You don’t realise it love, this business with Arthur returning to meddle in our lives twice, it has been a shock to you. You need a time of fun and scheming.
I grinned, *I know, it is why we are here. The truth, Robbie? I think his being ill was more of a shock, it made it so real that he will be dying without us finding him first. Anyway, I’ve now had enough of a healing time and I promise, seeing Bernie happy will complete the healing.*
Of course Bernie squealed and was ecstatic, but by the time they were ready to leave, she had settled into a deep happiness, which truly was all the healing I needed. Before they left, she came to me for a quick hug and I told her, “Don’t go thinking you are going to have all the fun, the rest of us are going to Kefalari with pappou - are you certain you would not prefer to come with us?” I laughed at her emoting and told her to go, before Robbie gets too old for it to be fun for her. Cherine wrapped her arm around mine, Aganthi doing the same on the other side and once they were gone, Alki and Marian arrived. Only Meli did not want to come, but Alki asked her to join us and she did.
While having our cappuccinos, ice creams and so on, Wendy started with, “I wonder how they are going to tackle the problem of getting to know the local Cherine.”
I cut in, “I do not like the idea of spending our time here speculating or sharing from them - it will be much more fun if we play our own games. For instance, what if we relax our rules a bit so that we can sense emoting plus just a hint of the surface thoughts. Whoever of us finds the most interesting person wins.” For a few seconds, nobody said anything, they just stared at me, so I was given time for changing my mind. “On the other hand, why don’t we make it even more interesting, challenging, by not allowing ourselves to sense anything at all. We choose according to how we feel about the person, maybe because of the way they walk, carry themselves, maybe the look in their eyes and face and so on. That way it is closer to pot luck.”
Rose grinned. “I concede defeat.”
Cherine demanded, “How can you give in so easily?”
“Because Sam has stacked the odds against us, ensuring she will win.”
I exclaimed, “You’re joking!”
“I’m not, look how you always choose the most boring person, as with Orgg, and we feel sorry for you and then we end up having to share from you.” I could sense Cherine giggling in her mind, which I thought was very unfair.
Alki spoke up, “I’ll play. I choose that elderly man standing at the kiosk wearing a blazer. He has looked at his watch more than ten times in the last four minutes, so I bet he is having an affair with a young woman - which is why she is making him wait.”
Marian chuckled. “He is not waiting for a lover, he is waiting for either his daughter or granddaughter - only they have the self-confidence to make older men who pay the bills wait for them.”
I was pleased, the game had started and various choices were being made, but none were interesting enough to justify us taking the next step. I looked at Meli and wondered whether she’ll take part in the game, then I noticed something interesting. Her dark eyes looked lost in thought - not dreamy; lost in thought! I had a feeling I better keep an eye on her, without intruding on her privacy, just as if she were my choice in the game and not part of my family.
Meli went to the kiosk and bought three small bottles of milk, grabbing a few straws. She went to three children sitting on the pavement about one hundred and fifty metres away. Giving them the milk, after opening the top and inserting the straws for them, she softly asked what they would like to eat. While she did so, she looked into their eyes and I sensed Meli call to my healer - and that of Aganthi. Suddenly Aganthi called out in shock. Her healer had been sent to the youngest, a two year old, and it was rejected, kicked out, while the toddler stared at Aganthi with her tiny fists clenched in anger.
We were all excited at discovering a new talent, but not Meli. She kept her mind calm and concentrated on soothing the little one, mostly by asking the older ones to help.
The eldest girl shrugged and in broken Greek told her, “Softri chooses.” The two others are called: Marsi (about 6 years old) and Porim (about 5 years old). Their accent was slightly Gypsy, but they were not thinking in any Terran language - I know, we should not have, but we had to spy on their thoughts to find out what is happening.
Softri calmed down, maybe she can sense Meli and knows she is not a threat, and asked, as if greatly daring, if she can have a sandwich filled with salad. Meli asked if the other two want the same and they nodded, their eyes round with wonder that she is willing to spend so much on them.
