The Road To Bangalore - Part Two
A short story in the world of John Ringo's Not That Kind of Good Guy
A brief introduction: This is part 2 of a short story set in the world of John Ringo’s Not That Kind of Good Guy. If you haven’t read it yet, the first book is available now from Baen Books. Or you can read the first draft of that book and the sequels on his Substack:
John also has several chapters from unfinished novels, so if you’ve been wondering whatever happened to Dana Parker and Tyler Vernon or what the Keldara would be doing in a zombie apocalypse, this is your chance to find out.
This story is set 20 years prior to the events in Not That Kind of Good Guy. Again, this is John’s world. I’m just playing in it. But if Baen ever decides to publish an anthology of stories in this setting, it’s ready to go.
Matt looked around the temple as he and Eric walked to the meeting with the Vishnu priest. Convincing Erin that they should move the entire family to India for a year had been way harder than convincing his work. The company had jumped at the idea of having one of their better software development managers spend a year at the new offshore office in Bangalore getting operations there up and running. Now that they were settled in, he and Eric had gone to the nearest temple and asked for a meeting. When the junior priest at the entrance had asked why, Eric had turned on his aura, told them what his powers were, and they were quickly ushered in. They were given a brief tour of the temple, and minutes later they were seated across from a man who introduced himself as the senior priest of the temple. In turn he introduced Vishnu Master Sivaramakrishnan, who sat silently watching Eric. The Vishnu looked like a twenty year old model straight out of Bollywood, but radiated a sense of serenity and wisdom that spoke of him being much older.
“Namaste,” the priest said, addressing Eric directly in heavily accented English. “How may we serve you today?”
Eric looked at Matt, who nodded quietly. They had discussed the possibility that the Vishnu would only speak to Eric, and it looked as if that guess was correct.
“My name is Eric Gibson. I have recently acquired, and the powers I have been granted are not ones that could easily be learned without the assistance of an experienced teacher. I would like to request training if possible so that I’m prepared when the Storm arrives.” Eric stumbled a bit on the formal request they had practiced, but overall Matt thought he delivered it quite well.
“I see. It is a great blessing you have received, and we are honored that you have chosen to make this request.”
Eric smiled, but the priest wasn’t finished.
“However, I am afraid we will not be able to comply. We have a treaty with the United States government regarding those who acquire powers, and we are required to inform them when one of their citizens acquires here just as they are required to notify us if one of our citizens acquired while visiting America. Despite our differences with the United States over the issue of those who have Ascended, we do not wish to see the treaty broken.”
Eric nodded. They’d expected this, and he had practiced his response.
“That’s true, but not relevant in my case. We have studied the treaty and the wording is quite clear that it only applies to American citizens who acquire while in India. I acquired two months ago in the state of Alaska, so there’s no requirement for any notifications.”
“I see.” The priest said nothing for a moment, silently considering. “Would you mind sharing with us the story of how you received your blessing?”
As Eric recounted their encounter with the bear, Matt could see the Vishnu master staring at Eric intently. He’s using his powers, Matt thought. Testing him somehow. Eric was doing a good job of not letting it distract him, but Matt could tell he was aware of the probing.
“Your father was seriously injured by the bear?” said the priest, interrupting Eric’s story. “Does he still suffer from his injuries?”
Eric looked at Matt before answering. “I’m not sure. He doesn’t complain about them but I think they still hurt. It was pretty bad.”
The priest and Master Sivaramakrishnan exchanged glances, then the priest addressed Matt directly for the first time. “All Vishnu have a limited ability to do healing with their Aura. If you would, please close your eyes.”
Matt complied, and a few seconds later he could feel a warmth move through his shoulder and chest. For a second the constant pain flared and he almost cried out, but then for the first time since the attack happened the pain truly went away. “Thank you, Sir,” he said simply when the warmth faded, nodding at Master Sivaramakrishnan. “Your generosity is greatly appreciated.”
“You are welcome,” replied the priest. “It is but a small gift to acknowledge the sacrifice you were willing to make for your son.” Turning back to Eric he continued. “Please go on.”
When Eric had completed his recitation, the priest sat back thoughtfully.
