“It seems the team we sent for studying you went beyond their authority and explained much about us they were not meant to.”
Uncomfortably he looked away. “I am informed you carry Muyzith from another reality? Do you believe they are here for the purposes they expressed only?”
“I would be surprised if they are. They know you are more advanced than them scientifically and I’d guess they are also hoping to learn from you.”
“Do they carry weapons in their spacecraft?”
“They do not. We would not allow them into Freddie if they did. There is no reason for you to fear them, your weapons are far more advanced.”
“It is not a matter of fear, it is wiser to be cautious.”
“President Aviensa, what is the most powerful weapon that exists in any reality?”
Almost indulgently he asked, “You are in a position to answer your own question?”
“Yes. The human mind.”
“Ahh, you speak of the test during your first visit?”
“No, I speak of me, of you and everyone else. Minds that are creative and brave enough to examine new ideas are the most powerful weapon any planet can produce. You ask about weapons when they cannot harm anyone if they are not allowed to.” She turned to Msito. “Have you explained about us?”
“I doubt we were fully believed.”
“Please ask one of your guards to shoot me, I don’t care what weapon they use. I’ll show you how I refuse to allow it to affect me, so it will not.”
“She speaks the truth, no weapon of ours can harm her. I have seen her stand unharmed within an explosion that would destroy an entire city.”
“How does she protect herself, we have not sensed any equipment on her.”
“By her mind alone.”
I was angry with myself. No, not angry, furious. It was obvious they had used some kind of energy to examine her while she waited in the room alone yesterday and neither she nor any of us had sensed it. I put it on my urgent list. We need a way of sensing and blocking when that happens.
They declined her invitation. “We must find a way to announce your arrival without disturbing the weaker minds. Are you willing to appear on our media and try to convince them you come as friends?”
“Mr President, the people will think their arrival signals our readiness to leave our planet.”
He asked Angel, “Can you find the words to convince them it is no longer necessary?”
“Would it not make more sense, in the long term, to tell them we have asked for two thousand specialists and their families to join with us in our search for Arthur? I could also add that we will be returning from time to time to ask for further volunteers as the need arises. That way you can gradually prepare them for the changes you need to effect. We also believe they have a need to feel challenged and potentially useful, as part of the process of their healing.”
They spent considerable time agreeing the wording she uses and then they walked over to the media theatre. We chuckled when she began talking, since she changed the words to suit her from the first sentence.
“Muyzith, we have grown to love your representatives who have travelled with us. I personally consider Msito my special friend and love her very much.
Despite what I just said, as mature adults who know things are not always as they seem to be, I must admit, if I were you, the first thing I would want to know is, who are these aliens and are they all as ugly as me?
We call ourselves Cherinians and we number over a billion trillion. As for the number of species we are made up of, I have not counted recently, but ultimately we expect to number in the tens of thousands.
You see but one child, alone and without weapons, while my family and friends wait in the spaceship-world we named Freddie. Despite that, if I were you, I would be afraid, for you have not been told why we call ourselves Cherinians and what our reasons for living are. Are you asking yourselves whether we are warlike or dangerous in some other ways? You will need time to grow to believe us, but I would like to begin by giving you the basic information for understanding what we represent, so that you can learn that there is no reason to fear us.
We are named Cherinians, whatever our species, after the first gifted female who brought the changes that have given all of us a common goal. Her name is Cherine…” She was not stage-struck and took her time, explaining in a simple but structured manner. The Wirms reported that the entire planet listened to her, marvelling at her command of their language and drawn to the beautiful pictures she painted of us. She then addressed the problem which is causing them so much anxiety.
“Arthur, our creator, he is not a danger to any of us, for he loves all human life, of every species. To the contrary, because he is just a normal person in his reality, we face a crisis with Arthur; he is ageing and we must find him before he dies.
The technology you have developed is an important tool, but it must be further developed. It would take us centuries to understand what you have already created and to increase the sensitivity so that we can pinpoint where the energy comes from. You and your scientists can help speed up the process so we ask that two thousand of your people with their families join us in Freddie. We will return from time to time and we foresee we will need to ask for further volunteers. Only a few of them need to be scientists, mostly we just need caring people who want to help other species who are in trouble - I will explain just now what caused their troubles.
We are told that the Wirms have become friends with many of you and they have imparted some knowledge of us to you. I doubt they told you that we have searched a number of realities and could not find any alternates of our Wirms. It seems their solar system is too fragile to last for long and in the other realities we arrived too late and they had died out. During this trip we acquired a new talent who corrected the instabilities in the Wirm system and we intend returning in time to save the alternate Wirms and bringing them forward to our time, we wish to return them to their solar systems, which will now be stable for a long time.
