The parents of Robbie, Cherine and the mother of Wendy joined us. I saw my mother close by and she smiled at me, her delight obvious and warming me with love.
After Wendy joined them and sang, they flashed through brief moments of our history, concentrating mostly on what we’d done to save doomed species. It must have lasted for many hours but I did not sense discomfort even in the Normals. Everybody seemed to be lost in the scenes playing before them.
When it ended, it seemed everyone wanted to make a speech. We sat through that until it was the turn of Michael, as leader of their Federation, to speak. He stood on the platform, so tall and handsome that it broke all our hearts as we yearned to hold him to us. He smiled directly at us and then began his speech.
We felt Robbie tense up and tore our eyes away from Michael. We saw the four who’d attacked us, burning our bodies, approaching. We did not need to see their eyes, their emoting was a siren screaming at us of danger, death.
Out of respect for the Sparklers, Robbie had not come as the void. He had to use one of his powers to attack before they used their fiercely painful powers on us. We all were certain their powers must have grown so the danger was worse than last time. With an angry muttered oath Robbie stood up and energy flashed from him. The four bodies burst into flames and their screams froze us with horror.
Their voices were not of men, these were four children that had approached us.
Instantly Robbie realised and left his body to collect their souls while our healers searched for undamaged tissue to recreate their bodies.
As the faces around us filled with horror we ganged up, drawing in to surround Robbie’s body. Except for one of us. Angelica walked away. She went directly to Arthur Campbell!
“You bastard, I was looking at you and sensed what you did. You caused that.”
He spoke in a gentle but loud voice so that all would hear. “Just because your incestuous father lost his temper and killed those children, it does not give you the right to try to blame others.” His voice warmed. “I understand the need that drove you, but too many people saw; thanks to the Sparklers your family appeared on and were seen via all the platforms. We all heard his angry exclamation at being bothered by children. Take him away before the people lose control and try to kill him.”
We sensed her gathering her magic about her, ready to lash out and incinerate him. Cherine called out to her and she forced herself to return to us.
By now the braver ones among the Normals, not only of our species, were calling out in anger. The bodies of the children materialised and as they moved, moaning slightly, Robbie returned to his body. Cherine sent to him and with anger in his eyes he stood up. Instantly Michael was by his side.
“Don’t provoke the crowd any further father, go home and we’ll try to calm them down.”
Against his better judgement, against the better judgement of all of us, we obeyed.
We returned to Athens. Nobody cried, we all just stared at Robbie, desperately trying to draw his pain from him.
“I can’t believe we let them trick us!”
Robbie shook his head in anguish. “If I was not a killer, they could not have tricked us, the blame is mine.”
“When I collected them in the void I saw the truth in them. I let them see what those four did to you girls and then shared with them so that they could sense why I’d attacked them. When I told them they would get new bodies, as I returned them, I sensed they were already halfway to forgiving me. It won’t be that easy to convince the public though.”
He was right. We spent hours masochistically unable to tear ourselves away from the television set, watching as we were vilified and cursed, experts coming out of the woodwork to explain that they’d expected us to go berserk, that the mutation is turning us into monsters. Reports came in from our Cherinians that other Cherinians are joining the Ipohin by the thousands.
We did not sleep that night and even our healers could not cure the heavy depression that kept us sitting like zombies, waiting for more bad news. At half past ten there was a knock on the door.
“Mr Teller, I have been instructed to call you to a meeting of the Cherinian council. As you yourself specified, Solomon of the Sparklers will be presiding. Please be at the community hall at three o’clock this afternoon.” Now we understood why Solomon had not come to us. He had to stay away since he is the presiding judge.
“Dad, we have to leave. From now we really will be in exile.”
Haven spoke angrily, “If we leave now they’ll claim we did so because we are guilty.”
“I know Haven, but we don’t have a choice. The prophecy is coming true. Don’t you see, this is not the time to fight.”
She almost shouted at me, “No, we stay!”
“Dad, if we stay it will be a catastrophe. It is better they judge us in absentia, that gives an excuse for re-opening the case later.”
I thought I was going to lose the argument, Robbie wanted to explain how we had been tricked and most of the girls agreed with him. Then Meli deliberately stepped by me. “I agree with Sam.”
Then Cherine joined us. “So do I.” That broke the certainty that they were right and slowly most of the girls joined us.
Alki phoned, said something cryptic and then called to his family, “We better hurry if we are to get to Freddie before they leave.”