As Meli went off to buy the sandwiches, Alki muttered, “Gammoto! Does this mean there are people of their species on the other Earths, ours included?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know pappou, maybe they only now exist because of the future Arthur.” That thought raced like an electric current through all of us, shocking everyone. Robbie queried us, but Cherine told him to concentrate on Bernie and his own project, we don’t need his help yet. That left him feeling worried, but forced to respect our privacy.
Meli sat with the girls, wanting them to grow accustomed to her presence. Softri, with her mouth full of food, asked, “What do - where go?”
“Me? Oh, sorry, it was rude of me. I like making up stories, but then I must put them in my computer so that I can concentrate on the next part of the story. I was making my computer write for me and you thought I was gone, because my computer is far from here.”
Porim asked, “Computer at home? Not Athens?”
“Not in Athens - very far away. One day, if you want, I’ll show you my home.”
Porim wistfully asked, “Home, nice bedroom?”
“Many bedrooms - even for our guests.”
Meli timed it just right, leaving them while they still wanted to know more, with only hints of possibilities to keep their imaginations alight. And the most important of all, she did not come across as the typical do-gooder who almost always frightens street children into running away, costing them their patch.
As Meli walked back to us, Marian arranged for the chair next to her to be vacated, so Meli had to sit next to her mum. With a proud look on her face, Marian took hold of Meli’s arm and raised it. “The winner!”
Cherine laughed. “Not really, not everyone has had a turn yet. If nobody makes even more of a wow discovery, still Meli is not likely to win, as one other of us made a bigger discovery.” She grinned. “Samantha. She discovered Meli!”
Of course Cherine and I got booed, while everybody fell about laughing uncontrollably. For the first time ever, the coffee shop owner came to ask us to tone it down, as other customers were becoming upset by our rowdy behaviour.
As if it was timed to deliberately embarrass the owner, Elia and Claire arrived (who he knows) and Elia rushed over to greet Alki, calling out, “Alki Georgiadi, since when do you keep company with children! I cannot believe what my eyes see.”
Dommi wanted to do a disappearing act, but Alki always thinks in the opposite way. “Claire mou, even after so many years and you still have not succeeded in civilising him!” He gave her a hug and cheek kisses. “Elia, you say children, but what children eh? Take another look and it will break your heart.”
Claire grabbed hold of her husband’s arm. “Elia, look, that little girl, doesn’t she look exactly like our Dominique did at that age?”
Before we’d parted with them, Claire made such a big thing of her inviting us to their home for lunch, that pappou Alki gave in and accepted. I love it that things are starting to get complicated. As soon as we got home, in Freddie, we sent to Robbie and Bernie that Elia and Claire are part of their problem, but Robbie was amused and paid us back by refusing to help deal with them.
At about four in the morning, local Athens time, Freddie called to us, “The Anadir watching over the children just sent a message - the oldest girl, Marsi, has just died. His healer is trying to heal her, but it cannot find what is wrong with her. Her soul is being held in the void by Sparklers.”
Cherine stopped us. “Meli, you go.”
At the same time, we sensed Robbie and Bernie wake up. Robbie did not know what to do, as little Cherine was hiccuping in one and two second jumps in time, but the number of them were draining her. He left his body to enter and help her with his own energy, but she time-hiccuped and he was thrown out.
I decided there must be some kind of connection, so as Cherine hiccuped, I watched the two girls, but there wasn’t even a flicker of energy by or in either of them.
Meli had stopped attempting to calm the girls, for they showed no interest in the death of Marsi. They weren’t even very interested in the presence of Meli and they soon turned over and went back to sleep. As they did, I noticed the time-hiccups slowed and little Cherine was also able to fall asleep. The only ones who remained awake were Robbie, Bernie and us. Not one of us could come up with a hint of an explanation. Robbie sent to Meli she should return to us, but she remained seated next to the three girls.
