“I kneel to you, as I would gladly kneel to any child. Rania, your birth, as every birth, is a miracle. At this moment, your life is a boundless energy of potential. I charge all those who watch over you to do all they can to help you achieve your potential and become all you can be. Let others watch and learn from it, for they too can help all children become what our dreams yearn for.”
“Rania, he cannot hear you.”
“Please Samantha.” Again, I jumped to our diary.
“He will try Rania. When he holds out his hands, float to him and feel if he has succeeded.”
Arthur had been loath to try it, as, if he failed, he would look ridiculous as he goes through the motions without her in his hands, but he said he cannot refuse her.
He’s not writing anymore, so here is what happened.
Cherine looked nonplussed for a moment and then she surrounded him with her light. Arthur, in his world would not be aware of it, but he must have been assuming her energy and love would strengthen his assumption. His form wavered, as if about to fall apart or implode into itself and then it stabilised. His hands were raised and as Cherine drew back, Rania became a baby and floated to him. Positioning herself, she sank to his hands and we held our breath, would he be solid enough to hold her? We felt her joy as she felt him holding her explode and then she called to Robbie, *Quick dad, become the void and return to place his body in stasis.*
The pointlessness of her request did not delay him even a second and his body collapsed as he left.
Arthur, unaware of what was happening brought his hands to his chest, mimicking the actions of a man holding a baby, supporting the head as he cradled her to him. For a moment, he seemed irritated.
I’ll have to write again (Arthur).
I suppose he assumed flesh meeting flesh would stop him from trying to go through her if he miscalculated.
Robbie hovered, waiting for Rania to float out of the way and she waited, happy to stay where she was until Arthur showed he wants to let her go. Rania called to me, *Sam, please ask him to keep on talking for as long as he can. Tell him the sound of his voice makes me happy. Dad, could Dominique help you find his cord? If his body has one, attaching him to his real body and soul, you might find him* Dommi and Aganthi went to the void and Robbie left to collect them while I typed a message to Arthur. He waited a few seconds for me to return.
He appeared to be so deep in his thoughts that nobody dared make a sound, as if he could hear us.
(Sam: To us, every word he uttered is treasured, but Arthur warned me and then deleted the rest of his ramblings. I have kept a copy if you want to read it, just open the file called ‘Arthur rambles - Rania PC23’.)
She rose from his hands, Robbie enveloped his ‘body’, and as Rania floated out of his sphere, Robbie instantly placed it within a stasis field.
Those who knew of Arthur were furious, seeing our action as ‘sacrilege’. Those who did not, feared he would be angered. Listening to them, it made me realise it says a lot about him that I never thought of fearing him. Robbie explained about the quest we are on and that we are using his body as a possible link for finding him and bringing Arthur to us. Bruce cut off any further arguments by offering us the use of any scientists or other specialists we can make use of and we were soon overcome by offers from everyone.
Our first clue that something was about to happen was when we noticed that Hilmar and his girls were staring at us intensely, nervously glancing elsewhere now and then. People moved out of the way and Hilda appeared, Samuel King following her with a smile, his eyes laughing at us.
Before she could be stopped, she knelt before Robbie. “I am worthless, trash. After what I did, to presume to judge you…”
“No!” Almost roughly, Robbie pulled her to her feet. “Nobody ‘presumes’ to judge me. Hilda, everyone must! Don’t you see, it is the only way a leader can remain a leader of his people. If he is not answerable to the smallest pain in any heart, then he no longer is a leader and becomes a despot.”
“It was my own guilt Robert…”
“I know that Hilda, I have waited for you to see it so that you can learn to forgive yourself. That is all anyone can ask of you. Take your girls with you, spend some time talking to them. Cherine, please link her so that they can feel each other. Hilda, feel the sweetness and purity of them and let go of your pain, they do not blame you.” He leant forward and kissed her cheek. “Welcome Hilda, you will make a good Cherinian and bring gifts with you that will strengthen us.”
His eyes were cold for a moment as he stared at Samuel. “Samantha was right, you are a thorn.”
He laughed, totally unfazed by the look in Robbie’s eyes. “Relegated from a king to a thorn! It does not matter; both are names of power. Samuel Thorn then.”