“Your suspicions are correct. The disappearance of the bear indicates that you are a Lord of Space, what is commonly called a porter.” The way he said ‘porter’ made it sound like the term was a base vulgarity.
The priest was silent for a moment. “If we do agree to provide you with training, am I correct in assuming that you do not intend to remain in India? We do not normally do this, but for a Lord of Space we would be willing to allow you to emigrate and become an Indian citizen. Along with your family, of course,” he added, almost as an afterthought.
Eric shook his head. “No, you are correct that my desire is to return to America. I may not care for the current government’s policies regarding those with powers, but it’s still my home.”
“I see. Why then do you think we should share our secrets with you?”
Eric leaned forward. This was the point that he and Matt had discussed the most. “Because the Storm is coming. However you feel about America right now, when the Storm comes we’re going to need everyone. And there aren’t many port… umm, Lords of Space, so it seems likely that there will be a lot of demand for what we do. Also, whatever the Storm is it’s probably not a good idea to just give up on half of the planet. Having at least some of us in America who are properly trained will take pressure off of India.”
The priest nodded. “There is merit in what you say. However, we will not share our knowledge with the Americans associated with their Super Affairs agency. On this we will not compromise. How can we be sure you won’t join them once you return home?”
“Ummm, because I don’t trust them? I don’t think they’d be too keen on a Super that they couldn’t contain. They’d probably find an excuse to just take my powers away if they couldn’t lock me up and study them.”
Both the priest and Vishnu Master looked both shocked and slightly ill at that. “The fact that your government practices the great blasphemy is one of the primary reasons we will not share knowledge with them. If, as you say, there is a risk that they would do this to you then we must take that into account.”
The Vishnu Master was staring intently at Eric again, his face completely devoid of expression. Eric was quietly meeting his gaze. Not in a hostile or obstinate way, but definitely not subservient. Not for the first time Matt wished that his son had a bit less stubbornness. Fat chance of that, he thought, given that he gets it from both his parents. Finally the Vishnu Master gave the barest nod.
“Very well then,” said the priest. “We will provide training.”
“Awesome!” said Eric. “I mean, thank you, Sir,” he followed up with a slight blush, noticing the stern look Matt was giving him. “I won’t let you down.”
The priest politely ignored his outburst and continued. “We can schedule the ceremony for your conversion next week, and start training the following day. We will provide you the robes for the ceremony, but you’ll need to start studying for it right away.”
“Ummm, conversion? What exactly does that mean?” asked Eric.
“You are a Christian, I believe? You will have to renounce your beliefs and formally convert to the Vishnaya faith in a public ceremony.”
“Oh,” replied Eric slowly. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.”
“It is not optional, I am afraid. We can be flexible about training an American, but we will not train anyone who does not share our beliefs. On this there can be no compromise.”
Eric was silent for several seconds. Matt was impassive on the outside, but was full of turmoil. I did not see that coming. Erin is not going to be happy about this. How are we going to ex…
His thoughts were cut off by Eric’s response.
“I understand.” Eric sighed deeply. “Getting this training is very important to me, but it’s not more important than my faith. So, thank you. I really do appreciate your willingness to give me the training, but if that’s the requirement then I’m going to have to withdraw my request.”
Matt’s jaw dropped in shock. The priest seemed equally stunned.
“Are you sure, young Lord of Space?” Matt and Eric both jumped. It was the first time Vishnu Master Sivaramakrishnan had spoken and his voice was like nothing they had ever heard. Deep and rich, it was somehow smooth and sharp at the same time. It sounded like he was speaking in a concert hall with overtones of crystal shining around every word. His voice was soft, but it filled the room and drowned out every other sound. “I have been examining you, and you have great strength. You can feel the subtle changes I am making to the fabric of space around you, and you instinctively push back on it, restoring the space to its natural state. The Lords of Space are among the most powerful of the Vishnu, and with training and effort you would stand high among us. But without the knowledge we can share, you have no hope of mastering even a fraction of your true powers. They will be wasted. The powers are also dangerous. If you try to learn them on your own it is almost certain that you will not survive.”
