“Allan, do you remember how you were when we first found you?”
“Mmm, yes, more or less as I am now - broke.” I gave him a moment to enjoy his own wit. “You’re thinking of Arthur? If you get him, he’ll adjust.”
“With some difficulty?”
“I suppose so.”
“Are you thinking it might be kinder to leave him where he is?”
Knowing I’m going to write our conversation I was tempted to answer yes. “I think he’ll need years to adjust.”
He shrugged. “What of Normals who are linked? What of new alternate Earths, how will their new Cherinians adjust? You’re thinking of him as an old man. A few days of being in a vibrantly young body will make it possible Sam.”
“I hope so.”
He gave me a puzzled look. “You’re really concerned! You are still convinced we’ll find him?”
“Yes!” My loves echoed me, Cherine the loudest of them.
Robbie decided that since we only discovered Silver Boy/Ambros in this reality - thanks to the local family, it would only be fair we first introduce this magnificent being to them. Casually, as if hardly interested, he asked Robert and Cher to do so and sent Freddie back to their skies.
As we’d expected, the entire world was in a rapturous awe as they saw the videos of how we first met Ambros through his silver boy part and then found him centuries ago. They pleaded to meet Silver Boy so he was brought to visit. By the way, Robert and his family do not differentiate and call them both Ambros - I guess we also should. I’ll also use the male gender for both of them, even if they have no gender.
The people were ecstatic that their reality found the first Ambros and even prouder of the fact that their own Teller family found him. As a side effect, apart from Tanzania suddenly becoming over-booked by tourists who want to see where Silver Boy visited and what had attracted him, all Cherinians also benefited, suddenly becoming more popular.
We mostly stayed in Freddie, sharing with the family below or when they came for a meal and chat. They were embarrassed that they were getting all the glory, but could sense we were pleased. We agreed to wait a few weeks so as to take Silver Boy with us as we were not confident he can survive in a different reality from Ambros. Once people settled down again, we went for coffee to Kefalari. People would greet us, want to shake our hand, but otherwise gave us the space needed to enjoy ourselves.
While we were on planet, another Robert visited Freddie. He sent a message that there is no urgent problem but we insisted he join us at the home of Elias and Claire. After the polite chitchat, Robbie asked what his news is.
He grinned, anticipating our reaction. “Our planet has developed a new faction and it has attracted hundreds of millions. I expect the movement to spread to all realities.”
“A new faction? What are you talking about.”
“They are made up of Normals and they demand that I find them a virginal Earth, build them towns, factories and so on and transport them there with my undertaking that no Cherinians will be allowed to enter that reality. They also demand that the Prime Robert makes a similar undertaking. No Cherinians ever, for any reason.”
Joan said it for us, “Oh dear! What nonsense!”
Robbie grinned. “Let us say we do as they ask, what is likely to occur?”
“I’m opposed to desecrating any virgin worlds, but there are a multitude of Earths where mankind died out. Allow me to present the surmountable problems and procedures and I’ll end off by the one insurmountable problem on which I’m not flexible.
Say you prepare a contract that includes items like, one food machine per person plus ten percent to be held by their government for losses and a small increase in population. Strictly speaking we should not give them anything since they do not want anything from the Cherinians, but they’ll need them at least until their first harvest.
It should be spelt out that not all aliens are friendly, without the influence of Cherine it is likely they’ll be attacked. If not that, there is the fire-world and since we will not search for it, they take their chances. They must specifically ban Sparklers from healing them and extending their lives and no Wirm friends are to follow them.
No alien technology will be made available.
Do you get the drift? Anything they see as an advantage in taking with, that stems from any Cherinian species they will have to forgo. Be careful to explain that none of the clauses are for punitive reasons, we are only doing our best to help them achieve what they’ve asked for; a reality without Cherinians which includes whatever they like or don’t like about us or from us. They will live as Normals, as is their dream. Make clear that this is an irrevocable step, since we are not allowed in their reality, we can never come to ask whether they’ve changed their minds - anyway, since they will have nothing on their home world left, no job, business, home, they cannot return years later and cause hardship to those who stayed with us.
Now comes the fun part. Have attorneys word a clause in great detail that absolves us of any responsibility from invasions by other Talents. Robert, meet Michael and insist the Ipohin also sign. We cannot be expected to coerce Campbell and all non-aligned Talents from invading their reality. I can imagine their signature would not mean much when they realise they can have a Universe that belongs to them exclusively with Normals to cater to their inflated egos without Cherinians or Ipohin able to attack them.