Cassie laughed. “No. Become Thorn King.”
“I know, but you will trouble us often. Since you choose the power of your names, we have another role for you to play. Later Samuel, okay?”
“Of course, you have made me curious. Not too much later I hope.” Laughing at us in his mind, he walked off.
Robbie stared after him for a long time. “Sam, what have you unleashed on us?”
“Me!?”
That night was not for wild lovemaking. We concentrated more on feeling our sweet Rania as she slept and dreamt fuzzy little dreams. Robbie mostly sat smoking and thinking, his coffeemakers vying to bring him coffee every hour or so. At three in the morning, he made Aganthi and Claudia lie on the couch with their heads on his thighs and they snoozed, their happiness in the background of his mind so that he was more relaxed and positive.
Early in the morning I put on an oversized tee shirt and came out to get myself a glass of milk. He smiled at me. *You still have the most delicious legs. Can I have one for breakfast?* I grinned and walked through to the kitchen. Within ten minutes, the house was filling with the aroma of bacon. Mentally I called out to him, *Come, this is just for you.*
I opened my mind to Cherine for her to share with the other girls. Robbie entered the kitchen and froze. I was sitting at the table with only one leg and in a series of platters was a fried leg and eggs.
“I hope you enjoy it.”
He scowled at me. “You better be projecting!” The kitchen filled with the girls as they jumped in and broke out in peals of laughter. Of course they told Alki and others and had everyone laughing that day as they showed Robbie’s face.
“Of course I knew it was a joke, Sam’s mind smirks when she is about to pull a fast one on me. I still think it was gruesome.”
“Did you eat it?” Jessie asked.
He grinned at her. “I should have, it would have taught her a lesson.” Various girls called out ‘gross’.
Rania did not try to age herself and lay in Diana’s arms. Diana can sense that this daughter of hers has a strong spirit and she does not fear for her. Silently she just hopes Rania stays a baby for a while.
The third important moment was when the admiral visited. After the mandatory lubricating chit-chat, he asked, “Robert, you were hoping to explore? Why not go where no Unation ship has ever been - if you do not mind taking a small ship of ours and some scientists with you.”
“With pleasure. May I ask, if you are interested, why is it you have not explored it yourself? Is it a planetary system?”
“No, a galaxy, about seven and a half billion lightyears from here.” He then offered a string of coordinates to Freddie, asking him to zoom into that part of the sky.
“Uh…Admiral, I would prefer directions…you know, swing a bit to the left now and, a bit more to the right…and so on. I don’t have a qualified navigator to help me.”
“Should I arrange one for you?” the admiral asked, making all of us laugh - not the politicians, I think they were too busy regretting not taking Robbie up on his offer to first return them home.
Freddie followed instructions and then zoomed in to the best of his abilities. The galaxy looked a bit like a kidney bean, or, like a foetus curled up in a womb.
“How many cycles of each phase have you counted?”
“We only learnt of the Sleeper Galaxy once we had sophisticated technology, which means we had to arbitrarily appoint numbers to our known history. If we keep in mind that each of our species has a different history, it surprised us to discover that the numbers total of each species are very similar - close to three million years, as up to the date we first met you. This has given rise to the popularity of the theory that our galaxy was seeded, that life did not evolve naturally and spontaneously on each of our planets. We like the theory, for it helps us feel like we are one family.”
One of our Inguel scientists commented, “All galaxies, it seems, revolve around themselves and, if they are part of a group, around each other. The spin causes changes, with slight changes in the gravitational forces of the galaxy, which then cause more changes of the internal makeup of the galaxies. We have long known and even examined a galaxy which grows and collapses in size, in a rhythm, almost like a Terran heart. This one is truly unique and holds promise of new knowledge to be gained by all of us.”
Robbie grinned, his arms spread out in a gesture of defeat. “I guess it means we are going.”
The scientists and small spaceship arrived and while the admiral was ensuring everything is shipshape, or whatever, I notice the screens flash as we jumped realities and then jumped realities again. None of us could recognise what we were seeing in the screens, so we knew that Robbie has kidnapped the admiral. We waited for him to realise, curious as to how he will react.
