, no indication that I was getting closer, simply a plain negative response, with no hint as to what might work better.

“I’m going for a walk,” I said. I disconnected my link with Monitor and went outside. My house typically suburban, and was within walking distance of one of those little strip malls that seem to dot everywhere the population rises above a certain density. There must be some sort of innate economic rule, I thought, that demands that the requisite one bookstore, one doughnut shop, and one sandwich shop open in an area with more than 1,000 people within 5 minutes of driving distance.

I realized after the third or fourth time that I was once again automatically looking at the auras of people as they walked by, that the usage of information from the Overnet had become reflexive with me. So why couldn’t I make the switch to changing things? What was the mental key that would unlock that ability? I walked around and observed the people for a while, not trying to think about Gwen, not thinking about Monitor.

I went back and Monitor and I tried to work on heating up the water, but nothing worked, and after a couple of hours I had to call it quits.

Cupertino, California

October 6^th

I spent the day in front of fiction section of my bookcase. I am one of those strange individuals that has read every book in their bookcase, even rereads them, and I knew them all well enough that I could just look at the first couple of pages and recall the plot. So, for every book, I would pull the book out, look it over, and try to take the interesting metaphors within and apply them to a bucket of water that was beside me.

Stephen R. Donaldson. I pretended that I wielded the white gold, sent a bar of power into the bucket. Nothing happened. The book hit the floor.

Robert Heinlein. I just needed to switch the bucket with a bucket in another universe where the water in the bucket happened to be much hotter. Nothing happened. I threw the book to the floor.

Roger Zelazny. It wasn’t the bucket that switched universes, it was me, as I walked along the pathways of Amber to find the universe that had the bucket that I wanted. Nothing.

L.E. Modesitt, Jr. I was a black magician, increasing the disorder in the bucket, creating chaos in the universe. Nothing was created, chaos or otherwise.

Some of them were a stretch, or even silly:

Dick Francis. A horse was drinking from the bucket, sweat pouring off its mane after a hard race, hot breath warming the bucket. Nothing.

John Grisham. I imagined the bucket as a jury, each molecule ready to vote on whether to move or not, and I tried to convince the jury. Nothing.

Louis McMaster Bujold. I pretended that I had a nerve disruptor, aimed at the bucket, pulled the trigger. No effect.

Piers Anthony. I need something a lot, the water in the bucket to be hot. No go.

I spent the day doing this, and when I was done I had cleared every shelf of the fiction, and they lay in a huge pile on the floor, and the bucket still stood there, unchanged and unwavering.

Cupertino, California

October 7^th

I spent the day in meditation.

I went to the local home store, bought four bags of gravel, drove them back home, and painfully dragged each bag in turn and split it open and poured the contents into my backyard. I took a garden rake and then evenly spread the gravel all over my backyard. I then sat cross-legged in the gravel and tried to achieve Zen state.

I imagined:

A student was sitting down contemplating a bucket filled with water, and his master came along.

“Master, how am I to make the water in this bucket hot?”

The master considered. “When you say water, or bucket, or hot, you draw a line between you and the universe.”

“But how else am I to ask the question?”

“When you realize that there is no question to ask, then you will reach enlightenment.”

I tried everything. I meditated. I placed rocks in the gravel, arranged it into aesthetic patterns, and considered the patterns as reflections of the universe. I tried to erase the borders and barriers between me and everything else.

Nothing worked of state. I could reach the state of mind that allowed me to read the universe so easily, but I couldn’t do anything else.

A student was sitting down contemplating a bucket filled with water, and his master came along.

“Master, how am I to make the water in this bucket hot?”

The master tipped over the bucket with his foot.

The student looked at his master, who said nothing, and then stood up and picked up the bucket to fill it with water again. When the student reached the enclosure, the master said, “Boy!”

At that moment, the student was enlightened.

But nothing was working for me, and I wasn’t reaching enlightenment.

Cupertino, California

October 13^th

It had gone like this, day after day, with no results. Today Monitor and I had just tried working for the past three hours, on anything and everything – heating water in the tub, dimming the lights, making noises, moving objects – but nothing had worked. I had run and rerun through thousands of different metaphors and patterns and mental states, and nothing had been effective, and it was just at the point where I was getting frustrated and even the computer intelligence of Monitor appeared to be losing patience.

A critical juncture is fast approaching. I had hoped that you would be able to move to the next level of facility with the Overnet, but I do not believe that we will be able to wait. There is someone that you need to contact.

“Who?” I asked.

A member of the Core.

“I thought I was trying to avoid the Core.”

That is true. However, he is disposed to be friendly towards humans. It is worth the risk.

“Okay, where is he?”

That information is not available to me.

“Excuse me?”

I do not know his exact location. You will need to find and locate him.

“You mean I have to find him? Why can’t you just tell me where he is?”

He has somehow developed a way of blocking communication and hiding his location from others on the Overnet. The best that I can do is to give you an approximate locus, and then you will have to try and narrow it down from there. I will assist if I can, but I do not believe that the Overnet can provide this information.

“Do you know what he looks like?”

No, any of the Core have the ability to change their appearance without difficulty. He is very likely male, but that is not assured, and his age range could be anything from 15 to 65.

“How am I supposed to find him?”

He is a creature of habit, and as such may have predictable patterns that you may be able to use in tracking him down.

“Who is this, anyway? Why am I trying to find him?”

He is the one member of the Core that has developed a true affinity for humans. While I cannot narrow his location to an exact position, I nonetheless can read his emotional states at brief times when the randomness of his veil allows a brief peephole. He is in a state of mind that may make him extremely receptive to helping you in your situation, and he has unique experiences and insights that may help you develop your powers.

“I don’t suppose you have a name, or anything, that is going to help me narrow him down?”

I can provide you with a list of known aliases, if that will help. It probably will not, since he will certainly have changed his name. He has had one persona that is fairly well known to you, although I do not know how this information can assist you.

“What is that?”

Leonardo da Vinci.