The Marquis (continued)...
- From: "Johnny1a" <shermanlee1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 24 Nov 2005 00:14:43 -0800
>The Unity could promise all this, and it could _deliver_, and _would_.
>It showed Jurgensen evidence enough to convince him of that.
>Of course, nothing is free, and this offer was no exception. There was
>a cost for all the benefits the Unity was now offering Jurgensen...and
>it was a steep one.
Along with the obvious costs of working as the Unity's agent, acting as
one of its many pairs of non-component eyes and ears and legs and
hands, the Unity had one demand, one non-negotiable, non-debatable
demand: _absolute_ loyalty. Absolutely, utter, and unconditional
loyalty, ahead of family or friends, countries or religions or anything
else. The Unity made it clear to Jurgensen that when it called, it
expected him to answer, when it made a demand, it expected him to
accede.
Jurgensen agreed.
Privately, behind his mental shields, Jurgensen made this promise with
mental reservations. The Unity's life-long manipulations had left
Jurgensen with a primary loyalty to himself, first and foremost. The
Unity knew that, and accepted it. It was comfortable with
self-interest as a motivator, it could comprehend that. It knew
perfectly well that Jurgensen would betray it if he perceived it to be
in his interest, just as it would discard him if it suited it. The
Unity had utter confidence, the confidence of seven thousand years of
experience, in its ability to make sure the arrangement always favored
it.
Jurgensen was of a similar mind, after everything that had happened.
Of course, he was now fully aware of how he had been manipulated,
through his whole life, really. He understood how the Unity had gone
about its work...and he was filled with admiration. It was a measure
of the success of the Unity's efforts that their subject was so
corrupted that he approved of them. When a younger Jurgensen had been
a dedicated doctor, a loving husband, and decent man, by 1848 that man
had been replaced by quite a different one.
Of course, Jurgensen understood that if he had refused, he would not
have lived out the night. He did not agree simply for that reason,
however. It was in fact the least of his motivations. He agreed
because of the temptation of immortality and knowledge, power and
wealth, position and pride. He had been shaped to crave all these
things to an unhealthy degree and in unhealthy forms, and now the Unity
offered to supply them all in abundance.
Over the course of the next two years, Jurgensen went on many errands
for strange new master, of modest importance. He was more or less 'in
training' and he knew it. He met some of the other agents that worked
for the Unity, he travelled to various cities and places meeting
people, learning the 'lay' of his master's doings, and carrying out his
own missions.
Jurgensen proved to be everything the Unity had hoped for in shaping
him. He was a deadly and effective operative. If anything, he
surpassed his patron's expectations.
The Unity proved to be as good as its word as well. Two years after
striking their agreement, for the first time the Unity and Jurgensen
formed the gestalt state that would let the Unity lend him the psychic
power he needed to amplify his own ability to extend his life. On a
dark, foggy night in a remote castle in Bavaria, a castle occupied only
by Jurgensen and a handful of 'components' of the Unity, the mental
connection was forged.
It worked as the Unity had promised it would, Jurgensen's own strength,
magnified by the immense power of the Unity, rejuvenetad his cells with
an ease he had never imagined. When bolstered by the power of the
Unity, his senses expanded, his consciousness magnified, it was a
sensation Jurgensen could only call god-like, it made him feel like
Zeus on Olympus.
Of course, it lasted only so long as the power flow from the Unity
lasted, when the gestalt ended, Jurgensen found that he was just Karl
Jurgensen again. The experience had lasted perhaps fifteen minutes,
long enough for him to successfully suspend all process of aging in
himself for about ten years. It lasted long enough for Jurgensen to
sense vistas of potential he had never imagined. It lasted long enough
for him to be instantly addicted.
It had another effect, too. His psionic powers, amplified by the
strength of the Unity, had reached levels of potential they had never
before approached, including his ESP, and with it is precognitive
faculty. Amid the rush of power and perception, he had momentarily
'seen' the face of the mysterious American military officer that he
sensed could someday be his undoing. He knew that he had done so...but
in the ecstatic rush it had been lost in the swirl of perception, he
had paid it little mind. Now, having returned to himself, he was
frustrated beyond description that he had missed a chance to see the
face of his great fear, a chance to be able to recognize him when he
finally appeared.
Jurgensen still had the advantage that he had nearly a decade of life
ahead of him before his body would age biologically. This was a signal
success, from Jurgensen's point of view.
MORE LATER.
Shermanlee
.
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