Robbie did not wait, as soon as the admiral jumped to us, he told him, “We jumped to another reality and back to your reality so as not to be slaved to your time, which means we can return to your home planet within hours of our departure. Why not forget you are an admiral for a short time and relax. Be a part of the adventure you have sent us on.”
Since he is now a guest, I might as well give his names and description of his species. He has eleven names, but like us, they mostly use two: Halisi Burrquit. He, a male, is of the Meingera species. Their home planet is mostly ocean, about seventy eight percent, and since they became a part of the Unation, a large number of the crews in a variety of spaceships are of the Meingera. Many of them have risen to officer status, with five of the Unation admirals being of their species. In appearance, they might be considered a little strange, for they have arms and legs, but they also have four tentacles. As Halisi told us during one of his stories about life on his home planet, when in a storm, the tentacles can be exceedingly useful, leaving the arms free for manipulating in finer detail. They only still have remnants of gills, not very useful any more, and they look like ragged beards of stringy flesh, on either side of their face. Other Unation species have told us that the Meingera, even non-Cherinians, are nice people and never violent - they literally cringe at the thought of causing pain. There are very few criminals among them and those that there are, have only a tendency to light crime - actions they can justify to themselves as not being crimes.
That bit about them cringing at the thought of causing pain, I find this next fact quite amusing and wonder whether we, as Cherinians, could use the technique. Their method of threatening each other, if they are very angry, is by cringing. Actually, on second thought, I don’t think I would enjoy having to cringe to show I am angry.
The thought that we have arrived at a distance of about seven billion lightyears from our point of departure, is quite awesome! It was also quite funny, a bit of an anti-climax for many, when we had to spend nine hours searching for the target galaxy. Robbie had aimed for a gulf, between galaxies, but, from here, the galaxy looks very different, so different in fact, that we still struggle to convince ourselves it is the Sleeper galaxy. At first we found ourselves in a dust cloud, a very light one, it has not started condensing yet, but it blocked the sight of the universe. We moved to the void and from there Robbie chose where to return to normal space. Without us knowing it, we now had another galaxy between us and our target and it took a few jumps, more or less at random, I think, for us to find the galaxy we thought we were looking for, but now we thought we had made a mistake. It took hours for us to work out what is happening.
It was a bit deflating, as we had been hoping for some new and humongous discovery of a law of the universe, but then we saw that what we have discovered is amazing and the scientists told us they will need at least twenty years for studying the twin galaxies - as they should be disrupting each other, stealing entire solar systems from each other, and they are not. It turns out the Unation spaceship can be used if we take small jumps of about eighteen months, so as to change scientists and ensure they have enough air and food and water. We let them out at the general area where they wanted to be and jumped forward in time. Since they had an Inguel transmitter on board, it was easy to find them (they had only moved about a half lightyear). After the second jump, the admiral returned to spend some time with us, for he found he had nothing to do and was only getting in the way, as he put it.
Robbie, at the request of our scientists - and once they had asked, we all liked the idea, moved Freddie to the area between the two galaxy disks.
It did not look like we had pictured it. First of all, the two disks are about one thousand, one hundred and fifty lightyears apart and they are not flat. As with most galaxies, at the center, both of them are more densely populated with stars, which means the galactic draw of gravity is stronger there, causing them to bulge inwards towards each other, with the tiny black hole adding to the attraction and distortion. I must add this here: From the outer sides, the disks do not warp inwards at the center, if anything, they slightly bulges on both sides.
However, there was one major surprise. It was difficult to see while we were within the space, as all we could see was large asteroids and some small solar systems apparently set out at random, but by moving further out, we can now see that there is the remnants of a third galaxy in the form of a ring of solar systems, at about three quarters the size of the two outer galaxies, but at about ten percent of the density! The scientists think the black hole might be all that is left of the center of the third galaxy.
Neauti, an adult again, though a young looking one, declared this a wonder and beauty of the universe, asking that all governments declare it off limits to all commercial exploitation and all experiments that could alter it. Robbie immediately backed her, with the rest of us only trailing them by a second or two. Because of what Neauti asked of us, Robbie and the Sparklers, from within the void, went out to search all the galaxies surrounding these three…no I will continue to describe it as one, as the Sleeper Galaxy. They were pleased to sense many thousands of sapient species; remarkably, the one galaxy has over thirty thousand species! If this is true all over the universe, of all the billions of galaxies, how can we ever grow bored or run out of new friends? All it takes is that we remain interested.
