Many of those
who had not agreed with the idea of the expedition to Solor, and some of
those who had repented of it, were determined to punish those
responsible. The subsequent agitation led to a discovery which
increased popular indignation and fear still further - the expedition
had been inspired by beings who
were not fully
human.
A variant on the theme with which
the Gold Era had begun - that those who believed themselves to be
without souls, thirsted after them - returned to haunt the era's
end. This time, though, the culprits were not mere Ghepions
masquerading in man-shape. They were, instead, real man-machine
hybrids.
And this time the plotters were
ready. Instead of allowing themselves to be prosecuted, the
Cyborgs revealed their true strength, which had been accumulating unseen
during the Gold Era, and virtually took over Syoom. They
seized strong points in what was left of the Sunnoad's Navy and in
all of the major cities except Vyanth and Pjourth. The rule
of the Cyborgs began. It was a rule of despair, for all they
really wanted was Solor, which they regarded as the key to the
possession of souls; and Solor was gone.
The Mercury Era, the 80th
era, lasted just 7,342 Uranian days; equivalent to 25 Earth
years. No doubt the Cyborgs' rule was unstable and would have
ended before many Uranian years had passed, but the fact that it was so
short, not lasting even a third of a Uranian year, was due to the
emergence of the first great mind-reading leader among the Nenns, a
woman, Hevad Notoxt.
She succeeded in overthrowing the
Cyborgs by splitting them into two camps, winning one of them over by
showing them that they must already have souls, and using them as allies
to defeat the other camp, that of the irreconcilable pessimists.
She could do all this because she was a telepath, and in a more general
sense a psi, able not only to read minds but to operate on moods,
encouraging co-operation. A highly dangerous and ambitious woman,
she left a record in her "Confessions" of the efforts she had to make to
repress the dark side of her character, and she convincingly revealed
that her reluctance to accept high office was not feigned. After
much hesitation and refusal, she became the 69,546th Sunnoad, and
the second most famous female Sunnoad after Hyala Movoun 1.
>> The Era of Psi
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