Eric sat silently, clearly giving serious thought to what had been said. “I’m sure,” he finally replied. “I’m not going to abandon my faith, and I’m not going to pretend to convert just to get training. That wouldn’t be honest. It wouldn’t be right. If you’re going to teach me, you have to be able to trust me. Starting off with a lie that big would make that impossible.”
There was a long pause, and then the priest rose to his feet. After a moment Matt and Eric rose too.
“So be it,” he said impassively. “I wish you well, young Lord of Space.”
Almost instantly Matt and Eric found themselves standing outside the temple. The interview was clearly over.
Matt said nothing as they began walking back to the bus station. Finally Eric broke the awkward silence.
“I’m sorry Dad. I know how much work it was to get us all here and I just threw it away and I…”
“No,” Matt interrupted. “No. Do not apologize.”
“But I…”
“No. I mean it.” Matt took a deep breath. “You were offered the kind of power that most men could never even dream of having, were tempted in a way that few could resist, and you turned away from that. You chose to trust God. You did the right thing, Eric. Never doubt it. And I’ve… I’ve never been more proud to be your father.”
Eric looked at his father in amazement, then blushed deeply as they continued on.
Eric sat at the desk in his bedroom in the small house they were renting for the year in India. A year that I just threw away, he thought morosely. Outside the window the moon shone brightly, and everyone else in the house was asleep. Except Eric. He was having second thoughts about his decision. And third thoughts. Even though both of his parents had told him that he made the right choice, he still felt like he was letting them down. Maybe I should have tried harder to convince them to let me train without converting. Or maybe I should have just been willing to go through with it, and pretended to convert. But then I would have been publicly denying my faith just to get something I want, and that’s not right. But…
As his thoughts chased themselves around in circles, he suddenly became aware that there was something happening above his bed. An instant later a young woman popped into existence, sitting cross legged right in the middle of the bed. A very beautiful young woman, he noticed quickly, popping to his feet in surprise.
“Hello,” she said softly in a perfectly ordinary voice.
Eric stood there with his mouth slightly ajar and said nothing. There was a beautiful young woman in his room. Not just beautiful, but the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Ever. In his room. Sitting on his bed. She had long black hair braided neatly into a ponytail that was draped over her shoulder and came down to rest in her lap. Her dark brown eyes twinkled and she was smiling at him.
“Hello-oh,” she said again, with a touch of laughter in her voice. “Are you okay? You are staring right at me so I know you can see me, but you are not saying anything. Hello?” She spoke English with barely any accent, clearly very comfortable with the language.
“Oh! Ummm… hi? I mean hello. How are you, I mean what are, no who… ummm, Hi!” replied Eric, his 13 year old brain still completely locked up.
The woman came to his rescue, interrupting his fumbling attempts to talk.
“My name is Seena, or Journeywoman Prachnar if you wish to be formal, and as you can probably guess, I’m a Lord of Space. You’re Eric, and you’re one too.” She smiled brightly.
“Uh, Hi. Seena.” Eric struggled to pull it together, and failed miserably as only a young teen male can do. “How did you, no, what are, but, why?”
Seena laughed quietly, then grew serious. “First things first. Let’s go somewhere that we don’t have to whisper.” Suddenly Eric found himself standing outside in a park near their house, with Seena standing next to him.
“That’s better,” she said, sitting down on a bench and gesturing at Eric to sit next to her. “Now, I’m here because every Lord of Space that tries to teach themselves how to use their power ends up dead. Most of them before we even know they exist. But we do know about you, and I’m not going to let you kill yourself. There are too few of us as it is.”
Eric looked chagrined. “I know it’s dangerous. I mean, that’s pretty obvious. I wasn’t going to…” He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
“Yes, you are. You can’t help it. Our power is too strong. You can’t just pretend it’s not there. Someday you will try. And when you do, you’ll die. Unless I help. And Aditya. That’s Apprentice Khan. He’s going to help too. Aditya is the other Lord of Space being trained by Master Siva.”
“But the Master said…” started Eric.
“No, the senior priest said. The priests are very jealous of their prerogatives, and the whole converting thing is partly because they insist on it. Personally, I really don’t care what you believe, as long as you’re alive to believe it.”