At supper, with many guests sitting with us, Coral asked, “Robert, are we now closer to the center of the universe, or is the galaxy of the Unation closer to it?”
“I don’t know.”
She nodded and added, “If we are now closer to the edge, I wonder if what they say about a butterfly is true and how our coming here has affected the opposite side of our universe.” We explained to those who do not know the theory that all is one and that it was postulated that if we kill a butterfly on our world, it could affect, for example, the weather on the other side of the planet by disturbing a few molecules, or a sun on the other side of the universe. Robbie did not get to answer her, for many of us had fanciful thoughts on the subject and we cheerfully made fools of ourselves spouting them as facts, knowing we are confusing a few - those who do not know us well.
I took a cushion and lying on the grass, with the cushion under my head, I relaxed, enjoying the sight above me. I sensed someone coming and looking, saw it is the Greek prime minister. He stopped and I nodded, so he sat close to me.
“Prime Minister Kavallieratos, you are troubled?”
“Call me Vassili, or Basil if you prefer and no titles please, not while we are your guests in Freddie.”
“Vassili, you have been quieter than usual these last few days.”
I grinned. “I admit it is addictive.”
He nodded. “It is why I have been wondering how you could give up this kind of life for spending it on our world, helping us - against our will.”
“I think you are forgetting something.”
“What?”
“Your world, your reality, it is not ours. It was an adventure for us - just as it would be for you if we take you to another Earth and we have to fight to save them.” I turned and rose to lean on an elbow as I looked at him. “Even if it were not an adventure, we would still need to do it…for our sake. It would not be healthy, nor would we grow as we hope to grow, in a balanced way, if we only concentrated on having adventures. It is important we devote as much time as we can on helping people - whatever their species. Vassili, do you know which is the most horrible temptation, which luckily does not tempt us in the slightest? The temptation to think of ourselves as being something more than human. Would it remain anathema if we do not allow our hearts to remind us again and again, as often as possible, that all people are important to us?”
He pulled a face. “You saw through me? You have relieved me of that which I feared, for I have found myself tempted to think of you as gods, so I worried you might be tempted too. Thank you.”
“Then be a true friend and if you see we are taking the wrong road or are starting to think we are more important than anyone else, even the most uneducated and miserable person our societies have contempt for, speak out, force us to take a good look at ourselves - even if it upsets your friend Laki. We rely on friends helping us keep our hearts open.”
When the admiral joined us the next morning, Robbie gave him a grin. “Those travelling in the Unation spaceship are going to need more time than they asked for. Once they see the area in between the galaxies, they will probably ask for another fifty years. Then they will want to see it all from the other side! I see no end for it, we are going to be stuck here for a long time. Are you certain you won’t be court-martialled for going AWOL - absent without leave?”
Since he knows he will be returned within hours of departure, he knew Robbie is teasing and answered with a serious tone, “Should I apply for political asylum - as they do on your world?”
“Hmm, the rules would not apply, you are not being politically persecuted…”
I cut in, “Just as all those millions of refugees pouring into Europe, in Arthur’s reality? Admiral, I apologise, for as you see, we are not politically correct, according to the traitors of our species and stick to what is logical and reasonable, so we won’t be able to help you.” I was glad he gave me the excuse for saying what I did and I noticed Robbie deliberately did not look my way, trying to hide his amusement.
Cassie, luckily had the sense to keep her tease just between us. *Sam, if he becomes a Muslim and declares a jihad against us, will you then accept him?*
I tersely replied, making her laugh aloud, *As you said, my name is Samantha, not Angela…Merkel.*
One of the scientists still in Freddie asked whether we can investigate a star in a different galaxy from close, for it keeps blinking every four days and nothing he knows could cause the blinking. Being about one hundred and seventy thousand lightyears away and lacking suitable equipment, he could not check whether a planet is causing it, though it would have to be an immense planet and travelling at a huge speed to have a four day orbit - the sun is too hot for it to be that close.
Robbie stared at him for a moment without speaking, then challenged him, “If you have the courage to tell me what you think is the truth, we’ll go.”
