Empire Reborn (Taran Empire Saga Book 1): A Cadicle Space Opera by A.K. DuBoff (jenna bush book club TXT) 📕

Saera pursed her lips. “On that note, I always thought ‘hyperspace’ would have been a more accurate term.”

“Oh, don’t get me started!” Wil groaned. “That naming mess happened well before our time. Do you have any idea how hard it is to change something like that, once the public gets the idea stuck in their heads?”

“It’s all about the branding.”

“Isn’t it?” He sighed. “This is why I hate corporate shite. But anyway, my point is that for everything we take for granted in spacetime, there’s a representation of it in the lower dimensions, so the same would go for anything on the higher dimensions looking down on us. Consequently, under the right conditions, we can catch a three-dimensional glimpse of what happens on higher dimensions, such as that image taken when the Andvari was attacked.

“Sadly, that limited representation is all that we’re ever going to know about these higher-dimensional entities. While they can dip down into our perceived reality because it’s within the scope of their being, we can’t ascend to their dimension to experience them in their true form. Yet, despite being able to touch our reality—almost like a shadow of themselves—they can’t really appreciate what life is like for us in spacetime. Our perceptions are too different.”

Saera’s brows knitted. “That doesn’t bode well for building a relationship with these beings. Without being able to observe their full essence, we’ll never really know them.”

“Which is what makes trying to interface with them such a daunting task.”

“We have to try,” she said. “Our respective dimensions are intertwined, so we must find a way to coexist or they could simply stomp us out. The way we would crush unwanted ants.”

“Worse. More like erasing a stick-figure drawing. Or burning the piece of paper.” Wil waved his hand. “We don’t think about the individual molecules interacting in everything around us. Why would our lives be any more meaningful than that to a being of their power?”

“It’s wild to think about.”

“It is,” Wil agreed. “And it’s given me a whole new perspective on our own abilities.”

She cocked her head. “How so?”

“Well, we generally teach that telekinesis, telepathy, and the general skillset we call our Gifts are basically electromagnetic sensitivity. That’s a greatly oversimplified explanation, but the essence is that certain people have the innate ability to sense and manipulate energy fields at the foundational level.

“Now, I don’t know if it’s the same aesen energy that these aliens wield, but we Agents and others like us do have some form of connection to a higher dimension than spacetime. It’s the only explanation for us being able to do what we do. The enormous amounts of energy we wield has to come from somewhere. I’ve thought about it a lot, especially after seeing the tear left in the Rift after the war. It makes perfect sense. It’s why we always felt more powerful in the Rift rather than normal spacetime—it was blurred with a higher dimension, closer to that energy source we draw on.”

“All right, I can see that,” Saera said. “And I suppose that makes us transdimensional in our own way—three-dimensional beings riding the 4D time-wave.”

“Yes, though it’s more than that. We have a genetic predisposition to tap into the higher dimensions, and perhaps to the aesen itself. I believe our thoughts—or telepathy, at least—might even surf in the fifth dimension. It would explain why the exchanges are so fast.”

“That’s an interesting thought,” she said telepathically.

“Isn’t it?” He smiled at her and continued out loud, “So, it reasons that these beings exist in more than one dimension, as well. However, we have no notion at this point what they might call their ‘native’ dimension… though it must be much higher than ours, to wield aesen in the way they do.”

Her brows drew together. “All right, so if our Gifts are a manifestation of this higher-dimensional connection, then why are some people’s abilities more powerful than others?”

“No clue.” He shrugged. “There’s a genetic predisposition, obviously, but how does that biology interact with a connection to a higher dimension? I wish I knew. Could be that some genetic structures are simply more conducive to tapping into that extended aspect of our being. I don’t have enough verified information to offer anything more than speculation.”

“We do tend to take these abilities for granted. Most people would perceive them as magic.”

“Not understanding how something works doesn’t make it less real, but I know what you mean. I never thought we’d find ourselves face-to-face with something so reality-shaking,” Wil admitted. “The funny thing is, there are other little instances in our everyday lives that evidences our connection to an energy network on higher dimensions.”

“Such as?”

“Our bond is the most obvious example. We can feel each other even when we’re not in physical proximity. I think what people call ‘gut feelings’ or ‘intuition’ might be a manifestation of the same thing. We can sense when there’s a shift in the universal energy pattern on a subconscious level. Though the full range of Gifted abilities aren’t widespread anymore, Tarans and their subspecies always maintained that aspect of their higher-dimension connection.”

“The same could be said for everything in Nature, I suppose.”

He nodded. “I think so. It’s why you feel drawn to certain people or places or things. Their resonance with you just… fits.”

Saera wrapped her arms around her right leg and rested her chin on her knee. “That makes me wonder… You’ve spoken about your vision in the nexus, of seeing a vast energy web stretching through the universe. Is that the aesen, in some kind of structured form?”

He thought for several moments. “I look at it this way: the aesen itself is neutral. It is the definition of potential. The very existence of the universe has a natural order to it, keeping everything in balance. That ‘energy web’ is