Before I mention my last point, an offer from us, allow me to specify the insurmountable problem that makes it impossible for us to help them. I refuse to allow a world with children to live without our protection.
The last offer I mentioned is this. We will not take them, no Cherinian will. What we will do is teach those of them we consider worthy of holding such powers to take the rest of them.”
“But then they will be linked, Cherinians!” Robert grinned. “You’ve had your fun, now give me a serious answer.”
“Some of what I said was serious and some of it was not. Pick and choose as you deem appropriate.”
Robert turned to me. “I think he does not have an answer and only talked to give you time to consider the problem. What do you suggest?”
“Actually, I liked a lot of what he said, it’s a pity we can’t use it all. First of all, why have you accepted such requests? Surely our own agreements with their governments precludes us from making a decision? Steer them to their own leaders, but help the leaders formulate arguments that will bring reason to what is just an emotional issue at present. Have Normals, politicians and celebrities, make clear what they would be giving up and the dangers their children are likely to face. Ask them to paint a picture of what such a world will be like; shorter lifespans, diseases killing or crippling them, accidents, natural disasters, few gadgets to make their lives interesting and so on. Get a team together and we’ll ask the social scientists from among the Anadir to help.
I don’t see what else you can do Robert. If we refuse, for whatever reason, we’ll be hated. If we do as they ask and they are taken over by other talents and turned into slaves, when the other realities hear of it, they will call us mutants again and fear us.
Advise those who speak against this idea to also use humour. You, your family, friends and all Cherinians must not allow yourselves to comment, you may show sympathetic understanding of what drives them, but speak of all we wish to do to make life on our known Earths better for all.”
Jade did not seem to like what I’d said. “I would point blank refuse them. How dare any one species demand the right to decide the future of a multitude of species. Cherinians must never give in to pressure from people making selfish demands.”
“They could argue that there are Earths in what we call dead realities Jade.”
“Are you suggesting we condemn all the species that died out in that reality to permanent death?”
“Be reasonable love, we cannot bring back to life all the dead realities.”
“That is not the point. We restore those we can and the billions of them we can’t, that was fate. If we concede them the rights to any one such reality, morally we are then responsible for all the species of that reality we will not be bringing back.”
I was surprised when Allan stepped into the debate, as he usually only give his comments once it is over. “The curse of all ethical beings is that life is filled with instances where there is no clear-cut ethical answer to the problem. Take Schrodinger’s cat. If the observer does not open the box, the cat is fated to never be either alive or dead. If he opens it, the cat could be dead - because he opened the box.
Jade, we are faced with a people who want to live their lives in the manner they wish. They could argue that the fact they will die is neither here nor there - death is what defines us as human beings and is the tool of nature that provides change and growth for most species. Stick to your first argument where the ethics are clear-cut.” She is very fond of Allan so she listened to what he said with an open mind and without taking umbrage at his shooting down her argument (as she might have with me) and nodded her head in agreement.
A) Not yet. As with Normals, there are degrees of privacy. With Eleni and Jess, the least is needed. With our (yours and my) family, just a little bit more is held back and with friends, a little more. With the rest of the Cherinians, let’s just say we respect each others privacy, but the level of privacy in superficial ways is far less than I was used to as a Normal. Actually, even Cherinians who meet me for the first time can sense more deeply than I’m comfortable with. Arthur, we all lie to ourselves in ways that are important to our ego and no Cherinian will look beyond that unless invited. I’ve done a lot of mental squirming, especially in the earlier days, but I’m more relaxed now. If you find it difficult to understand what I’m saying, I’ll ask a question in return: have you never met someone who made you feel uncomfortable because you felt he could see past all your pretences, to the heart of who you really are? If a Normal can make you feel like that, imagine how a Cherinian, with their ability to instantly see far deeper, will make you feel.
A) You are not asking your question honestly and it is out of context, but I presume you are trying to establish or make a point - plus the question should have been asked with a request for two answers. The theoretical answer and the realistic answer to a real problem.
Your question was not honest because you then should have added to the quote a thought offered in the book. Does the female not think to herself that exporting colonists is not the answer unless they first learn how to manage themselves? For instance, if I find a very poor person and offer that person an opportunity to earn a regular income by teaching him, but then make such an income available without seeing to it that they learn or work for the money, how have I solved the problem? I might be considered politically correct by many malakes (idiots), but in my eyes I would hold myself responsible for exacerbating the original problem.
Theoretically I would argue that it is not ethical to colonise another world as they will only bring it to the condition the original home world is in. To sacrifice another planet to the greed and undisciplined exploitation we Terrans are so efficient at would not be ethical.