He mentally squirmed, but replied, “I think it is artificial, probably a navigational beacon.”
He stared at Robbie for a moment, at a loss, then said, “You only stipulated I must give you my true thoughts on this, you did not say I must justify them.”
Robbie grinned. “That is why we are already on our way. Still it would have been interesting to hear your answer.”
His feet seemed to lightly dance for a moment and then he told us, “I do not think they built it for their own use. I think it is meant to be an invitation. Maybe they are hoping some other civilisation has found a way to travel faster than the speed of light.”
Robert made everyone laugh when he shot to his feet and told him, “Damn, I wish you were a little Terran girl so that I could hug you!” He did touch him where it is allowed by their culture and is seen as a sign of respect. The poor young scientist dashed back to his laboratory as soon as he could, flustered and probably worried about the reactions of his own people - I mean, positive reactions. Life is hard for the young Inguel and if they succeed at something they have to be very careful that they do not create the impression they think they are equal to those who are more experienced. Luckily that attitude is slowly changing, mostly because of Robbie.
Cherine asked, emoting a hint of dismay, “We have not seen much of him and they never give their names unless asked and we don’t ask because we think it will make them think we did not care to learn their name.”
Haven told her, “He is the son of a couple who were part of a terraforming team. He came to us, with his parents, in the last exchange. His name is Artanfel an Soorsni, his first name was given to him by friends of his parents, from one of the species they brought back - I believe it means ‘gift of life’ in their language. He is one of the few CherInguel who have not studied biological sciences, his first love being the stars and cosmos.”
Cherine nodded. “I think we’ll be hearing and seeing a lot more of him from now onwards.” Now, at the time of writing this, I can’t help but wonder whether Cherine is growing a new-to-her gift, the ability to see into the future - I should not have added this comment, but I am feeling emotional, for as we travelled to the Blink Star, keen-eyed Artanfel noticed another oddity. We pointed out to us a string of three suns, a giant white star, a medium red star and a smaller yellow star. He feels that they are part of the ‘invitation’.
By the time we woke up in the morning, we could sense that Freddie was struggling to control himself so as not to disturb our sleep. He sent us a brief message, telling us to get ready and go to the taverna as soon as we can. We looked out and saw all his screens are blanked.
As soon as we arrived, Freddie adjusted the screens to show us that we have arrived and are fairly close to the Blink Star. We all stared, overcome by what we were seeing and the massive project it must have been. Then Robbie suddenly blocked his mind from us and letting his body go, he shot off towards the sun. We instantly left our bodies to follow him. Without saying anything, he wrapped us in his soul and becoming the void he took us right next to the sun. What had looked like a massive creation from within Freddie, was totally awe-inspiringly huge! Robbie waited for us as we made our excited comments and then, without saying anything, he took us back to Freddie and we returned to our bodies.
Robbie squeezed Candy to him, but his eyes were on me and it felt as if they blazed. “Samantha, this will teach us how to save the planet of Le’sase. We’re not leaving until we are certain of each detail - and if they are still around, I want to meet the people who created the sun shield. Damn, how can any mechanism exist that close to a sun!” For a second I was stunned, unable to think, and then as my mind was flooded with understanding, I burst into wild sobs.
Hours later, Robbie asked for Artanfel. He arrived, filled with excitement and impatient to return to his study of the mechanism floating at a close orbit to the sun. Robbie crouched before him. “I am overcome by emotion and I think you do not know how important that thing you found for us, is. Am I supposed to hit you so as to show you how loved you are by all of us? Come, be my guest, open yourself to sensing my mind.”
A large number of people went to examine the structure and the mechanisms (and, they found out) the series of computers, serially backing each other up so that failure of one or two or, up to eight of them, does not prevent the structure from following the correct orbit that times the blink correctly. They also found an entire workshop run by independent AI robots, dedicated to keeping the computers and equipment working smoothly.
Claudia had to go with, but within the day the robots were able to communicate with us and they were willing to share their knowledge, providing us with tons of data and diagrams. Even the metal (not really a metal, a mixture of metals and special crystallised plastics we learnt) even had in those files the method for creating the metal. The stresses were clearly detailed and everyone was awed all over again. I was surprised to find out that two of the politicians also offered their services, because of engineering studies and interests they have. They were so excited by all they were learning that they could not sleep and forgot to eat most of the time. We made them eat and sleep, but still they needed our healers to watch over them.
