Free The Great Altruist by Z. D. Robinson Page B

you’ll also have access to the minds of the people you inhabit.”
     
                “Will they have access to mine after I leave?”
     
                “Only if I can’t sever the link. But I won’t put you in the mind of someone unstable unless there’s no other way - and if you agree to it first.”
     
                “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
     
                Genesis scowled. “Yes. I mean, I’ve only done this with animals, but I wouldn’t take the risk if I wasn’t completely confident.”
     
                Jadzia wasn’t convinced. Genesis might excel in her abilities as she claimed, or she could be bragging again. Either way, Jadzia needed to trust her. “How long will it take?”
     
                “To transfer the knowledge, you’ll need to be conscious inside the stream. It will take me some time to gather all the information I can, so you might be alone for a while.”
     
                “Whatever it takes,” Jadzia said confidently. She stood poised and ready to go, her hands at her side.
     
                Genesis hovered away from Jadzia, closed her eyes, and gathered her strength. An instant later, blue light shot out from between Genesis’s breasts and enveloped both of them. The light faded and they were gone.
     

Chapter 5
     
     
     
                Jadzia’s first conscious journey into the stream was nothing at all like she imagined but was exactly as Genesis described. She didn’t see anyway; she just seemed to sense the world around her. Below her was what appeared to be a magnificent torrent or water rushing, all of it moving in the same direction. It had the appearance of water but as she got closer it looked more like a massive spider-web, only instead of each thread connecting to a central point in a lattice, each thread connected to every other thread at every conceivable point. Occasionally, waves gathered below its surface and all the while she was looking at it, points and threads disappeared. She assumed these represented the deaths of living things, but new threads constantly appeared in their place so it became harder to track the longer she was there.
     
                Above the stream and next to her was a marvelous collection of points and thread bundled together. It looked like a massive tapestry weaved by an amateur but at the same time well-designed. She watched as the mass formed threads to different points in the stream and then reached out to connect a thread to her. As it did, she immediately heard the voice of Genesis.
     
                “This is the stream,” she said. “I’ll need to gather information for awhile. Once I’m done, I’ll connect to you again.”
     
                Jadzia didn’t know how to respond and she didn’t need to. Genesis severed her connection to Jadzia. Millions of tiny threads connected to other threads all over the stream. Energy travelled from the stream along the thread to Genesis. Once the energy reached Genesis, the thread disconnected, disappeared, and was then replaced by a new one that connected to yet another thread or point.
     
                This went on for what felt like hours in Jadzia’s mind. Eventually, Genesis’s task was done and all the threads were severed. A thread reached out and connected to Jadzia and Genesis’s voice could be heard again.
     
                “If I send the information along this one strand, we’ll be here forever. I’m going to form what will look like a rope; this will let the energy travel to you faster. Don’t worry: I know what I’m doing.”
     
                The thread disconnected before Jadzia could respond and instantly, Genesis created a huge network of threads that wound around each other and braided each strand to every other strand. Finally, once the rope was formed, Genesis connected to Jadzia,