From a more practical viewpoint, if I am a Normal with a family and if life is not good for us anymore in our world and the future for my children is bleak there, I would not sacrifice their future so as to preserve the future of another species, not even for those of my species.
As a Cherinian? We tend to rely too much on our gifts and powers (and Robert) so we have not drawn the lines for ourselves.
Ambros has become more fluid in his speech and, we found out, he talks to each species in their own language. When Ambros does so from his main body, we all hear him speaking to us in our own language simultaneously. His silver boy extension now mostly speaks verbally instead of faintly sending his thoughts.
We advised our alternates that we are returning home and they told their government leaders. As if they had prepared for it, they unanimously asked that they and our alternates come with for the finding of the first alternate of Ambros. Robbie pretended to be a drama queen, moaning and groaning, but he invited them to each bring with five thousand of their citizens. Robert made certain we did not mean five thousand of their wealthy and powerful and that at least a quarter of them must be children. We reminded them to bring with their food machines (a great opportunity for us to exchange recipes with them), saw them settled in their apartments, and Freddie jumped.
Since Arthur mistakenly called himself parochial when he meant ‘blinkered’ or ‘narrow-minded’, I’ll call Robbie parochial. Robbie wanted the first alternate Ambros that Ambros contacts to be from our reality, but it has almost become an accepted and much-looked-forward-to tradition that when we carry Normals, we give them a bit of a tour. Cherine solved it by asking Ambros to wait.
We added tables around our taverna so that leaders and our alternate family and friends can eat with us. They do tend to ask us a lot of questions which is good and as they relax they begin to adopt our casual way of dealing with problems. After a while, we’ve noticed, following our example, the wives begin to speak out, making suggestions when leaders from different countries are in discussion. Allan dared to tease us, claiming we are a bad influence and his girls promised us they’d make him pay. I wonder if what they said is anything similar to our ‘I owe you one’.
Robbie sat back as Maria brought his coffee and with a gesture of requesting permission, lit a cigarette. “We are somewhat relaxed about bringing back species killed by the fire-world we followed, but I have an interesting species in my witness program. Shall we interrupt our journey to bring them back?”
Of course all the Normals agreed with enthusiasm, but a few asked why he found them to be of particular interest.
Horrified everyone watched as the fire-world slashed at the planet with its tongue of fire and then we zoomed in to watch a few of them die. Many cried out in horrified amazement as they saw them rush out into the open, looking upwards. Not one of them tried to hide or save itself! Many wept as they watched them bring out their children from the underground nurseries for them to die with them. At each major city we watched them struggle to transport one of their kind that was twenty times their size, so that it too could die. The screen zoomed out and Freddie (of that time) jumped in time to follow the fire-world as it left a charred world behind it.
“It seems their scientists warned them in advance of what was about to happen. Their fatalistic acceptance of the death of their species goes against the instincts of all species we’ve met till now. I suggest that before we judge them, we find out from them their reasons.”
We found the Inguel-Kinytian teams and they followed us to the planet we want to bring back to life. Normals and Cherinians sat glued to their screens as we jumped back in time to bring forward plants and animals, watched as the teams began to repair the destroyed world and then we jumped forward to the time we’ll bring back the locals. We only stayed long enough for everyone to see the teeming with life world below them, with what were obviously partly rebuilt cities.
“When we return, just now, to collect from those still alive and of those who died, their souls and tissue for creating their bodies, we also collect as much of their technology as we can and take notes in more detail of how their cities are built so that the teams can recreate them as you see they have begun to below. It is not enough to save a species, they must be able to survive once we leave them.”
Even those Cherinians who were not needed watched alongside the Normals with equal awe as billions of Sparklers, Anadir and other species helped transfer the aliens just that split second before the flames reached them. Only those we’d watched earlier in the witness program had their tissue collected for them to be brought back in the Sparkler World. Robbie, Kirsten and Vincent with a team of their own, mostly scientists and artists, concentrated on piling into the Sparkler World all technology, books and art they could find.
As the transfers drew to an end we jumped everyone in Freddie to the Sparkler World so that they can meet the aliens, much to Robbie’s dismay, since he fears the aliens will try to worship us.
Solomon met us with a number of Anadir. “Robert, we were not able to find the souls of nearly all of those that died. Those you see here are those we saved before they died. We have the tissue, what should we do?”
“Hold on to the tissue, I’ll return in time to find them afterwards.”
Robbie and Claudia walked over to the nearest aliens, Claudia talking and trying to hear anything said by them. They did not utter a sound and drew back, opening a passage for them that led to one of the giant aliens. It had to repeat itself a number of times before we understood.