When I use the word ‘robots’, what do you imagine? Most Terrans imagine them with two legs, arms, a sort of metallic copy of us. We are not the only ones, for instance, the various species of the Unation each imagine a creature that vaguely resembles them. If these robots follow the same pattern, their creators must be very different from every species we have met till now.
These must be the most flexible robots I’ve ever seen. Then can stretch to about three hundred metres, like a thumb thick wire and at any point they want they can grow tentacles, as many as they need, from about half the thickness of a sewing thread and upwards. They can be used for anchoring themselves (they are very careful of their safety as they cannot be replaced), or they go snaking their way into joints and motors or motherboards, if that is what their computers have. They communicate with each other aloud and by broadcast, but they can also change colour; for instance, I’m guessing, maybe a certain colour shows at what stage they are during a repair and as they come closer to finishing, the colour changes. When they have their ‘normal’ shape, they resemble an eleven sided starfish, but with about forty thin tentacles all over the top side…the under side, I have not seen, for when they lift off the decks, they instantly curl in to cover that part of them.
As I said, the robots are open and willing to share, or to explain what they are doing at that moment, but ask them about their creators and they seem to curl into themselves, wrapping their tentacles tightly about their bodies and they seem to switch off for about three seconds. They are also firm about us not getting in their way if we are interfering with their ability to get the job done.
Finally the right question was asked about their creators - mostly out of exasperation. “Do your creators want us to visit their planet?”
“No, you must not visit, you must make it your second home, make it yours - just as we are, if no other visitors arrive.”
“Where is the planet?”
It pointed to a planet within the solar system. “Go there to commit yourselves and you will be guided to your new home. What is your wish, are we to continue maintenance?”
“Yes.”
Robbie told Freddie, “They did not mention a need for broadcasting a request for permission to land, so just go into orbit and we’ll land in platforms.” Freddie sent directly to our minds a reminder, Do not forget to take young Artanfel.
As Freddie chose his orbit, a spaceship floated away from the planet, showing they have anti-gravity technology, and we waited for them. They went into orbit around Freddie, obviously waiting for us to open for them to enter. Freddie sent streaks of light, from white, to red, to yellow, to the top of our sky. The ship moved in that direction and the outer shield opened. They entered, stopped as we closed the outer shell and once the inner shell was open, they entered.
They drifted down, travelling in circles, obviously recording details, not only photographic, for Freddie could feel different energies reaching out, for them to examine at their convenience later. Robbie created an energy bubble close to the taverna, flashing their favourite sequence of lights, at ground level, and the ship landed. The door opened and five robots exited. We were not expecting what we saw. They were each a pastel colour, pink, light blue, light yellow, light green and ivory white (can I count it as a pastel colour, after all, maybe they see in a slightly different light-band and the ivory is a colour to them that we don’t see?).
“We have learnt your language from your discussions with the worker robots. Regretfully we must inform you that you took too long to come and our creators despaired and died - in solar years of this planet, seven hundred and six thousand years ago. We have done as was expected of us and have maintained your planet for you - do you now release us from the duty?”
I quickly replied, before some softhearted person agrees, “No, we do not.”
Reasonably, it pointed out, “You are aliens, we do not know how to serve you as you may require and if we fail you…we will cease to exist. Are you certain?”
“Speak to us first of your creators. What were they like, for instance, did they war amongst themselves?”
“Of course. After all, as long as all sides are careful not to cause harm, war is a strategy game that exercises the intellect and stimulates the mind.”
“Do you possess curiosity about the universe, about other beings, about us?”
“It is not permitted for us to cause you harm - and questions can cause harm. Although information can also cause harm, we have been exempted from that responsibility, so that we can answer your questions.”
Cherine asked, “Give us an example of what kind of information could harm us.”
“If we speak of our creators, their deaths may cause you such harm that you lose the will to live. You will not ask us?”
Robbie sent to us, *It sounds like they were a politically correct society, does anyone feel their existence could harm us?* but, aloud he replied, “We have the ability to travel in time. If it will not harm you, we are willing to collect and bring them to this time, so that they may rejoice that their dream of contacting other species, for which they made so many sacrifices, has come true.”