“And Master Sivaramakri… the Vishnu Master is okay with this?” asked Eric.
“Sivaramakrishnan,” replied Seena, looking slightly uncomfortable. “He would not mind, if he found out that is. I’m sure of it,” she added, clearly not sure at all of any such thing.
“This is real?” Eric asked, not quite daring to believe. “You’re really going to teach me?”
“Yes, I really am. So, are you ready to learn?”
“Yes! What do I do? Do I just think about where I want to go and…”
“Hold on! Slow down,” laughed Seena. ”You’re nowhere close to being able to port yourself anywhere yet. That comes later. Much later. First you need to know what our power does and build up your strength. Then we can start moving stuff. It’s going to take a bit.”
“Like a couple hours? Days?”
“Try weeks. If you really work hard at it. I wasn’t allowed to teleport myself at all until the eighth month of my training. I think we can go a bit faster than that, we have to go faster, but it’s still not going to be anytime soon.”
“Oh,” said Eric, clearly disappointed.
“Don’t worry,” replied Seena. “Porting isn’t the only fun thing you can do.”
“It’s not? So what can I do?”
“Let’s start at the beginning,” said Seena. “What do you know about the different powers?”
“Not much really. I mean I know there are Supers that can fly, or are super strong, or they can bend metal or blow air or other stuff like that. Just the basics I guess.”
“It’s a start,” Seena said, clearly settling into lecture mode. “The powers can be categorized into four different groups. Matter shapers, energy shapers, time shapers, and space shapers. That’s us. What you call porters, gaters, telekinetics, and invulnerables, both flyers and ground. Space shapers. I know those last two don’t really seem to fit, but trust me. Their powers come from shaping space. They operate on a completely instinctive level, so they don’t have to think about it. We’re the generalists. We can do a lot of what they do, but we have to focus. A lot. Usually it’s not worth it.”
“So how do we do it?” Eric asked.
“All Vishnu have powers - we call them chakras. There are two basic chakras you have for shaping space to move yourself or others. One is what we call… the best way to say it in English is Space Translate. That’s teleporting. It’s where we take two points or regions in space and instantly switch them. What’s in one is moved to the other, and vice versa. The other is Space Connect, where we set up a connection between two points in space. It’s similar to a gate, but we call them portals instead. What goes into the one side of the portal instantly comes out the other, just like a gate, but the way we do it is very different from what a gater does. It’s also more limited. A master gater can open a gate on the other side of the world. We don’t have that kind of range, and portals are generally smaller than gates.”
“So porters can do what gaters do? Can a gater learn to teleport?”
Seena shook her head slowly. “No, I don’t think so. At least I’ve never heard of that. And given how they make gates, I don’t see how they could. But we keep our ability to do portals quiet, so maybe? No one outside the Vishnu knows that we can do portals, and even very few of the Vishnu are aware we have that ability. As far as we know, the Chinese Lords of Space don’t seem to know how. We don’t know if they’re not aware that they can, or if they’re keeping it a secret too.”
“That makes sense I guess,” Eric replied after a moment’s thought. “Portals and porting are kind of doing the same thing.”
“The two chakras do achieve the same end result, but there are significant differences in how they work. With porting, the stronger you get, the farther apart the two spaces can be and the amount of mass you can move increases. The size of what you’re moving matters less than the mass. With portals, like with porting, your strength determines how far apart you can create portals and how big you can make them. Unlike porting, the mass doesn’t matter here. If it can fit through the portal, it can go. Got it?”
“I think so. Translate is switching two spaces. Mass dependent. Connect is building a portal between two spaces. Size dependent.”
Seena smiled. “Exactly. Easy to say, not so easy to do. Now there are three other chakras you must learn. One is… call it Space Sight. You can sense everything around you, out to a certain distance. The stronger you get, the longer that distance is. That’s how you know where your portals can safely go, and what is in the spaces that you’re switching when you port. Developing that sense is very important, so we’ll spend a lot of time on that. The next is Space Shape. That one is the hardest to master, but potentially very powerful. That one you won’t learn for a while. The final power is using your Aura, and it’s called Light Shape. That’s one all Vishnu have. It might not sound like much, but it can be very useful.
