Extended Warranty

At sixty years old, she was healthy and happy. She had been trained as a physicist and had spent her career doing research in the field of astrophysics. She had also taught and had enjoyed both her research and teaching careers immensely. Now retired, she occasionally consulted on projects for agencies such as NASA and JPL, but mostly spent her time puttering around the house with her dogs. She had never married or had children, and most of her family were now deceased. Though she often missed her parents and siblings she never felt lonely. She was an optimist at heart and lived accordingly.

One day Liz was out for a hike, something she did almost every day. She lived near the foothills of a mountain range and often went on day hikes there. It was a great way for her to exercise and she found peace strolling up and down the paths of the forested hills. She was just coming off of the trail to head back to her car when she was struck. She never knew what hit her, it was too fast and she was immediately knocked unconscious. People in the area reported seeing a bright flash at about the time she was struck. Though there was no storm activity, sound of thunder, or secondary flashes seen, her condition was attributed to being struck by lightning in lieu of any better explanation.

Liz was taken to the hospital and regained consciousness a few hours later. After a week in the hospital and a battery of tests she was pronounced healthy and discharged. She felt fine and quickly returned to normal routine of hiking and puttering around the house. For a while.

Several months after the incident she started to notice a loss of strength in her legs. She couldn’t hike as far and spent longer stretches at home, sitting. She also found herself getting lost in her thoughts. She might be reading or listening to a radio program when she would focus on a thought, idea, or subject, then find herself deep in thought about that subject, drilling down and discovering information she didn’t know she possessed, ultimately drawing new conclusions about the subject and connections between it and other ideas. Often she would emerge from one of these jags and realize that she been unaware of anything else for a matter of hours. The thought fugues, as she liked to think of them, occurred more frequently and lasted longer and longer. As the fugues continued, so did the loss of mobility. She could barely stand now, and had to be examined by her doctors, who could not find out why she had lost her ability to walk. Another battery of tests were administered, but no disease or malady could be found. The doctors did find that Liz had lost a third of her body weight and that her eyesight was failing. Liz was sent home and a live in nurse was hired to help care for her and to monitor her condition.

As time passed Liz eventually lost her eyesight. Most of her time was now spent either in bed or sitting listening to audio books and engaging in conversation with her nurse Harriet. Harriet thought it was a shame to see what was happening to Liz. It was as if the woman was just shutting down and withering away, and nobody knew why!

One day, Liz was sitting in the living room when she suddenly realized that she could actually see. But she wasn’t seeing through her eyes. Her brain was generating images of what was happening around her, and these images weren’t limited to the normal human perspective. From her chair she would see images of the area ahead of her, behind her, and from above her! She could also see the adjoining kitchen and the front porch through the walls between her and them. It was kind of like looking at one of those multi camera security displays that security companies use, except the images were crystal clear. She saw them all at the same time and she found that she could focus equally on all of them at the same time.

After recovering from the shock of her discovery, Liz found that she was able to turn different images on and off, add more perspectives, and even extend the range of her abilities. After a few days of experimentation she was able to clearly see an image of the roadway where her driveway met it, some hundred and fifty yards from the house. She also noticed that her senses of hearing and smell were growing. She could hear cars from miles down the road and raccoons at night in the woods behind the house. It all took some getting used to, but soon she was comfortable with her enhanced senses and she practiced using them efficiently. But she told nobody else about them, not even Harriet.

Over the course of the next couple of months she alternated between lying in bed and using her new senses to observe the world around her, and drifting in and out of the fugue states. When having these episodes she ignored the world around her and moved inward to another place entirely. It was as if she were travelling. To different parts of the world where she instantly understood the places, people, and animals that she observed, and to different parts of the universe where the same thing was true. She might find herself in a place like Cairo, a spectre moving among the people of the souk and understanding the language, seeing the subtle cultural interactions, and feeling as at home there as she ever had anywhere else. But there was more. One day while visiting Bali, she crossed paths with a young woman in her twenties. As she observed the woman she suddenly realized that she had an instant understanding of the woman’s physiology and personal history. She could read the woman’s genetic signature and from that intuit her mother’s signature, and on and on through all of the woman’s forbearers. She knew that the woman was tired and had had too much to drink the night before and had also had sexual relations. She knew that the woman was hungry and wanted something spicy to eat. This information didn’t come in voices or pictures, she simply knew. As she continued these forays she found that these abilities extended to anyone she chose to focus her attention on and over time she became very adept at instantly understanding a plethora of information about a particular person. She got to the point that she could tell what a person was thinking or what they would do next. At first she thought she should be frightened of these fugues and their constituent strangeness, but she never was.

Five years after being stricken Liz appeared to everyone else to be completely shut off from the normal world. She never left her bed, did not require food nor water, and never communicated directly with anyone. Doctors were baffled but eventually she was left to her state, cared for by Harriet. One day she was walking on Earth’s moon marvelling at the image of Earth hanging tantalizingly in space a seeming stone’s throw away. She could sense the solar winds moving across the gray lunar surface. She had been all around the solar system, exploring the planets that she had learned about in school and studied professionally. It was quite different to walk on the surface of Mars, than to study the images sent back by the Mars rovers. She had spent several months doing this and it had been both educational and amusing. Now she was planning on trying a neighboring system.