As the sun warmed up the gray sky with an orange glow, Meli jerked. She sent to us, *Marsi has come back to life!* At the same time, Freddie warned us that the Sparklers are in distress, for the soul they were holding, suddenly disappeared.
Robbie and Bernie joined us at the taverna. Alki and Marian have shared since we were woken this morning, so we insisted they stay with us. Alki rarely has a cappuccino, preferring a metrio Greek coffee, so we waited as he poured a tiny bit of cold water into his coffee and took a sip.
Robbie teased Lynda, “It is not odd enough that you send us to a reality you name the Hiccup reality, you then add little alien kids begging in Kifissia, who die and come back to life? What next Lynda?”
He was answered almost immediately and I do not know who was more shocked, Freddie or us - remember, we are in the void. Porim suddenly appeared next to Meli.
“Softri say come.” Meli took her little hand and jumped.
Robbie had a brainwave. “Claudia jump to an area close to them, maybe you can make it easier for them to communicate.”
I don’t know if Claudia helped, for Softri communicated telepathically with Meli, including images. This is what we shared from Meli.
*You see not human, so can talk. Come with to important memories.*
Meli saw herself in a spaceship. It looked worn and needed fresh air. There were four adults and the three kids. Softri is not their sister, she comes from the family who were acting as leaders. Meli saw they were close to Earth when they were attacked. The wildly out of control spaceship tumbled and Meli saw they are about to crash close to Kammena Vourla, in Greece. The parents died at the instant of the strike and Marsi was badly wounded. Desperate to save her, Softri reached for any mind with the ability to heal and found little Cherine. As she tore into her mind, the spaceship hit water and the blow knocked them all out.
Before she passed out, in other words, within a split second, Softri, now linked to Cherine, jumped in time by a second, causing them to exist twice for that second. Enough of the healing energy was identified for Marsi to be partly healed and then oblivion hit all of them, including little Cherine.
Seeing Meli appear by them during the night forced Softri to think. She then recalled seeing another Cherine, just older (by seeing her, I am not speaking of the visual aspect of her; she recognised the soul she has spent the last year contacting nearly every day) in the group of girls Meli came from, so she decided she’ll have to ask for help. What puzzled her was not that we have Talents, or the existence of Freddie, it was the fact that we obviously do not come from this world and she feared we might have been sent here to find them, by the police of her world.
Meli sat with them for a while, then bought them more food, not sandwiches this time, but large bowls of salad and a crispy roll and milk. Gratefully they climbed into the food, but they also, internally, kept an eye on Meli, anxious to know what she will do.
“The healing energy you need, I have it. Marsi, may I send my healer to you?” She turned to Softri, submissively waiting for her decision. When she nodded her agreement, Meli sent her healer.
As Softri sensed Marsi healing, correctly this time, not just in tiny bursts, tears ran down her cheeks. As Meli ended, wanting to send her healer to the others, Softri sighed and asked her, “Friend? Look after?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you; now can go.” Stunned, Meli sensed her begin to die, letting go her body. Cherine told her to remain with the other kids, she’ll go after Softri. We quickly paid the bill and rushed over to Meli and the kids and then jumped to Freddie. Since little Cherine should not be hiccuping anymore, Robbie and Bernie met us in our home.
Cassie gave Porim a deliberate look of suspicion. “You’re not also going to die on us, are you?”
She shook her head, “Marsi not sick now, I have family, so I stay. Softri no family, long time she want to find her family, but stay for us.”
Gruffly, Alki told her, “You all have family now.”
She went to stand before him and with an odd gesture, she curtsied. “Thank you, is very kind, but not same for our people, not from family soul, so not family.”
I saw there is only one way for us to shortcut the entire process. Robbie gave me a nod and asked Marsi, “Will you allow me to share the time your parents died and you crashed onto Earth?” Once she understood he wants to share memories, she agreed. From her, he left directly, so we ran to get sheets to wrap our imminent guests in while Cherine and Meli explained what is about to happen. At least it made Softri stop trying to die.
