New Earth: Chapter 6 - The Formation Revealed
Thirteen members with mental powers guide humanity's expansion beyond Earth
For two years, I’ve been building toward this moment in New Earth.
This chapter reveals The Formation—a group working behind the scenes to ensure humanity’s continued existence and guide their expansion beyond Earth.
Through scattered notes, Scrivener brain dumps, and quiet ideas that wouldn’t leave me alone, this scene has been there—waiting.
This entry marks the beginning of the main course of the story. The moment where the deeper structure of New Earth starts to reveal itself.
It came together faster than anything I’ve written in this series—almost exactly as I had imagined it from the beginning.
If you’ve been following along, this is where things start to change.
You can find the previous entries of New Earth here. Paying subscribers can read the full arc here.
It’s taken me a while to get here, but I hope you enjoy the new entry below.
Peace.
Chapter 6
As the door to his room slid shut, Tao felt the call. An emergency meeting of The Formation. Now.
By law, it could not begin until all Members were present. With Tao being the newest Member, he did not want to delay it. But first, Tao had to be sure that Kairo was not lurking inside his mind.
On the floor, legs crossed and eyes closed, Tao searched his mind. Was the AI still there? Hidden behind memory…buried within thought…watching, learning—perhaps even anticipating him—for Maxwell Rhodes?
His mind remained clouded.
For hours, Tao worked—isolating thoughts, opening others, constructing layers within layers. Traps. False pathways. Recursive loops designed to expose anything that did not belong.
This was what he had been trained for, since birth. His parents had prepared him for this—disciplined his mind, refined it, sharpened it. It was why he had risen so quickly. Why, at such a young age, he had become a Member of The Formation.
Stillness.
Nothing moved.
Nothing answered.
At last, Tao accepted it. Kairo was gone.
It was time to convene and join the Members.
He let go.
His mind slipped beyond the ship, beyond the stars, beyond distance itself. Not traveling, but arriving, as if space itself yielded rather than resisted, stretching across the farthest reaches of the universe.
It was a process that all Members followed. The amount of time it took was unmeasured. Was it minutes or hours? All they knew was that, upon their return to their regular human life, not a second would have passed.
Tao entered the chamber.
Shadows began to move in a very subtle light. Twelve bodies came into view. Their shapes were human, but their identities only revealed a number. At a tall counter curved into a half circle, twelve Members appeared and sat behind its top. They sat in sequence only recognized by their number subtly hovering above them.
Tao was number Thirteen—the last Member to join.
“Welcome Thirteeeeen,” a voice said from the middle of the circle. It was the Chair—number One—the most powerful Member who only roamed the lower level. The Chair controlled, among other things, the Human Graph, a dim expanse stretched outward, its boundaries undefined, strewn across the chamber floor. A living field of lights pulsed and shifted—humanity, in motion. Billions of lives, intersecting, diverging, converging again. Lights blinked yellow, green and red indicating a high probability of neutral, positive and negative effects of human activities on its continued existence.
The floor pulsed with red lights.
“Meeting three five three has officially,” The Chair’s shadowy face appeared to look up in Tao’s direction, “and finally, begun.” The Chair usually did not say much, but each word carried the weight of all the other Members combined.
In a unified voice, the Members said, “Let us conform to the wishes of The Unknown, to the benefit of each and all humanity.”
Two said, “Fellow Members and Seekers, our influence is weakening. The Human Graph demonstrates the highest probability on record of the very demise of humanity. Human expansion has begun. New Earth was only the beginning.”
Eight calmly said, “What do you wish us to do? Our role is to guide humanity, not control it. Advancement will happen, no doubt. I say, let humanity succeed or fail on their own.”
Two’s shadow turned toward Eight, “How are we to guide humanity if we do not control their progress?”
Three immediately said, “Control is for The Unknown. We are not the authors of humanity. We are its witnesses to guide it.”
Two shot back, “Witnesses do not preserve. There is a time to guide and a time to act.”
The Chamber was quiet. For the first time, Tao felt a misalignment between its Members. Action versus inaction were extreme positions. His parents taught him that guidance was always the role of Members.
Tao often wondered which Members were his parents. But thinking such things during the meeting would put their family identities at risk.
Before he realized what he was doing, Tao shouted out, “How do we know?”
The chamber adjusted—slightly.
“Know what?” asked Two.
“When it is time to act.”
“Do you not see the flashing red lights on the Human Graph? That should be an indication, even to a new Member, Thirteen.”
Six turned toward Tao, “Why do you ask?” There was no accusation in the question—but neither was there leniency.
“Because our role is to observe and guide humanity so that it remains aligned with The Unknown. Is that not the role of The Formation?”
“Of course,” Two quipped.
Tao said, “Then the ‘action’ that you are suggesting, is further guidance? Or is it something else?”
Three said, “I want to know as well. What is it that you are suggesting, Two? Keeping in mind, of course, the wishes of The Unknown. Something humanity has long since forgotten, except for the diminishing numbers of Seekers that remain.”
Two said, “Our guidance has not been enough. The Formation did not see this technology coming. Human advancement without our oversight is dangerous.”
Twelve leaned toward Tao, “The hyperdrive allows humans extended hyperjumps without any physical structures. No point to point connections needed.”
Nine shifted. “Maxwell Rhodes has circumvented our oversight. Two, are you suggesting we destroy the technology?”
Tao was more aware of this than any other Member. He was on that very hyperdrive ship—Kairo—right now. And he wanted to share all he knew, including its mental abilities. But sharing this with the Members would give away his identity. Information that only one Member knew was forbidden because it could be traced back to their human form. Anonymity remained a critical structure of The Formation.
Tao said, “Was our objective to stop expansion? Or to guide it? We had sent delegations to advise on the governmental structure of New Earth. One that would allow The Unknown to be seen again. A world that allowed Seekers to flourish. Was that not our intention?”
“Yes,” Two said, “but it has failed. Maxwell Rhodes has seen to that.”
Ten said, “We have all found it challenging to guide Max. It has been difficult to influence even the people around him. Especially his colleague that deals with the Earth governments, JJ.”
Seven replied, “My powers of persuasion are unmatched among us and I have tried many times to adjust their positions. Even I have failed.”
Eight said, “The expansion must be managed. We must not try to stop it.”
“Agreed,” Eleven said. “Allow it to naturally occur over centuries.”
“Centuries?” Two said.
“History suggest,” Five said, “humans will work things out over time. With our guidance, the expansion will be managed to the wishes of The Unknown.”
Two said, “Centuries is too long. We will not be able to slow it down. Max has shown us that.”
“We must act,” Six said, “but do so prudently and ethically.”
“The probability of failure is too high,” Two said, looking at the pulsating red Human Graph. “The only way to contain humanity’s expansion is by accelerating it—under our guidance.”
Eight said, “That is not managing it—”
“That’s building a system that we can control,” Four said. “We can architect and execute a plan to protect humanity.”
“Accelerate human expansion…to control it?” Tao asked. “That contradicts the very purpose of The Formation.”
Two was about to speak again, but saw the Chair’s shadow grow.
The room waited in silence.
“Thirteeeen,” the Chair said. Its voice softer now. “The purpose of The Formation is not guidance. It is survival. As humanity advances, our methods must evolve. Humanity is ready to discover more of The Unknown’s creation.”
Tao held his ground. “How do we know they are ready?”
“I know.”