“So, let's do the needful. First things first. Let’s work on your space sense. How much Yoga do you know?”
Apprentice Aditya Khan was, of course, an incredibly good looking teenager only a couple years older than Eric. Despite the age difference, the two hit it off right away. And unlike Seena he wasn’t making Eric sit in some convoluted pose. That alone made Eric like him.
"Okay, portals," Aditya said. "Portals and gates are very similar, but the way gaters create gates is very different. They see space as a puzzle to solve, and when they solve it a gate appears. For us a portal is just making two points in space that aren't next to each other act like they are. So when something passes through one point, it then goes through the other without going through all the points in between. The portals themselves are two circular planes that are the exact same size. Really it's only one plane, with the two faces in different places. Even though each side of the portal is separate, they don't really have back sides. Anything moving through the portal in that direction is unaffected by the portal. Well, kind of."
As he said this, he formed a portal about a foot in diameter and with a yard of space between the sides. He then picked up a rock and threw it into the first side where it promptly came out of the next. "Go stand there between the two sides and tell me what you see."
Eric walked to the point indicated and looked around. "I just see a black circle."
"Right. Why?"
Eric thought for a moment. "Because all the light is going through the portal to the other side, and not here between?"
"Yes. And the light that comes towards me just passes through instead of reflecting back. So there's nothing there for you to see. Try throwing something through."
Eric picked up a rock and tossed it through the black disk. The rock passed through unharmed and landed at Adi's feet. "That's pretty cool!" Eric started to reach through the black disk himself.
"Stop!!" Aditya yelled, dropping the portal. "You really don't want to do that. You can move your arm through this way, sure, but when you try to pull it back it'll come out the other portal, and no longer connected to the rest of you. Even if you didn't pull it back, the blood that's flowing in your veins back towards your heart would flow out the other side of the portal."
Eric blanched at the thought of his arm coming out of the other side of the portal, elbow first. "That's not good. That could be really dangerous!"
"Which is why we try to put one side of a portal right next to a wall or something. Minimize the risk of someone or something going partially through the wrong way."
"Are the edges of the portal dangerous?" Eric asked, imagining someone walking into one and splitting themselves in half.
"Oddly, no. You'd think it would be like a knife edge, but if something solid hits the edge it just stops. Now if it hits the side hard enough to break itself, it will, but otherwise it just stops."
"Does it move the portal?"
"Nope. That's why I said it's odd. Doesn't matter how hard it's hit, the portal isn't affected. Completely violates several laws of physics." Aditya grinned. "Drives the physicists nuts."
Eric laughed. "I bet!"
"That's another way portals are different than gates. Gates close instantly, and if something isn’t all the way through it gets sliced in half. Portals close around whatever is going through if it's something solid. If it's more than halfway through, that's the side it ends up on. The portal either pulls it all through or pushes it back, then fades away.
“Moving on," Aditya continued, "the sides of the portal don't have to be in line with each other. He shifted one of the sides to be several feet up in the air. This time, instead of throwing a rock through the portal he reached his arm into it. Eric could see his arm sticking out of the other side, where it grabbed a leaf from a nearby tree. "The direction doesn't matter either." This time he formed the portal with the two sides next to each other in front of him. The rock he threw in one side came out of the other side headed right back to where Eric and Aditya stood, where Eric reflexively caught it.
"You can even do things like this." He formed a new portal with the sides directly in front of and behind himself, then reached through the first one to scratch his own back.
"That's pretty cool," Eric said. As the portals formed and closed, he could faintly sense the connection between the sides, but the more he focused on it the harder it was to sense. He forced himself to relax and pay attention to what Aditya was saying.
"The portals do have to be motionless with respect to each other. You can’t open a portal onto an airplane while it’s flying for example. You’d just tear out a section of the plane as the plane flew away from where you created the portal. Now, with the portals themselves, you can have them open in one direction only or open in both directions. You can have them closed in both directions too, which can be useful when you want to put the portal in place before you open it up."
He formed another portal with the sides next to each other.