An aside of mine - you know in which ways the appearance of adults differ from those of children. I’m not talking about puberty tags, like hair underarm and in the groin. I’m thinking more of the way cartilage grows, pronouncing the shape and size of nose and ears, for instance. Those were the kind of changes we expected to see when the adults bodies appear. We were wrong. Cartilage does not seem to play as important a role among them, but the shape of the skull does. The part behind the ears, from the crown to the nape, the strongly marked pronouncements are almost shaped like two wide orange (the fruit) segments. The eyes also move apart, slightly, but giving them a different appearance. The general effect is not bad, but I imagine that as they age it could become uncomfortable.
The four of them had died while under attack, yet not one of them became aggressive or self-defensive when they awoke. Perhaps Robbie managed to calm them, but that doesn’t always work. All they did was gather their crying children to them, doing all they can to soothe them.
The parents of Softri had to speak first, so the others waited, as she was the most affected of them all and needed time and love.
Her mother spoke, “Our daughter has shown us, you have been kind.”
The mother replied, “A misconception perhaps, due to ignorance of our species? She is not the youngest of the three, she is the eldest. When children of our species develop mental abilities, it stunts them, as if the brain is robbing the body of nourishment it needs.”
Robbie cut in, “What is the reason you were under attack - even though you had reached sanctuary - am I right?”
We could sense she felt embarrassed, but she answered, “All seven of us are gifted mentally, to different degrees, with Softri being the strongest. It is considered an abomination by our people and we were sentenced to death. Softri was able to advise us of the existence of a person with mental gifts stronger than hers, so we came to her in the hope of being offered sanctuary.
We are greatly shamed at what we have done, for those who attacked us, their instruments will have sensed the mind our daughter sensed and they are bound to return with a fleet to wipe out the entire species of your planet.”
Robbie shrugged. “It is not of any importance at this time. We’d rather concentrate on learning about you and working out a way for you to fit in with the local societies. Uhm, how long do you think it will take them to arrive?”
“We have been away a year? Another fifteen? We cannot be certain, as time will be needed for meetings and decisions to be made. Sometimes they can take longer than the time spent travelling here.” Robbie chuckled and they were puzzled, not finding she had said anything amusing.
While all the above was said, Meli was mostly ignoring them, lost in her thoughts. She now asked Softri, “If you welcome me into your mind, I may be able to help you contact your own healer.”
They spent five hours sharing minds and the parents did not seem to worry about it, which felt unnatural to us. Suddenly they exclaimed and we realised her body is changing shape. It stopped when she looked the equivalent of a seven year old.
Meli told us, “Her healer now knows how to concentrate the energy sent to the brain, without depriving the rest of her body. Robert, I searched her mind to find how and why her mind has been affecting Cherine in that strange way, but I could not find anything that explains it.”
I guess the parents asked her and Softri told them about her causing Cherine to skip forward in time for a second or two each time. They looked worried as they explained to us.
“It is partly caused by Softri. Because their minds were linked at the moment of attack, the damage meant for Softri was shared by the two of them. It is not a permanent condition, the effects will fade away over another year or two - as long as the two of them do not contact each other during that time.”
Cherine grinned. “We’ll have to see whether Cherine is willing to stay away. Robert, both families must be placed under Cherine’s protection, so I think it may be a good idea that you bring the family to Freddie.”
Robbie nodded. “After tomorrow, they need some time on their own.”
“Robert, you’ve been out of town - Nairobi? How is your delightful wife, please give my best to Bernie.”
“Actually, I’ve been asked to invite you for a spot of lunch. Cherine, it is the season for pink bananas? I must remember to get some. I’ve ordered, especially for you, a Pavlova cake; it is made of meringue, whipped cream with lots and lots of sweet raspberries tossed five deep all over it. I promise you, your tummy will remember the cake forever and you’ll keep on moaning, ‘where is that magician Robert? I want more meringue cake’.”
