- 24,183
- 3,936
Skimming, voluntary teleporting, was so easy small children learned to do it long before they walked. Alia's body was made up of atoms bound into molecules, of fields of electricity and quantum uncertainty. Alia's body was her. But one atom of carbon, say, was identical to another—absolutely identical in its quantum description—and so it could be replaced without her even knowing. She was just an expression of a temporary assemblage of matter and energy, as music is an expression of its score regardless of the medium in which it is written. It made no difference to her.
And once you knew that, it was easy to see that she, Alia, could just as easily be expressed by a heap of atoms over there as one over here. It was just a question of will, really, of choice, along with a little help from the nanomachines in her bones and blood. And very little Alia willed was denied her.
-Transcendent, Ch. 2
Teleportation
Suddenly the mirror-minds in the room shone bright—all the barriers between them fell away—and she saw herself, not just in this moment, not just physically, but in the Rusties' deepest perception. She could sense what they were thinking about her. She rummaged through their memories, of how she had been during her conversations with this group. She could see her body language, her shyness slowly giving way to enthusiasm as she talked—and the times when her words hadn't contained the whole truth, and she had been evasive, breaking eye contact, turning away, laughing unnecessarily, fiddling with her body fur.
-Transcendent, Ch. 18
Mind Reading
Alia loomed over Bale. "Very well. If the Transcendence is what you want, let's call it now." He quailed, but she descended on him. With a strength fueled by anger she grabbed his shoulders and hauled him to his feet.
And she slammed her awareness into his mind. He cried out, but he could not escape. Her force of will poured along the interconnections to his relations' consciousnesses, and they screamed and writhed. Peripherally she was aware of Reath and Drea pulling away, shocked.
With the minds of the Campocs wrapped around her own like a cloak, she called for Leropa. "Take me back. I need you now. Oh, take me back!"
-Transcendent, Ch. 43
Pain manipulation
Leropa reached out and, without warning, touched Alia's forehead. Her touch was cold.
And suddenly Alia was standing on top of a mountain, drenched in cold air that dragged at her lungs. She stumbled and wrapped her arms around her body.
-Transcendent, Ch. 37
BFR
The Transcendence had conceived a great project. It would build a probe that it would send into the furthest future, and thereby hurl it into the deepest past. And there, hiding in the dark at the rim of Sol system, this monitor from the future would witness the unfolding of mankind's deepest history—and it would send the whole complex story back around the curve of the universe to the great entity that had constructed it. The Listeners recorded these whispers, sent from the deepest past to the furthest future. Once retrieved, the news from history was analyzed and stored in Coalescent archives, and disseminated to form the basis of the Witnessing.
-Transcendent, Ch. 31
Possibly redundant because immeasurable speed but time travel
"She didn't mean to do it," I said. "Morag. It's just she's so strong. Her new body, whatever. She hasn't got used to it yet. I've taken a few bruises before. We're learning together, I guess. This is the first time she's broken a bone, though."
Rosa nodded. "The simplest test shows her strength is off the scale, for a person of her height and size. Like her mass, there is, umm, more of her than there should be."
I looked at her reluctantly. "Do you think she's even human?"
"I don't know," Rosa said. "I believe that inside she thinks she's human, and perhaps that's what's most important in the end. But her body is something more than human."
Gea's and Rosa's studies were bearing fruit, she said.
"Gea will give you the physics. When we draw Morag's blood, we find human DNA. Her molecules are made of atoms, of protons and neutrons and electrons every bit as mundane as yours and mine. And yet there is the mystery of this extra mass. Her weight is measurable, so the mass responsive to gravity, yet it is invisible to our eyes, all our senses. Gea tells me that there are many forms of invisible matter in the universe. Perhaps Morag's visible body is like the bright swirl of a galaxy, cradled in a wider pool of dark matter."
-Transcendent, Ch. 51
Dark Mattwe Manipulation
Lastly, resistance to all of the anti xeelee powers, since it's stated to be capable of defending humanity against the Xeelee, even by word of god
And once you knew that, it was easy to see that she, Alia, could just as easily be expressed by a heap of atoms over there as one over here. It was just a question of will, really, of choice, along with a little help from the nanomachines in her bones and blood. And very little Alia willed was denied her.
-Transcendent, Ch. 2
Teleportation
Suddenly the mirror-minds in the room shone bright—all the barriers between them fell away—and she saw herself, not just in this moment, not just physically, but in the Rusties' deepest perception. She could sense what they were thinking about her. She rummaged through their memories, of how she had been during her conversations with this group. She could see her body language, her shyness slowly giving way to enthusiasm as she talked—and the times when her words hadn't contained the whole truth, and she had been evasive, breaking eye contact, turning away, laughing unnecessarily, fiddling with her body fur.
-Transcendent, Ch. 18
Mind Reading
Alia loomed over Bale. "Very well. If the Transcendence is what you want, let's call it now." He quailed, but she descended on him. With a strength fueled by anger she grabbed his shoulders and hauled him to his feet.
And she slammed her awareness into his mind. He cried out, but he could not escape. Her force of will poured along the interconnections to his relations' consciousnesses, and they screamed and writhed. Peripherally she was aware of Reath and Drea pulling away, shocked.
With the minds of the Campocs wrapped around her own like a cloak, she called for Leropa. "Take me back. I need you now. Oh, take me back!"
-Transcendent, Ch. 43
Pain manipulation
Leropa reached out and, without warning, touched Alia's forehead. Her touch was cold.
And suddenly Alia was standing on top of a mountain, drenched in cold air that dragged at her lungs. She stumbled and wrapped her arms around her body.
-Transcendent, Ch. 37
BFR
The Transcendence had conceived a great project. It would build a probe that it would send into the furthest future, and thereby hurl it into the deepest past. And there, hiding in the dark at the rim of Sol system, this monitor from the future would witness the unfolding of mankind's deepest history—and it would send the whole complex story back around the curve of the universe to the great entity that had constructed it. The Listeners recorded these whispers, sent from the deepest past to the furthest future. Once retrieved, the news from history was analyzed and stored in Coalescent archives, and disseminated to form the basis of the Witnessing.
-Transcendent, Ch. 31
Possibly redundant because immeasurable speed but time travel
"She didn't mean to do it," I said. "Morag. It's just she's so strong. Her new body, whatever. She hasn't got used to it yet. I've taken a few bruises before. We're learning together, I guess. This is the first time she's broken a bone, though."
Rosa nodded. "The simplest test shows her strength is off the scale, for a person of her height and size. Like her mass, there is, umm, more of her than there should be."
I looked at her reluctantly. "Do you think she's even human?"
"I don't know," Rosa said. "I believe that inside she thinks she's human, and perhaps that's what's most important in the end. But her body is something more than human."
Gea's and Rosa's studies were bearing fruit, she said.
"Gea will give you the physics. When we draw Morag's blood, we find human DNA. Her molecules are made of atoms, of protons and neutrons and electrons every bit as mundane as yours and mine. And yet there is the mystery of this extra mass. Her weight is measurable, so the mass responsive to gravity, yet it is invisible to our eyes, all our senses. Gea tells me that there are many forms of invisible matter in the universe. Perhaps Morag's visible body is like the bright swirl of a galaxy, cradled in a wider pool of dark matter."
-Transcendent, Ch. 51
Dark Mattwe Manipulation
Lastly, resistance to all of the anti xeelee powers, since it's stated to be capable of defending humanity against the Xeelee, even by word of god