If you are willing to make the sacrifices and save countless species from extinction, then you will have a purpose that gives meaning to your own lives.”
She stopped talking, staring into the cameras for a while. “If you wish to help, then you must change. You must grow stronger again and become as your ancestors were, a people who dare to meet the challenges of the future.
We have brought your alternates with us. They too had followed the same dreams you did, but they saw the trap in time to save themselves. They have suffered and died so as to grow strong again and they have the knowledge to help you achieve all they have without you enduring the same pain and deaths they did. Please welcome them as your family.
It is now up to you and your leaders, decide to stay as you are and hide within the beauty of your planet and die out, forgotten by all, or else, be the best that you can be and become part of the family of life. Thank you for listening to me.”
The leaders were very angry with Angelica until the reports began to filter in. People were afraid, some were having nervous breakdowns but, millions were spilling out on to the streets filled with excitement. The few that died the Sparklers collected their souls while our healers took samples of their cells.
The instant our little Angel returned, Robbie scooped her up in his arms and kissed her, squeezing her to him. For a moment she blankly stared at us over his shoulder and then, as his emoting overwhelmed her, she buried her face into his neck.
The leaders sent a team to negotiate with us the conditions for our help. The team found themselves with nothing substantial to negotiate since we asked for nothing in return.
There was no question in our minds, we knew who would be our special love that night. As we prepared for bed, Robbie took her face in his hands. “Is it going to be too much for you? Would you prefer that just the two of us go somewhere?”
The truth is, she did agree with him, did fear the night ahead, but she also could not bear to leave. He smiled and softly kissed her. He struggled, for a moment, to take off her clothes (a weird wardrobe she had designed for appearing among the Muyzith, with complicated fastenings) and then he let her do it. When she stood before us in the nude, a seven year old frail looking girl, Robbie knelt.
“Are you going to show us your wings my little angel?” Her sense of humour got the better of her and suddenly she had a pair of white-feathered wings (she also guessed the effect it would have on him). She flexed and they sprung open, then with one beat she rose into the air. A grinning Robbie stared up at her and he sprouted wings, rising up to meet her. “We’ll have to make love in the skies of Freddie.”
There was no way the rest of us were going to miss out, so we all grew wings. We had to keep them furled up against our bodies or else we’d have knocked each other out of the air. Robbie laughed. “We’re going to provide quite a sight for everyone. I doubt anyone will get to sleep tonight.”
No nude little cherubs have shed their wings as fast as we did. Robbie grabbed Angelica’s hand and they jumped out to the sky of Freddie, only his amusement lingering in our minds. He’d tricked us!
Cassie reacted instantly. Before Robbie could so much as kiss Angelica, she appeared by their side; male, horns, tail, pitchfork and all.
“If you really want an evil night of love, don’t waste it on him, come with us below.”
They were quickly gathering spectators, so Robbie projected a white robe onto Angelica. By now everyone had jumped outside and Cassie was cheered, Alki the loudest of them.
“He does my little angel? How pure? Are you his only, his one and only? Come with me, I make no pretences, I’ll fill your sweet little body with passions never experienced before and you’ll forget him.”
Angelica was blushing brightly but she was enjoying herself so she kept quiet, allowing the two of them to woo her.
“What can an imp know about love. All it can offer you is sex. The best sex is that which is shared out of and with love.”
“Hah, now he has betrayed himself. He only offers you sex to enslave you. My offer has no strings attached. Be free! I do not demand that you give of your essence, for this one night, be free to take all you need without fear of tomorrow.”
Robbie grinned. “This is one very evil imp.”
Angelica giggled. “I love imps.”
Because we had an audience Robbie was caught within a dilemma of his own making. His anxiety betrayed his dislike of being seen as the loser, while his love for Cassie did not want her to be hurt. Cassie knew it, so she thought of a way out that had everyone laughing.
“I’ll let you go to him with great sadness in my heart, but while he enjoys your sweet little body, I’ll have another fifty one to console myself with.”
As Freddie filled with laughter, Robbie let go of Angelica and using his gifts to achieve maximum speed he caught hold of Cassie the imp. “Oh no you don’t my sweet little devil.” When he kissed her in her guise as a male demon, Cassie melted, forgetting her joke.
“Oh Robert.”
“Hmm.” He turned to Angelica. “Just as well you did not chose the imp, for its kisses are sweet and you might have forgotten to love me.”
I found it funny, despite being touched. Both won by conceding.