As he’d intended, he got her giggling and she asked, “Are we going to your home?”
He grinned. “Where we are going, you’ll meet some of the loveliest and sweetest girls and you’ll return home with tons of new friends. Come on, Marian, stop frowning, you’ll remember this day forever.”
“With the two of you smiling like that, do I honestly have a choice? Are we going in our car?”
“No, my car is that pink monstrosity.”
As they walked over, Cherine gaily chatting with her mum, Eric confided, “Cherine has had some bad days, it’s been hell; thank you for bringing a smile back to her face.”
Robbie drove towards the Arusha airport, which confused the parents, but Robbie just couldn’t find a stretch without any traffic or people walking. He finally decided he must do something before the parents turn difficult.
“Cherine, have you ever seen a car that can fly? Watch the road in front of us.” As the car took off, inside it was filled with screams, though Cherine was mostly screaming with excitement. “We’ll be home in a jiffy, less than a minute.” He jumped them into Freddie.
Robbie gave us a look that said, ‘I give up, there is no pleasing some people,’ and told us he is going for a coffee, implying it is our problem now. At the same time, while nobody would notice a change in the screens, Freddie jumped realities.
Marian called to Cherine to become seven, while she aged herself, and taking her hand they introduced themselves. “Marian, we come from a different reality, where we learnt about your Cherine suffering…we call them time-hiccups…so we came to heal her. Think about it, she has not had any hiccups over the last three days, has she?” She talked until Marian began to respond, fearfully asking questions, while at the same time, our Cherine struck up a little girl conversation with her alternate. She called Goldi to join them and little Cherine was smitten (I do not believe it was because of her physical beauty; I think Cherine sensed her personality). Then Jade and Cassie drifted over and within minutes she was screaming with laughter. As for Eric, Robbie wisely asked Irene and Percy and Jonathan to sit with him.
After breakfast next morning, while Robbie smoked and sipped at his coffee, he said to me, “I’ve been waiting for you - I think this is the first time you’ve let me down.”
I spoke to Cherine, “The way I see it, either he stopped in his deductions far too early, which I would not have expected of him, so I’m guilty of overestimating him - or else, he saw further than I did and I let him down. Which of the two do you consider more likely?”
“The second alternative.” I stared at her, feeling betrayed, she was supposed to be my ‘straight man’.
Though feeling a bit deflated, I bravely soldiered on, “Okay, I’ll spell out what conclusions I think Robbie arrived at. Dad, you play fair and admit the truth, if I am right.
The Rasiva will be returning to Earth to kill all mutants, as I think they must have sensed Softri reach out to someone for help - or maybe they’ll consider themselves safer if they kill all of us. We must stop them, but without waiting for them to come to us. If we do not want to kill any of them, we must destroy their entire space fleet. Destroying their fleet is not enough, for it will only take a couple of decades for them to build a new and more sophisticated fleet. To destroy the technology which makes it possible, means we will be destroying them as a species.
We are left with only one Cherinian and yet viable option. We must create a platform for the Sparklers to place their World in. Should the Rasiva gather a fleet, of ships or bombs, we’ll be warned with plenty of time for stopping them.”
Lazy Robert came to me, picked me up and squeezed me. He then told me as he looked into my eyes, “You are right, I took a different track and even then, I did not think things through. What I was hoping you would do is give me reasons why I must not attack and kill all of them if they remain inflexible.”
“You would never have done it, dad, you were feeling emotional because of them hurting children and a Cherine. One more coffee and cigarette and you would have probably found a better answer than mine.” Of course the answer was far simpler - and smarter. We discussed various possibilities with the two lots of parents - and they impressed us by asking Softri what she thinks.
Wide-eyed, Robbie asked, “The people killed their government because they killed a criminal?”