Dad was still wavering. I called out to him, “Robbie, it is time for you to turn your face towards the darkness of your thoughts. Search in there and you’ll find our love waiting to light your way. We must leave.” Corny, but it worked.
Hettie and Eddie were upset that they had to stay behind, but promised to watch over our interests and help Elia should he get into trouble with his and Alki’ businesses. Everyone we love must have sensed us for they all came to see us off. Em-e’s parents and sister wanted to come with, insisting they had to be by her during this difficult time. Em-e would not give in, but she cried as they hugged and promised to see each other soon.
We were heartened by the refusal of the major governments to condemn us, insisting they must first hear from us. We sent Bruce as our ambassador to explain that we have been tricked and must leave, but that they need not worry, we will maintain a watch and interfere should the Ipohin cause trouble. Then it was time for us to jump to Freddie and leave.
A number of our more loyal friends spoke publicly, denying that what everyone saw was what actually happened and demanded judgement of us be suspended until we returned. Those who were employees were fired and those who had a small business had any loans outstanding called in and they lost a number of customers. Hettie put an end to financial strong arm tactics by giving them funds and signing contracts that provided them with a comfortable income. Those who had businesses and were helped, employed those who’d lost their jobs.
Michael was not seen for that week and everyone was wondering what is happening.
I think Michael did the right thing by splitting the Ipohin. Instead of concentrating on ruling the worlds they’ll waste most of their energy in fighting each other. On the other hand, it does pose an increase in danger in several ways. If they fight, bystanders will get hurt. The extremists could also become more ruthless and uncaring of the Normals. We’ll have to remain their common enemy so that they dare not go overboard in their hatred of each other.
If I’d known the effect the above paragraph would have, maybe I would not have written it. No, I’m glad I did, I think Robbie would have been wrong. Compelled by his need to keep Michael safe he was thinking of weakening Michael’s opposition. I believe it could have backfired, convincing everyone Campbell’s allegations were true.
Michael continued to court small countries but he did not expend a lot of energy or time doing so, limiting himself to giving them special concessions in their trade with his Federation. I guess he feels he’s milked that cow for all it’s worth. I wonder what he will do next.
Robbie has collected about three months of reports and we saw a positive trend (for us). The split among the Ipohin resulted in a flattening out of Cherinians turning into Ipohin. The last couple of weeks show that the trend is beginning to reverse itself again. It is estimated that Campbell has about three million followers. He has a very low number in some realities but more in others. Since even one Ipohin with exceptional powers is a danger to all Normals, the low numbers do not affect his ability to carry out his plans. Those reporting to us are finding it more difficult to obtain dependable information about their plans in advance.
“Whatever we choose to do, it will not affect the amount of time passing back home. If they take a year to act in a way that I have to interfere, whether we stay here and check five times a day and interfere within weeks or we travel to help others and a year also passes for us, they will not be affected. What do you want to do?”
“Roberto, sitting here like this is not good for any of us. I also suggest we travel - if you think it is safe.”
“Patera, I agree. What do you say girls, shall we do as Alki said?”
Roula asked, “Can we check on Orgg’s reality?”
Athia cheerfully answered, “I bet they’ll have spies there. Let’s go.” Amused, Robbie sent Freddie jumping.
In the early part of this century, the future shortage of minerals added to the unexpected spectacular growth of the Chinese economy, but also became a crisis behind closed doors. The top four to five governments provided incentives for their corporations to invest in new mining ventures all over the world. Certain governments even used their security forces and assassinated individuals, in business or government, that blocked acquisitions they wanted. The mad scramble lasted for years and only settled once most of the available virgin fields had been snapped up. In the realities that are not as advanced as ours, they have not experienced the same mining boom and their technology for recovering marginal ore is not as developed.
“Can you wait to see Orgg and Jeskine later? I’d like to take care of this now.”
“What will you do?”
“I have a crazy idea. For instance, most of his holdings in diamond fields are what they call pipes. I’d like to arrive a few years earlier than he did and buy a small piece of land close to each pipe. We’ll use our gifts, or technology if the Unation have it, to burrow down and sideways and remove all the diamonds. We could do the same for all the minerals that do not require too much earth moving. In each country, we will hand over what we recovered to their governments after he has sunk a fortune in mining for the minerals he ‘knows’ are there.
For those minerals we cannot borrow on behalf of their people, we mine on planets that have no life and flood the markets as soon as he begins marketing.”