“You come in advance to announce the coming of the One?”
Robbie naturally presumed they expected a god of some kind. “Do you speak of a god of yours?”
Very patiently and sweetly, for after all, Robbie is not a female, “We speak of the Child of Life.”
“You know about her!?”
“It was prophesied death would come from the stars and that we should welcome it, for it would bring us to the Child of Life. Will she honour us by speaking to us? I cannot move to go to her as would be proper.”
With a burning face Cherine walked towards them, conscious of the muttering by Normals around her. “I am Cherine.”
With a naughty sparkle in her eyes, Cherine replied, in all earnestness, “For me to be complete I needed my other half. He, that one standing by you, chose this species so I had no choice.”
“Yes, non-females are to be forgiven much, aren’t they?” She gestured and those of her species bent their fore legs. “I honour you, Cherine, Child of Life. Will you accept a token of our love that has lasted for over one hundred thousand years?” She pulled out from within her body (or so it seemed to us) something that glowed with a green light, sparkles of bright blue flashing from it. It was the size of Alki’s fist.
She uncovered a smaller glowing jewel on what we thought of as her shoulder. “This is taken from the essence that makes a Mother. This one needed ten thousand years to be created and grown to this size and reflects the love of my people and their Mothers for their Supreme Mother. At the time of the prophesy we started to create such a symbol of our love for you. It has taken one hundred thousand years to grow to its present size.”
Cherine was shaken by the honour being bestowed upon her, but she felt the wild pride her Robbie was emoting and stiffened her legs. “What name do you give yourselves as a species?”
“We are the Wa-i-sil.” (Note: It is spoken as one word, Waïsil, but pronounced as I wrote it.)
“Then I shall name it The Love of Waïsil. Supreme Mother, not as love of me, but as love of life.”
“To us they are the same. Now that you have given us life, will you teach us so that we become worthy of the love?”
Cherine, very irreverently, considering the moment, sent us the finger (fist with a finger standing out). “My other half and my sisters and daughters will remain to teach you. Supreme Mother, you will be returned to your world and there we will visit to talk and teach, for those who wish to learn.”
“Samantha, try to find out about the prophesy. Who made it, do they have a religious leader who made it? God, can you imagine what faith they must have to offer themselves to a burning death?”
Moirafa asked, “Cherine, Child of Life, may we examine the Waïsil jewel? We will not harm it in any way, but we are curious as to what gives it the properties it has.”
“No.” She grinned as they tried to hide their dismay. “That’ll teach you not to tease me. Here, take it.”
The Normals were aghast at her casually handing it over. “Do you realise the value of that jewel! The only one in the entire universe!”
I laughed, knowing what the reaction to my words would be, of the Normals, Cherinians and Robbie and Cherine. “Not the only one sir, I’m certain there are billions of realities where they sacrificed themselves willingly in anticipation of the prophesy coming true. They each will also have created such a jewel.” Robbie just put his face in his hands.
Shocked he looked at Robbie, “You will bring them all back to life!?”
Wirms and Sparklers are to remain as friends and teachers to explain about Cherine and Cherinianism. We look forward to returning to link them. Somehow I am convinced there will never be an Ipohin amongst them. Robbie prepared an ecological niche big enough to fit a young Mother of theirs with five thousand males. He had to ask our scientists how to go about it.
“At the time I created Freddie, the soil and rocks, at the thinnest part, had only have a depth of about a hundred feet. From what we saw of their nests, they create their nurseries about three to five hundred feet below the surface. Would it weaken the structure if I lower the partition at their niche or should I build up the soil?”
“With the water problem we have, lowering the platform would not be a good idea. Robert, to place them that high above us, for the area you wish to give them, could it unbalance Freddie?”
“I don’t know. We better speak to the Supreme Mother.” Guess who was expected to!
“Supreme Mother, we have some questions, may I speak?”
“We have no secrets from Cherine.”
“Who made the prophesy? Are there those who specialise in prophesies?”
“A non-female!? No child, it was I.”
“You are a hundred thousand years old?”
“About three hundred thousand, if I recall correctly.”
“How long…what is your expected lifespan?”
“You ask when I should die? Why?”
“I seem to have implied something I did not mean. All life is mortal - as far as we know. We are born, we live, we die. The potential average length of life for each species differs. I was asking what the potential average of your species is.”
“I have not lived long enough to know. There is a specialised sub group of non-females who study the past. They informed me that I probably existed for a long time before becoming self-aware.”
“We saw your nurseries are filled with young ones. How many are given life each year - across your planet.”