“No, they were punished because they lied and betrayed an agreement made, while acting on our behalf. They made all of us be killers and betrayers.”
The father of Softri spoke, “Ours is not a family of leaders…”
Rudely, I interrupted, “Your world is ruled by families? How do they become leaders? Is it by accumulating wealth?”
“It is so, in your worlds?” he countered.
“Some by wealth and some, in the old days, became leaders during war, when their strategies and courage helped them be chosen as leaders.”
“A leader of war is a good leader of peace?” he asked.
“Not often. But then, with our people, our short times of peace are mostly considered an opportunity for preparing for the next war.”
“I am more comfortable with our ways of thinking. We find that some families, they have the gifts of beauty; their minds are filled with beautiful visions which they place on…various mediums, enhancing life for all. Other families enjoy the work of examining details of how things are, and other families enjoy the life of growing foods and tending our animals. Some families produce leaders - for they are never happy to follow others and become troublemakers if we do not choose them as our leaders.”
Alki said, “Nobody should be allowed to lead who has not the self-discipline to follow a good leader and learn from them.”
“My apologies, I did not mean to imply otherwise. The children who show a gift for leading, they are sent to special learning institutions where they teach them how to become good and wise leaders.”
“Such a student can come from any of the families?”
The father of the two girls was so aghast at the idea that he cut in, “How could that be! My daughters have a love of creating clothing, always striving to make them more beautiful while remaining practical - as it is with us, their parents. One of them to want to become a leader…or, a worker of the machines, how could that be?”
I was starting to see a pattern. “That is why some of your leaders find the three girls so abhorrent? Their gifts break them out of the mould of their family?”
Softri beamed. “You see it? We belong to no set, and they see it as a danger to all.”
I explained to those who had not understood. “We too have had cultures where tradition chose the work a child would grow up to do. By choosing to create these family-led classes of work, they thus ensured their descendants would always have work and a good living. Have we not also had families pass on to their children the role of leader? The royals families, is that not what they do? It seems to me that the Rasiva have specialised to a greater degree, so that they have grown to think of what each family specialises in as being a right belonging to them. There must be many interesting situations created by this way of thinking, for what happens when a male of one family loves a female of a different family? To which do the children belong? I bet they have formalised what happens so that the pattern is not disturbed. I can imagine how evolutionary sports upset the apple cart for them - which explains their obsession about killing these two families.”
Tina asked me, “Does it mean they can never become Cherinians?”
It is no surprise to anyone that Robbie has gone on a walkabout on his own. Whatever decision we make, we will be slightly altering our future, maybe even changing our Cherinian Dream. I see such changes as part of our dream evolving, so that it is always the best of what we can dream, whereas the protector aspect of Robbie tries to lock him into what the Dream is - even if he knows he must fight to turn it into the Dream that-can-be. I don’t really understand how the walkabouts help him, for he does not block himself, he remains aware of us all the time.
As we helped ourselves to scrambled eggs or whatever else we each wanted, Maria brought out a dish covered with a metal top. She placed it at Robbie's usual seat and Robbie appeared.
“Ah, kippers with poached eggs! It’s been a long time, Maria. Thank you.”
Dommi, one of those rare times, decided to tease him. *You would not come home for sex with us, but you returned for smelly kippers?*
His only response was ‘hmm’ as he breathed in the scent and took his first bite.
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with Softri. I am trying to understand why healing-correcting her body has made such a big difference. Luckily the swellings of her head can barely be seen, so it is okay to still think of her as a child. It is not so much what she has said, as it is the way she says it that gives me the impression she has been lonely. She admitted that the other two girls were not her friends, but that being forced to help each other so as to survive on Earth has made her care about them.
“Porim is less intelligent than Marsi, but she is brave and never complained during that horrible time of having to beg. Your people are strange, Samantha, they talk about us with pity and give us money, but as they walk away or sit at the coffee shop, where they think we cannot hear them, they only talk about us being dirty and disgusting.”