“You’ll have to do that earlier Robert. He does not have an interest in mining. He’ll get all his surveys done to prove what he has and float new companies and sell all his shares. He’ll make billions by the time the shareholders discover you’ve taken it all or flooded the market.”
He answered by teasing Claudia, but his eyes were warm with love. “So, are your claws sharp enough to help me dig?” She had a lovely night of loving and was in no condition to pay attention to the arguments still flowing from group to group the next day.
Robbie cleared the water and created platforms in the underside of Freddie and as he mined he jumped the ore there. One of the advantages of mining the way he did was that he was able to recover diamonds of enormous size without breaking them. Not that they would make one big diamond, they have cracks and flaws and will have to be cut up into a number of gemstones, but they do have a certain collectors appeal that increases their value. It was a much slower process than he’d expected and he spent nearly two years commuting daily from Freddie to the alternate Earths. By the time he was finished he and we and all those who helped were fed up of mining.
We waited until Campbell had spent hundreds of millions in all the realities doing surveys to bring his documentation to stock exchange requirements and when he announced the first companies he was floating in each reality, then Freddie started appearing in their skies. We admitted to mining in the past without licence and handed over all the loot, adding to them enormous amounts of tons of manganese, silver, gold and so on as a gift. None of the governments were too upset, some of them secretly chortling at the embarrassment and financial loss Campbell was experiencing. He’d not even (as far as they were concerned) had the decency to bribe them and they hated him.
Robbie timed it so that we arrived at the last reality at the same time as Campbell. He promptly jumped to him.
“I guess you know by now what I’ve done. This is my only warning, I have not forgiven you for what you did and will be watching you. Every step forward you take I’ll send you another three backwards.”
He was indignant. “You stole from me! Those diamonds belonged to me.”
“So what, thanks to you I’m considered a criminal anyway. At the time I dug everything up for the people of those countries you did not own the land or have any concessions to the minerals. As I said, I’ll be watching you.” He jumped back to Freddie and the adrenaline pumping through him made him strut like he was some kind of warrior. Anyway, Haven thought he was and emoted enough admiration and love to keep him high for a long time. Guess who had a special night.
We were met by glum faces. They came for a hug and we felt their love but they were worried.
“Robert, Cherinians came, not Ipohin, Cherinians! They told us of what happened at the council and what your reaction was and warned us that you are now an outlaw. They warned us that if you come and we allow you to visit without protesting, we will be considered outlaw Cherinians also. We refuse to turn you away, how do we handle this?”
“Hmm.” He grinned. “Did they forbid you from visiting Freddie?”
“No.” She burst out laughing, relaxing.
“Tell everyone, every single Cherinian that wants to visit, they are welcome. They may also bring any Normals who want to come.”
The crowds were subdued, but we knew they would soon be exuberant and talking and laughing loudly. We needed to hear that in Freddie. I especially enjoyed seeing so many Neans walking among us.
“We have been troubled Robert. We know you too well, you could never kill children and as for being subject to uncontrollable fits of rage, we know that is not true. What really happened?”
“I’m sorry, you’ll have to decide to trust us or not without the truth. That will come later, when it is the right time.”
“There is no question about us trusting you, we’ll wait. We’ve learnt from the years we know you that either you or Samantha are always involved in some intricate scheme. Is this her idea or yours?”
He laughed. “I wish I could say it is hers. No, life just conspired to make things happen a certain way. How are the Neans?”
“Their birth rate has improved and we will soon have to warn them to reduce it. We have a number of them living in our cities now and we visit their towns often.” The king grinned. “We are careful not to have any strong liquor available as they still tend to drink too much and forget their Cherinian empathy.”
King Illafayéd, looking about thirty years younger and with teeth now, grinned. “We have been told what saps means. You think us stupid?”
Robbie was not discomfited. “It was short for sapient. I agree, the name was not fitting.” He laughed at the not-so-subtle double meaning of his joke. “Samantha was wrong to name you sapients as it implies the Neans are not. We cannot name you according to your nationality as there are a number of nations of your species. How should we refer to you?”
“Apart from Cherinians? Our word for Terran would not be suitable either, for that must include our cousins the Neans. Make up a name for us.”
Robbie looked around at everyone. “Who’s going to do the honours?”
“The Jessorggs?”
“That is horrible! Next?”
I grinned. “It does not matter what we name them, over time the connotation will change to mean ‘humans’.” They all ignored me.