As she strode through the moon dust heading nowhere in particular, she began to perceive a figure walking toward her. That seemed odd. As she strode on she realized that yes, there was another entity walking towards her. She couldn’t be sure if it was human or not but soon they would meet. She wasn’t sure what to do, but decided to keep walking and meet the situation head on, so to speak. As they got closer to each other she noticed that the other figure looked like a hologram and was continually switching to a new image. One second it was Nelson Mandela and thirty seconds later it Jerry Springer. She saw everybody from Brad Pitt to Elmer Fudd represented. Pretty nutty.

“You are known as Elizabeth Crayton on your world, yes?” the other asked

“Yes.” it felt odd to speak, though she knew she wasn’t really speaking. “They call me Liz.”

“We have been watching you very closely Liz.” it said

“Okay. I am a bit confused by all of this.” she said

“Yes. That is why I am here. We like to give novices a chance to settle in a bit alone first.”

“Novices?” she asked

“Yes. I am here to explain everything to you. Would you like to walk as we talk?”

“Sure. So who are you?” she asked

“I will explain everything starting with that. I am the Guardian of the Malnor system.”

“Uh. Okay. Do you have a name?” she asked

“Yes. You may call me Dale.”

“Dale?”

“Yes Dale.”

“Okay Dale. Where’s the Malnor system?”

“You would not know it Liz. It is nine hundred parsecs in that direction.” he said, pointing over his left shoulder

“Nine HUNDRED parsecs?”

“That is correct.”

The sheer immensity of the distance astounded her. Normally, she would have told Dale to fuck off, but given the fact that she was talking to telepathically or whatever and on the surface of the moon, she was a bit more receptive to the idea than might have otherwise been.

“Okay Dale. What’s a Guardian?”

“The Guardians are a group of beings, from various systems and planets, who have been given special powers to enable them to protect a specific system and its inhabitants from unnatural harm.”

“Uh huh. What is unnatural harm? As opposed to natural harm I mean.”

“Natural harm would be harm that occurs during the normal evolution of a systems existence. Earthquakes, floods, wars, disease, these are a threats that occur naturally and must be faced by whatever population encounters them. Unnatural harm would be things like alien invasion, damage due to manipulation of the time continuum, that sort of thing.” he said

“Okay Dale. And who decides who will be a Guardian? I mean who is the head Guardian in charge?”

“The Guardians were originally proposed by the leaders of the Skrul Caliphate in the Castigus system eight thousand centuries ago. Eventually a Guardian council was formed to govern the members of the order. Of that council one is chosen to be head of the order. Currently that is Guardian Zw9dkfnr of the planet Strunggem in the Palinkar system.”

“And…”

“Liz, please stop asking questions. I am about to explain everything to you if you will listen.” he said

“Oh well then, carry on Dale, I’m all ears!” she replied

“Whenever a population in a system reaches a certain evolutionary stage, an investigation is done by the council to determine whether it is time to assign a Guardian. A candidate is picked from many and imbued with fledgling powers, then left to settle in on their own. These candidates eventually reach a point where they have discovered their powers and have completed the transition process. At this point the candidate is called a Novice and receives this talk, further powers and some training.”

“Further powers?”

“Yes. You have received these, but since we didn’t tell you, they are as yet, unexplored. In addition to the powers that you already exercise you have gained the ability to mind lock with other Guardians and the council. You also have the ability to transport anywhere in the Universe instantly. And finally, all of the aspects of humans and others that you have been able to observe so keenly, can now be manipulated as well as observed. So for instance, you can not only read minds, you can also plant thoughts and control behaviour.”

“So that’s it? Now I just wander around like a ghost and make people spill their drinks on themselves?” she demanded

“No Liz. When you return to your base, you’ll find that your human self is back to normal. You will be awake, hungry, and will have full use of all of your natural senses. You are free to go back to your normal existence with the following caveats. You will use your powers to monitor activities throughout your planet and system. If an unnatural threat is detected, you will communicate with the council then follow their instructions. You will not share your new identity or powers with anyone on your planet. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand. But what if I don’t want this? I never asked this council to interfere with my life. Maybe I’m not interested in being a Guardian! What if I refuse?”

“Then we will continue to search for a Guardian, and unfortunately, you will die.”

“So you’d punish me for not wanting to give up my life for this? You’d force me into it?”

“You misunderstand Liz. One criterion for being a candidate for Guardianship is that one has a condition which they would not survive. If you refuse, we will simply return you to the state you were in when we inducted you. What you don’t know Liz is that you were suffering from a condition known on your planet as brain cancer. This is a chance for you to do good and to extend your life. However, if you truly do not want to be a Guardian, then simply tell me and I’ll return you now…..”