“A friend of ours,” I told her, “had a similar experience, and he told the people what he thinks of them - but I do not think they understood what he was saying. From talking with various species, I think it is a common problem.”
“Maybe it was the same with my people, I was too young to know anything about our world, the trip to Earth took many years.” She glanced over at Meli. “I think it was why we opened to Meli; she did not have opposite thoughts about us - all we could sense is kindness and love.”
At another time, she said to me, “My parents think that I know what I am to do. We cannot stay on Earth or with you, for I too want to have a family. Do you think Robert will find a way to make it happen?”
“Yes, I think he will.”
“You talk about being Cherinians, as if it is family description, like money dealer or food provider, but Cherinians are of all the species here?”
I decided it was not the time for explanations. “Softri, you three lived together like friends and sisters. Can you keep that bond? Can you continue to think of them as your sisters?”
“I like them…maybe. But they will not think of me that way, they think of me as a leader - and I am not.”
“I guess that as long as they think of you as being a leader, it makes it difficult for them to think of you as a friend. I can see how that works. Would you like to learn about Cherine, the first one to change, to have a gift that has changed not only how our species lives, but has turned thousands of species into friends and family?”
I talked for hours and I felt how it sounded too much like a miracle, a daydream not for practical people like her. I shared with my family and it was agreed that from the next evening we will do a telling for everyone. It will cause us problems with the parents of the new Cherine, but that hurdle has to be crossed someday, so why not now?
Eric and Marian do not emote any bad feeling about each other, but neither is there much love. We are not certain in which direction to influence them, as their Cherine deserves and needs much more. I think we have messed up; when we collected Cherine and her family, we should have grabbed her Robert. She is going through too much without him, which is not a good idea. The problem is, Freddie must not return to her reality, as we still have the lunch invitation by Claire to attend and we don’t want to cause Eric and Marian problems with their work.
We were about to leave for the star system of the Rasiva, when Robbie stretched out his hand to Alki. They floated to about twenty metres above us, while a platform took shape. Seeing the platform floor and sides turn dark, I realised where they are going and I was pleased that he is being thoughtful. With his fear of heights, Robert would have suffered if the floor had remained clear. They were only gone for about half an hour, but we instantly felt from Robbie that they were there for about two days - at the time we were still there!
It took time for Robert to calm down, though less than usual, for it seems he is one of those who has had dreams about Freddie. What does it say about all Roberts, that stretching across millions of realities, without any of them having a Cherine, they are able to dream of a part of themselves? (Dommi: This time we did not let her off easy and the pillow fight lasted nearly fifteen minutes. Of course we did not attack her on behalf of Robert; we are always looking for an excuse to have pillow fights, for the fun of it. Marian just shakes her head and says things about us never growing up - which should make Robbie happy.)
No sooner had we arrived outside the Rasiva solar system, than the Sparklers began to flit around more energetically than usual. Soon Solomon visited us.
“Robert, we think we recognise this area - as you can see, there are some odd solar systems surrounding this one, which makes it easy for us to recognise it. In that system, neighbouring the Rasiva system, the one with a slightly green-Sparkler colour sun, we saved the Manyiola (pronounced Man-yee-ola).”
Robbie asked the parents. “Do you know of them? Have you been to their system?”
“We did not detect any signs of a civilisation and our priority is to contact other species for exchanges of data. We might have sent an exploratory ship, but I’m not certain, it is not the kind of information shared by our leaders.”
Robbie nodded. “I think you would know about it if they have, since there are bound to be ruins of cities.”
“Not if we recall them correctly, Robert. They were not advanced, closer to how your people were about five hundred years before the City State of Athens and Sparta.”
Robbie grinned. “Since we are here, this offers the opportunity for your local alternates to release their souls. With a bit of help from us, they should soon be back at the level of technology they had.”