Having provided theatre for all, we did not wish to make love within Freddie anymore. We knew that despite themselves there would be some reaching out to share with us and we did not want even one of us to concentrate on blocking them. We bunched up so that we were touching and jumped.
I burst out laughing when I realised where we were. “Not the prison planet again dad! Does something about it attract you?”
“I would have thought you girls have had your fill of laughing at me and be ready to offer a night of loving.” He grinned. “Are the two of you going to remain like that?” Even Cassie laughed at the mental picture of him making love to her as she was.
We all went skinny dipping while Robbie prepared a mattress of energy over the sand. The first to return was Tseri. He let her sit between his legs and folding his arms around her he sat staring at us as we played. When we decided he was more than ready for us we ran to flop all over his mattress.
I said to the girls, “I know why Robbie loves coming here. He feels that any man with over fifty loves should be imprisoned here so that he stops collecting new girls.”
“Are you joking? He’d then want each of us to have a baby girl for him!”
“Are you going to love our Angel or do we have first dibs at her?”
“Dommi! How could you even suggest that? Can’t you feel how she’s dying to love only me?”
What with the laughing and tickling, somehow Angelica ended up in his arms. We calmed down to share.
He lay on his back and pulled her onto him, his hands roving all over her tight little body, loving the feeling of her warmth and size. His evergreen love for the sight and sense of holding a child still runs deep and I think that the time he spends looking and feeling our limbs and tiny body, smelling our childish scents, gives him just as much pleasure as making love does. It is a time of deep happiness for us also, for we feel how he adores us.
“No wonder you have a talent for magic, you are made out of magic.” His hand wondered over her bum, and he began to react to her sexually. Now his caresses and kisses had erotic overtones and Angel felt her blood quicken and tiny wings fluttered in her tummy. She stuck out her tongue and softly licked his nipple and Robbie groaned.
Robbie was determined to make their first lovemaking last as long as possible so he concentrated on her body, ignoring his own as much as possible when she licked or bit him. He must have run his tongue over every inch of her before he approached the bump that is the true target of his needs. His face hovered over it as he gently touched it, loving the velvety firmness and the exposed vulnerability that demands both passion and tenderness of him, even though they are in their nature mutually exclusive at most times. Softly he planted his first kiss on her love lips. Angel arched as her body reacted and she swivelled her body until her face lay directly under his dangling penis.
We now gave in to our own needs, touching both of them and each other, knowing they will mostly be oblivious to us. Despite losing herself within the rising passion that made her tremble and shake, Angel was monitoring Robbie, sharing his body. She could feel how the warmth of her mouth had brought him to the brink so she pulled away.
She looked up into his eyes and saw the passion she had lit in him and she soared, her need to claim him as her own doubling. She thrust her hips up, forcing the head into her tight entrance. Robbie groaned and spent seconds enjoying the sensation before he pushed again. Her cry was not one of pain. It was almost animal in her announcement of her ecstasy that Robbie is hers and is in her, making her his woman.
Both of them revelled in the sensations of their bodies, their imaginations that included pictures of his seed joining with her ova. Since they were sharing so deeply it was not unexpected when they both exploded at the same instant. Angel cried out as she felt his semen burning within her and she bit and scratched in her effort to make the height of her orgasm last for all eternity.
We were not in a much better condition than her and since many of us had instinctively concentrated on her mother Chantel, she was probably just as affected as she would have been if Robbie had made love to her and her body was crying out with the need for the semen in her daughter to create a child within her own body. (This is because of the special bond between her and her daughter).
The experience had been so intense that we did not make love again for a while, waiting for all of us to recover first. Once Robbie began caressing Candy, our bodies came to life again and we eagerly awaited and enjoyed the hours of loving that followed.
There were many jokes about Robbie and Cassie the next day, but none of them were crude or calculated to embarrass us, just appreciative of our sense of humour, so we enjoyed them. We would have enjoyed a day of relaxed emoting of love for each other, but we had the Muyzith team to deal with and the alternates left to visit. We watched as they endured the formalities and then negotiated and then appeared on their media. It felt as if the entire population was delirious with joy at finding alternates and having them on their world.
Days have passed, mostly too busy with details as we reached agreement with the government. We took a few of their experts with us and returned in time prior to the rise of any sapient species and took what we needed to create an ecology niche for them in Freddie. Understandably, the local scientists who came with spent more time concentrating on filming their world and taking samples than on being of assistance to us.
The Muyzith do love pomp and ceremonies, so it took nearly a month before we had all four thousand five hundred and sixty one of them aboard. We waited another four days until we felt they had settled in and grown used to the idea that they are leaving their world and then we departed.