Back at our taverna, I could not resist teasing our guests, the politicians. “The next trip will be fairly small, only about eleven hundred years into the past, but I regret I must inform you that this does indicate a trend which you may find disturbing. It seems you are condemned to travel, like the myth about the crew of the Flying Dutchman, cursed to forever meet new species, visit new galaxies and probably other realities while no time passes on your home world.” I think Alki was the most amused and the girls all wished they could throw pillows at me. I was pleased that not one of the politicians deliberately misunderstood me - maybe we’ll have to remind them to think like politicians, just before we return them. Afterwards, when I thought about it, I was surprised that Terrans from nine realities all know of the myth. Do myths have a stronger hold on reality than histories do?
I’m certain the scientists will be able to explain why this planet is not blue and white, as ours is, but turquoise, with a faint pink in the clouds. I like the turquoise, but the pink does seem to clash a bit.
The robots understand that we must have a picture in our minds of how some part of their planet looked about one and a half thousand years ago, for us to jump to that time without having to keep jumping until we arrive at the time we want. One of them plugged into a computer of ours and after learning our programming languages, it transferred data, which was shown on a screen as pictures of an area, with buildings which only existed for a short time, about that far back in time.
It took us longer to learn their language and it was not Claudia’s fault; not even the fault of the robots, for they translated for us. The people call themselves the Hoïrafaï. The name partly hints at their love of the chemicals combined with the senses of touch with which they communicate and exchange emotions. It is theorised by the Inguel that they must have originally been two species, of the plant and animal kingdoms, how or why they became one is something they look forward to learning.
Everyone is impressed by the Hoïrafaï, for though they do not seem to be highly intelligent, they have a mental quality or discipline that gives the impression of both intelligence and wisdom. As an example. When preparing for the creation of the Blink Star, they tried to imagine all the manners in which other species might use for communicating, not just assuming they will use chemicals, as we normally assume they will use audio. As an aside, it is odd that we also tend to do a fair amount of communicating with touch and yet it is not usually identified as a way for us to communicate. Anyway, they devised a number of methods; by chemicals, with and without touch; by colours and lights, by auditory means, music, exchanges of electrical charges and so on. This attempt at thoroughness is what makes them seem wise.
They are quite hardy, yet, in general, they easily slip into depression if they are made to feel they are not loved. Luckily it is easy to cheer them up again.
Collecting their dead and bringing them back to life in Freddie was more complicated a procedure than usual. It is important that the living do not know about us, for they did not know about us - yup, that paradox problem again. They are sensitive to souls and can sense them - when about to die, they expect family or friends who died earlier to put in an appearance and all who have gathered to bid the dying person a farewell, treasure sensing old and gone loved ones again. At the moment of death, a number of those who are particularly close will follow the soul to the void, so as to help it adjust.
The only way we can think of helping them is bad, unpleasant and fearsome for them, and directly contributing to their extinction. This is the first time we are saving a species for their future existence, without joy on our side. We are suffering and having to force ourselves to continue.
At first it was suggested that we conscript the souls waiting in the void, but to explain, I need to explain the sequence of their peculiar but nice way of dealing with death. When they die, the void does not tear at them and because they are strongly bonded to those they left behind, they wait, sometimes being visited by the living. When it is time for the one left behind to die, the soul waiting returns to be with them, in their mind. Once the loved one is in the void and has recovered from the transition, the attention of the newly dead soul is directed back to the most loved person still alive and the older generation of soul find they no longer feel so strongly the compulsion to remain and the idea of moving on, being born again, feels right and more and more attractive, until they let go and allow the void to send them where it wills.
To use the souls already waiting in the void would help greatly reduce the suffering, by them and us, but it would be at the cost of showing the older souls that they have missed out, as they cannot be returned to live again, for we do not have their cells. We cannot keep returning to previous generations to collect cells, so we cannot ask them to help.
Robbie has created a large platform and the Sparklers have created their World in it (to them it just feels as if it has gone there with those who are in the platform, while it also stays in Freddie with those Sparklers who are with us). Freddie has jumped to a neighbouring reality.