"Most of the time, and especially if you're going to have people pass through, you just do bidirectional." He indicated the two open sides. "See how you can see through the portal to the other face and you can see past it like it's not there? Now here's a one-way." One side turned to a hazy gray. "Now tell me which way the portal is open."
Eric started to say that the face that hadn't gotten dark was the open one, but then thought about how the light traveled through the portal. "You can move through the darker face to the lighter one."
"Got it in one. Now, you also need to remember that you can put a portal anywhere. They don't have to be in open air. And if you put one side of your portal in solid rock and try to go through, it won't work. But if something can move through it, and there's a pressure gradient, it will. For example, if I put one side of the portal deep enough in the earth I'd get a stream of lava pushing out the other side, and if I put one side at the bottom of the ocean I'll get a very high pressure stream of water. That one can actually come in handy if you're fighting fires. Like the kind you start when you open a portal into a lava pool by mistake." Aditya grinned.
Eric laughed. "I bet. So how much power does it take to make a portal that far down? And how does the whole power thing work anyway? Seena said something about using it up, but I didn't really follow."
Aditya thought for a minute. "Okay, let's look at it this way. To start, think of your total power as a pool. At first your pool is small, more like a bathtub. As you get stronger, your power grows to be more like an olympic size pool. If you train hard enough, it'll end up like a small lake.
"Now, you can only access the water in the pool through a hose. You can't expend it all at once. When you're first learning how to use your power, that hose is like a drinking straw. Then later it's like a fire hose. Eventually it'll be like a canal. Because the amount of power you can use at once grows at the same rate as the total power you have, you should always be able to expend your power in a single day if you work at it."
Eric nodded. "That makes sense. Total power divided by rate is always a constant value."
"Exactly. You like math I take it?" Aditya asked?
Eric shrugged. "I guess. My mom is an accountant and math comes pretty easy for me."
"Good. Me too. That will make this easier. Now I can start explaining with numbers. Made up numbers anyway. These aren’t real examples. So, porting and portals use power differently, and you need to figure out which one is more efficient for whatever situation you're in. Sometimes it's a wash, but usually one is better than the other.
"For example, let's say it takes you fifty units of power to move one hundred kilograms a distance of one kilometer. Alternatively it takes you twenty five units of power to open one half meter diameter portals a distance of one kilometer apart, and it takes zero point one units per second to keep them open. If what you need to move is dense, and you can move it through in a matter of seconds, then a portal is easier. But if it's a person that needs a two meter portal to walk through, now it takes you three hundred twenty units to open and one point six units to maintain."
"Wait, why three hundred twenty? It's only four times the size."
"Because portals scale by the area, not the diameter. A two meter circle has sixteen times the area of a one half meter circle. Porting, however, scales exponentially by mass.
"Now in reality the disparity between portals and porting is less than that. It turns out that for moving a person of average mass and average size, porting and portals use about the same power. So as a general rule, if you're moving stuff that's more dense than a person then a portal is easier. And if it's less dense, or you're moving it a long distance, port it."
Eric frowned. "That all makes sense. So why did you say that I'd be learning how to do it the wrong way first?"
Aditya grinned. "What's the goal when you're first learning? You need to expend your power, not use it efficiently. So for now you should try to do things the wrong way. But if you're ever using your powers for real, then you want to conserve them and be efficient."
"But that's not the only factor to consider between portals and porting, right? Doesn't it depend on how it moves through a portal and how long I have to keep the portal open? too?" Eric asked.
"Oh sure. Sometimes the situation clearly calls for one and not the other. Efficiency only matters when either one would work."
"So can we really measure our power like that?" Eric wondered. "Put numbers to it and say how much power it takes to do a specific amount of work?"
"Honestly? I don't know. That's how I think of it, like the power is growing. But it could be that the amount of power and the rate you use it stays the same and we just get more efficient at using it. In that case it takes you less power to do the same thing as you get better at it. The end result is the same though. The more you practice, the more you can do."
To be continued…
Interesting read. Thx for sharing 😁
Pretty good so far. Interesting and all that. I'm enjoying it. Keep up the good work.