* * * * *
Before I carry on, I just have to make this comment. Usually, before I write in this diary, I write in our personal one as I can write all the details that would make this boring for non-family. What you then write does affect our memories so that we recall the events as you described them in your own words. It is then strange reading our own personal diary as the words there are not changed anymore - please do not assume again that they are, leave things as they are please.
Their planet is also unique. It is shaped more like a rugby ball (or US football). It wobbles in a rather pronounced manner, causing a number of seasons each year. Their landmasses are mainly on and close to the equator, with strings of islands of various sizes stretching almost to their North and South poles. Their moon is smaller than ours and slightly more distant, so the tides are weaker.
The odd shape of their planet fools the eye, making it seem more fragile than it is. Robbie is not interested in facts if his senses warn him of danger, so he parked Freddie in a distant orbit, without searching for LaGrange points. He first went down as the void and returning, as his eyes opened, he had a smile.
“I like this place and the people. Anybody want to choose how we contact them before I just appear and shock them?”
“Freddie says he has not picked up any radio signals.”
“It is too early for that, they are still struggling to build homes and get some light industry going.”
With a grin Cherine asked, “Shall I get Kiris to help?”
The obvious way to meet them was from the void, they know of us from there. The other solution was to send an Inguel as they have met some of the team when they provided them with food machines. We are an impatient lot and chose the void.
*Greetings and welcome. Freddie has returned?*
*Greetings. You know about Freddie?*
*It was in the void when you brought us back and we asked the Inguel. They told us about a Robert you have and warned us to be careful not to insult him. Have we failed?*
*You have not.*
*We confess to being puzzled, why would any creature be insulted by our joy at their return. We have waited here for all of you.*
I answered, *I guessed you did. Are your species telepathic?*
*We do not understand your question.*
*When in your bodies, do you communicate by thought directly?*
They were genuinely puzzled. *There is another way?*
Robbie sent to me, *How did you guess Sam?*
*They sometimes abbreviate, expecting us to understand the rest of the sentence.* I spoke to the souls waiting for us. *The one who questioned me is Robert.*
*Do we communicate with him directly or through you? We apologise for shortening our speech. Are you his mind augmentation partner?*
*Your question was not understood.*
*It is not the same with you? Not all of us are equally intelligent so we partner with the intelligence of the partners ranging from high to low so that the high can augment the low.*
They were perturbed when they sensed my embarrassment and everyone else laughing. I explained that we do not partner for the same reason, so they wanted to know if we are all equally intelligent. When I answered that we are not, they asked with great puzzlement how the less intelligent cope. I tried explaining that we provide certain kinds of employment for the less intelligent and they were horrified. In the back of my mind I wondered if we can learn from them how to augment and then wondered, if we did learn, would anyone considered more than average in intelligence enjoy being partnered with someone that has to leech from their intelligence. I guess we will never be the same as them, only the odd few willing to commit to such a draining relationship. Robbie thought I was very funny. I will tackle him about that tonight.
They asked if we would wait for them to call their officials and we asked in return whether we could visit their planet. They emoted pleasure at our request so we parted, agreeing where to meet. Robbie prepared a platform and taking only the leaders of each species and Claudia and Michael, they departed.
We’d seen on the Witness records that the Ispadosua had a fairly sophisticated civilisation before the destruction. At present they seem to have achieved a way of life that reminds us of old Polynesian documentaries - though there are no palm trees and the oceans are much smaller without them creating any large seas of water. Their beaches are mostly sandy, so that looks right to us - if I may be slightly prejudiced in my descriptions of their world.
Their homes are built out of natural materials and their streets are narrow lanes covered by flattened rocks. All the walls they build are slanted at an angle, even the beginnings of boundaries between their farms. They seem to have planned well; where they originally had cities, now they have thousands of very small towns.
The town they’d asked us to meet them at is easy to identify as it is triangular in shape. The design was deliberate, declaring it as their capital. We did not see any double storey or sprawling buildings, so their government must be more relaxed with few civil servants (I hope).
One of them stepped forward, followed by three others just behind him. Since the others positioned themselves so that Robbie would be seen as the leader, he was greeted with, “Welcome, you are Samantha?”
Robbie grinned, “I apologise, Samantha has remained within our spaceship. I am Robert.”
His upper body rocked for a moment (we soon learnt to interpret this as anxiety). “I am Sooredo, the chosen leader at this time. The Inguel have spoken of you.”
“Please disregard most of what they told you. When I first met the Inguel I was much younger and not experienced in dealing with people alien to my species. I have learnt since then not to judge people according to my customs and instincts.”