Our Rasiva guests asked that we help the Manyiola first, as they were hoping to be part of at least one adventure with us. We backed them, so the Sparklers left to go to their World, our Sparklers going with them, where they can release the Manyiola during the short period it will take us to arrive at their system. As soon as we arrived, the same local Sparklers who had held the souls, departed, returning in time to just after their previous departure. As they’d hoped, each of them found it fairly easy to recognise the body of the soul they’d held and they brought back with them the appropriate cells.
When I speak of various alien political and social systems, the only way I can write of them is by using what we know and I try to point out the variations, which is not truly representative of how they think or rule themselves, but I have no other way for bringing to life on these pages the accumulation of tiny alien differences that leads to my descriptions not being truly representative of them. Please keep it in mind whenever we meet aliens - though I hope that with the help of the Anadir, Inguel and other species, I’ll become more adept at painting a true picture.
The Manyiola learnt about the Sparklers and why they were ‘taken’ before they were given bodies. It was frustrating for them, for they needed to feel anger and to express it, but it is difficult to do so effectively as a soul. I hope they later realise that it was better it happened this way, for there is less for them to feel guilty about afterwards. We went to great pains to help them understand why they were ‘saved’ and how guilty the Sparklers felt afterwards. It did not buy them much sympathy, but once we explained about them being brought back in what is their future, when-where they will have more opportunities to grow and become part of the family of sapient life, they softened a bit. Once we also mentioned they will each be getting food machines, they positively became friendly and asked the Sparklers to stop feeling guilty. Lol, they are what I would call a very practical race.
Their physical presence does not resemble ours, not much. Every joint seems to be double-jointed and there is a roundness to them which does not look soft. Because we look alien to them, we were caught by surprise by what happened. Maybe it happened because of her Chinese-slitted eyes, but they all seemed fascinated by Coral - their males and females. If she is present, they ignore all of us and we cannot teach them anything. It means she can only join us once the lessons of the day are over. If you are wondering ‘what lessons’, I can confirm it has nothing to do with social, political or religious theory. What we are trying to teach them is how to think, as the ancient Greeks learnt. Once they understood the word science, their natural inquisitiveness took over, so they’ll soon be developing new-to-them theories. Maybe some will also be new-to-us. I hope so.
When shown a map of their planet, they were able to show us where most of their villages and small towns used to be. They agreed it makes sense that they are rebuilt in the same areas, as they were chosen for farming, mining and social reasons. None for defensive purposes, it seems they do not think like that, despite having armies. We suggested we do small things to make each village different from the others and they agreed, with interest, impatient to see what we will think up for them.
Nine girls took over the creative side, with the rest of us concentrating on building the houses, roads and so on, with the Inguel dealing with the water and sewerage layouts. We are not giving them electricity yet. At the first village, the creative team came up with the idea of using narrow but thick sea-green tiles for creating a low border around all the houses. It did make the village look different, so we are feeling more hopeful of creating beauty also, not just utilitarian buildings. One thing we added for all those towns and villages which were close to lakes, we built meandering paths, laid with natural soft-shaped-stones. These met with enthusiastic approval, making us also feel good.
On our last evening there, while everyone partied, I found my thoughts turning inwards. We have been talking about the Manyiola being relatively close to the Rasiva system and since the two families have made friends among the Manyiola, they are hoping to remain in contact. My problem is that unless or until they are Cherinians, I do not see how it can happen. Even with the incredible technology of the Rasiva, travelling is expensive in energy, so nobody is going to spend that kind of money for visiting. I asked Sol to invite Solomon to visit me at my apartment and I jumped there. Within the minute he also arrived.
I gave him a bit of a tremulous grin and warned him, “I won’t get upset if you have had second thoughts and would prefer to return to the party. It would be much more fun.” I then could not hold back, “Solomon, could having Sparkler Worlds in the billions cause you any discomfort?”
He sank to the bench, close to the tree. “I cannot even imagine it, never mind work out how or if it will affect us. Can you explain?”
