Conniveo

Chapter VI: Convergence

"Concentrate. Eliminate every stray thought. Can you sense the charge difference?"

I was trying to concentrate, but his voice was an even greater distraction. I focused on the pexes. I could feel the object they had surrounded. Round. Hollow. Unable to transmit electricity. I stimulated an electron shift and the pexes attached themselves to the object. Lift. It was difficult. Gravity was not my friend. It was of greater difficulty than trying to physically lift the object myself. Maybe more pexes were needed. No, covering its entire surface area would require more concentration. The pex density was already at a critical stage. I tried again. It went up slightly.

"I see no progress. Perhaps, you have not been practicing."
"I have, professor. It is much more strenuous than written in the documents."
"I have to end commlink now. We will meet again shortly. Do your best to practice. I have to attend to other duties."

My screen went blank as he shut off his transceiver. I stared at the thermoset ball I often used for practice. It had once been part of a childhood toy I had since grown out of amusing myself with. These days, it was simply used for practicing pex manipulation. Modification and manipulation were the two parts of pex control, each requiring closely tuned brain wave signals. It was truly difficult. I had learned manipulation before modification because it was easier. But it wasn't enough to just move pexes around. Being a true quazer required that I know how to alter the behaviour of my pexes down to the nearest millivolt, and I had Professor Neshi to show me how. He was the best at the skill - as far as we knew - and was a very important part of the homeostasis team working on our fusion reactors.

Ever since we had engineered fusion reactors almost seven hundred years ago, we had solved a big problem of generating clean electricity with minimal adverse radiation. The issue was maintaining the reactor once the process had begun. It was tasking work, and required the most efficient of control systems to fully harness the energy outputs of the mini-Solaris. A homeostasis team consisted of all levels of Homini, with Pex manipulators being seen - for once - as necessary assets. And Professor Neshi was one of such, if not the most necessary. In his spare time, he offered lessons in pex modification to students like me. For a price, of course. His time was expensive. Mother had objected to it, as she found it improper for a Pexian, a female for that matter, to be overly involved in the acts of pex manipulation when we were supposed to be married and our true responsibilities lay in raising the future generation. Her disapproval had only increased my resolve to learn. I was thankful for father's support, though I felt he only did it so as not to seem partial. He had already invested a lot into Arye’s sporting career, and at the end of the last Anto Games, Arye had come third in the sprint races. He was still training for the Silas's to be held in the Capital next year. Competing in the Silas Games was every athlete's dream. Winning it was their rapture.

"Kana!" Mother's voice. I sighed and got off the stool to meet her in the kitchen. Ever since the last visit from Aris, she had tightened her grip on my schedule. I was unaware of any communications they might have had, but I did suspect that words were shared. I could not understand any other reasons for which she would choose to monitor me so closely.
"I'm coming, Mother."

I sat beside my mother in the kitchen. She was instructing me on how to prepare a local delicacy. I also found it to be rather difficult.

"You need a fine touch, Kana. You are holding the dough with such force."
"Is the aim not to have it in a certain shape? For that, I must control it thusly."
"Sometimes, the strength with which you act does not improve your results. You need to ease the dough into shape."

I sighed and did my best to follow her instructions. I was still unsure whether I would be performing such responsibilities after I was married to Aris. I knew what he was expecting of me: to follow his instructions, show him due respect at all times - and even more so in public settings, show preference for him above all else and, of course, satisfy him sexually and bear his children. Preparing meals was not so much a mate's duty, it seemed. Maybe he had Bland servants for such.