Free Reformation by Mark Henrikson Page A

themselves the unrelenting scrutiny of stronger wills.  This effectively served as a winnowing fork to separate valuables from the worthless chaff.  Only the strong survived, even in the afterlife.
    Kuanti had no difficulty dealing with the other relics now.  He was the revered Founding Leader.  His greatness was undisputed, and his mind had no trouble maintaining its mental walls to keep others away from his inner thoughts.  The only time Kuanti felt any anxiety whatsoever was the couple of months every other year that the orbits of the third and fourth planets came close enough for Goron’s life force to join the collective.
    It amazed Kuanti how Goron was able to dominate the thoughts of everybody else without the benefit of constant contact with the collective.  Life forces introduced for the first time spent years adapting to the rigors experienced inside the shared mental environment, if they survived at all.  Their thoughts were transparent as a piece of glass, yet Goron’s mind was about as easy to read as a book in a pitch black room.  The captain was an absolute master of his thoughts and emotions, and had the uncanny ability to drill into those of others.
    Kuanti re sented the periodic interruption in his leadership from Goron’s presence, but deep down he knew the captain was his better.
    “Report?” came a question aimed directly at Kuanti’s consciousness from the collective.  He focused his thoughts and reached out to feel the new presence.  It was not hard to find; Goron’s life force shined through the din like a supernova.  Kuanti had bad news to break to his captain.  To hopefully ease the backlash he began the discussion by reminding Goron of his own failure.
    “I still miss Elohim and his rather primitive psyche,” Kuanti mused. They lost Elohim’s life force several hundred years earlier, but Kuanti still liked to bring up the subject from time to time since it was the one and only example of Goron failing in his duties as Leader.  “Don’t you?”
    “Yes, yes , Kuanti.  The Novi succeeded in extinguishing his life force under my watch here on this planet,” Goron replied in a very bored tone.  “I am now operating alone on this world against the five Novi crash survivors.  There, did I say my lines right?  Did I adequately perform my part in your pathetic little play to dredge up that topic one more time?”
    “ I find it odd that the death of my engineer and the reduction in my influence on this planet seems to please you,” Goron went on.  “Explain yourself.”
    The captain was good, Kuanti admitted to himself, or at least he hoped was only himself.  “We have endured a setback of our own.  I simply brought up the topic in order to have a more understanding mind on which to convey the details.”
    Kuanti felt a flash of anger escape Goron’s me ntal blockade.  “Well, let’s see.  I am alone as a formless relic on a planet dominated by a very much living Novi threat that keeps coming back no matter how many times I manage to kill them.”
    “You are the only occupants of a planet with over ten thousand loyal Alpha warriors eager to do your bidding.  Your only mission is to construct a Flashtrans communicator to reach our home world to get us the hell home.  Yes, they are such similar circumstances, Kuanti.  Your continued failure is completely excusable now that I give it some thought.”
    “The Flashtrans communications array is operational.  It has power and is transmitting,” Kuanti reported.
    “How uncharacteristically competent of you,” Goron commended.   “Why is an Alpha fleet not already in orbit to finish off the Novi and take us home, or does your little setback ruin that happy ending for me?”
    If Kuanti still had hands he would have punched something.  He had done the impossible and yet Goron made him feel an inch tall.  “The fault does not lie with us, Captain.  The signal is being jammed by a device on your planet.  The Novi