Deathstalker 02 - Deathstalker Rebellion

you're the real Jack Random. We all touched each other's mind in the Madness Maze when it changed us."
    "That's not enough," Random insisted. "All that proves is that I think I'm the real me. I could be wrong. Who knows what the Empire mind techs did to me while
    I was their prisoner?"
    "You don't need to take any test to prove to us who you are," said Ruby.
    "Hell with you," said Random. "I want to take the test so I'll know who I really am. I'm not sure anymore. You saw their faces in the Hall. They came here expecting to meet a legend and instead found just a tired old man with jumbled memories."
    "Will you stop this old-man nonsense," said Ruby. "You're only forty-seven. You told me yourself."
    "But I crammed a hell of a lot into those years," said Random. "At least, I think I did. I can't trust my memory anymore."
    "I can set up the test," said Giles. "But it'll take time to put the equipment together. It'd mean delaying your departure for Technos III for two, maybe three days."
    Owen frowned. "I don't think we can wait that long. We're working to a timetable, remember?"
    "Tests can wait," Ruby said firmly. "I know who you are, even if you don't.
    We've got jobs to do, and they take precedence."
    Random still looked troubled, but finally shrugged and nodded his head. They all sat around the table in silence, looking at each other and then looking away.
    They were going to have to split up soon and go off on separate missions from which some or all of them might not return. No one was quite sure what to say.
    "We'll still be linked through the undermind," Giles said finally. "Wherever we are. I don't think distance will make any difference."
    "But it might," said Hazel. "This is all new territory. No one's ever been linked like us. Hell, no one's ever been like us."
    "Yeah," said Owen. "There's got to be a catch. You don't get powers like ours
    without paying some kind of price."
    "That's human thinking," said Random. "Limited thinking. You're not human anymore, so why should you have human limits?"
    "There has to be limits," said Giles. "There are always limits eventually. We may not be strictly human anymore, but we're not gods."
    "I wouldn't mind being a god," said Ruby. "Having bronzed young acolytes bringing me gold and jewels for tribute. I could get behind that."
    "There's more to it than that," said Owen. "The link that binds us isn't just a glorified comm channel. It's changing us, bringing us together. Have any of you noticed we're starting to talk like each other?"
    "Yeah," said Hazel. "We all sound a lot more alike than we used to. We're using the same phrases, sharing the same concepts, developing similar ways of looking at things."
    "If you'd noticed all this," said Random, "why didn't you say something?"
    "I was hoping it was just me. I mean, this is pretty damn spooky when you think about it. It's not just speech patterns, either. We're using each other's skills, without having to learn them first. Even augmented skills, like Owen's boost."
    "Sometimes one of you will say what I've been thinking," said Owen. "And I get feelings about where people are and what they're doing, even when I've no way of knowing it. Are we becoming a gestalt, do you think? A group mind?"
    "I don't think so," said Giles. "We're still capable of keeping secrets from each other. Isn't that right, Hazel?"
    Her heart jumped, but she kept her face relaxed. "What are you talking about?"
    "Perhaps you'd care to tell us why you've been spending so much time in the
    Hadenman city," said Giles.
    "That's my business," said Hazel flatly.
    "We're all entitled to our private lives," said Owen.
    "I want to know," said Giles.
    "She's been seeing Tobias Moon, all right?" said Owen. "If she didn't want to tell us, that was her business. Just because we're close now, it doesn't mean we have to open up our souls to each other."
    "We may not have any choice," said Giles. "If the link continues to grow and strengthen."
    "Which sounds to me like a damn good reason for splitting up and putting some distance between us," said Random. "No offense, people, but the only person I want in my head is me."
    "Right," said Hazel. "And besides, I don't think humanity's ready to cope with Ruby Journey the god."
    "You have no ambition," said Ruby calmly.
    "But we're a lot more powerful together," said Owen. "Remember the force shield we raised against Silence's troops? They couldn't touch us with anything they had. I don't think any of us could do that