“We have maintained a watch in the no space for it was promised you would return. The Inguel spoke truly and now we face an impossible dilemma. How do we repay you and the Inguel for all you did for us?”
Robbie sent me an amused thought, telling me they were not abbreviating, so they must be convinced he is not very bright. He does not mind meeting the expectations of others if it amuses him. “We have returned exactly for that purpose. We took longer than we should, for which we apologise, but we found it difficult to find an appropriate way to thank you for allowing us to help you.”
As he’d expected he totally confused them and upper bodies were swaying all around them. Sooredo stared in shock as another of his people stepped forward and ran his feelers softly over Robbie.
“Sooredo, he is amused!”
Tie in the words with his amusement and even being a telepath will not serve you well. You have to know Robbie and since they do not, their anxiety increased. One of the crowd moved in, stomping his feet as he swayed. He turned his back to Robbie and raised his rear end so that the back feet dangled in the air. Another one close to him rushed over and led the first one away. It was very confusing and I wondered what it all signified. Dommi called out, “Samantha!” Puzzled I stared at her and I suddenly clicked and getting to my feet I jumped.
“Sooredo, my apologies, I am Samantha.” He immediately and visibly relaxed and the swaying abated. “Robert should have explained to you that we consider it our duty to help others and when we can, because we also benefit as it makes us better people, we are grateful to those we helped. Sooredo, it is a matter of custom.”
“I see, thank you. You have arrived to augment Robert?” The tone of his mindspeech was the equivalent of ‘poor Robert’ and I grinned to myself. “We were worried how we should best nurture him without your presence.”
“Sooredo, custom. You have yours and we have ours and they are in many ways different. Those who met us in the no space misunderstood, Robert is not less intelligent than I am. He was amused because he knew you would not understand him.”
“I see…he is like a child then, or he is far above us in intelligence?”
“Neither. Sooredo, allow me to ask a question with no offence intended. We know, from healing your bodies (I was not going to go into the creating bit just yet) that your species have two sexes. Do either the male or the female form a family with more than one of the other sex?”
“Our normal family is between three to five.”
“But…fifty!”
“Shall we discuss that later? We have returned to find out how you are coping. We also have something we want to show you. Let me start by asking a question. If you can travel in time and you see someone you care for have an accident and die, would you return in time to save them?”
“If it was possible.”
“How? What happens to the time you were in when he died? We have discovered that returning to the past does not change the present. If you return to save that person and come back to your own time, the person will still be dead. Time will have split, creating a new world where the saved friend is alive, but in this time, he would still be dead.
When we followed the fire-world, we were forced to watch the deaths of many worlds without helping. We kept a record of the worlds that died and we named the records our Witness. After the fire-world departed, we returned into the past and collecting your souls and a tiny part of your body, we bought you back to life in our present, not the past. We call the times that are different, realities. You exist in the same reality you did before dying.
We offer you, if you wish, the opportunity to see how the fire-world killed you so that you know we have kept a record of all you suffered, for everyone to remember.”
After some shocked discussion they refused my offer. The only species that has up to now. We offer because we’ve found it provides a catharsis and they are then able to let go the past.
“You have lost your cities and all the technology you had. It must have been very difficult for your people to adjust and start from the beginning.”
“We did suffer, but we have food, thanks to the Inguel. We are not starting from the beginning Samantha. When we had the cities, our people were not happy. We started again with that knowledge and decided our future. We have tried that way of living and it does not suit us. This time we prefer to keep life simple and joyous.” He reached for his full height. “If there is anything of our old technology you need, we still recall how to create it.”
“We have not examined your old technology so we are not aware of what could be needed. We too are happy with what we have and do not like living in cities so please do not be offended if we refuse your offer.”
Between talking I found a moment to enter the mind of Robbie and explain we’d realised that these people are not strong and they were having a nervous breakdown because they did not understand him. It turned out I was fairly accurate in my assessment, but not entirely. They had spent years with a debt they felt they owed us weighing them down. Not to repay a debt is unthinkable to them. We arrive and they find themselves confronted with the Robert they’d heard so much about and discover him to be the equivalent of the village idiot - after all, the settlement of a debt is serious business involving honour, yet he makes a joke of it, trying to lay a further debt on them. From then onwards Robbie played it straight and never dared a joke again. Luckily they came to like him and revised their first opinions of him.
For the first week or so we did pussyfoot around them, but as we came to know each other we both learnt to relax in each others company. We had to un-confuse them as to what Cherinianism really is all about (the team that helped them came from the early days of the Inguel dealing with us) and they love all we stand for. They have a strong sense of empathy and I do not think it comes only from them being telepaths.