“On average, about forty million.”
“But then your planet should have been overrun by now!”
I definitely heard amusement in her voice. “You expect the non-females to have an equal lifespan? Accidents and illness do kill Mothers, as does death by enemies, so one is born when she is to be needed.”
“Enemies? I thought all Mothers obeyed you.”
“Other species enemies. Obeyed me? Why would they?”
“I’m sorry, I thought that the title Supreme Mother meant you are in control.”
“You should explain that to me. When I speak fact, I am obeyed, as I would obey any Mother who does so. The designation Supreme only denotes my ability to speak fact more often. Some speak too easily, interpreting what they see as fact and can never become Supreme.”
“What is the lifespan of the males?”
“Why do you concern yourself with the non-females?”
“I am a seeker of information.”
“They require about sixty years to become useful. They live another two hundred.”
“For those of your people who will travel with us, we placed a limit of five thousand as our ship cannot hold many more. Since the Mother will require to continue giving birth to males, how many would she need to give birth to per year so that she maintains the minimum she needs?”
“What do we do Cherine?”
“It’s too late to back out now.” She cried out, “I’m going to destroy them Robert.” He quickly pulled her to him, almost glaring at me.
“Have you thought it out in depth before rushing to tell Cherine what you believe?”
“No, I’m sorry.”
“Then do so.”
Robbie spoke out of need to protect Cherine. I have tried to think of a solution for primarily the same reason. The aliens are important and we have to find a solution, but when Cherine is hurting she takes priority. I cannot resist that being so, any more than any of my loves can. The problem is, I do not see any solution - unless, well, for those in Freddie there might be an answer. Every generation, we would have to return those in excess to their planet. Now, how do I solve the problem of linked male Waïsil? If they become immortal, how will that affect the Mothers? I have a nasty suspicion the Mothers only expect us to link them.
Two days went by, so I hoped the Supreme Mother had recovered. I asked to meet with her again. This time I was led down moving ramps to a depth of about two hundred feet. She was in the birthing chamber and the males rushed to collect the eggs and lay them in artificial incubators. I saw that they were keeping notes of the history of each egg. The Supreme Mother lay with her eyes dimmed. As I looked around I became aware of her looking at me.
Once she saw I’d noticed she spoke to me. “I am informed your young ones are born already hatched.”
“Evolution on our planet divided into those who lay eggs and those who give birth to young ones already formed. The manner in which our species differs from most of the species of our planet is that our young ones are not capable of caring for themselves for a number of years.”
“The ways of life are a wonder to all thinking beings. Is that not so among all the species?”
“It would seem to be so. Cherine was right, you truly are wise, no wonder she wanted me to seek your advice.”
“There is a way for us to help her? Please speak.”
I explained to her the deadend we have reached. Cherinianism bestowing virtual immortality while increasing our needs for children. I gave her the numbers and what the results will be if we don’t control ourselves. “Unfortunately our male, Robert, left it to us and in the early years we did not perceive the truly inflexible and insoluble nature of the problem, having a number of children. Once we became aware, we stopped having children, but there is a terrible emptiness within us. Can you see a solution for us?”
“Your non-females are also immortal?”
“They have souls as we do, yes, they are linked.”
“We shall consider the problem and speak again.” I thanked her and left.
“You’re sneaky! You pretended to give her our problem so that she would see theirs without you telling them.”
“Well, it is a normal aspect of evolution you know.”
“What is?”
“Evolution realised it had given me to you as my father and had to provide me with some kind of defence. Sneakiness was just one of them.”
We let them have their laugh then I added, “Dad, she won’t see the problem - and the problem is not what we thought.”
He sobered. “What is the problem?”
“She was surprised that our males are linked and shocked when I told her you have souls.”
“Oh.” He saw the problem instantly. How can we link the Mothers if they refuse to allow us to link the males? In a way it did solve the problem as none would get linked, but that is not the kind of solution we are willing to accept. We all felt they would make good Cherinians.
Sol, touched my hand (mentally) and I looked at her. “Solomon has not seen any souls in their void Sam.”
“None!”
“None, apart from the mothers that died. Neither before the fire-world attacked nor since.”
I felt my face turn white and Maria rushed out with a coke for me. She made me drink some before allowing me to talk.
Tears filled my eyes. “God, what do we tell them?” I exploded. “Fuck prophesies!” Alki pulled me into his arms and I beat my fists against his chest. When I looked again I saw that Robbie was holding Cherine tightly to him.
“I’ll speak to them.”
“No Cherine, I have to.”
Robbie tried. “Leave it my loves, I’ll speak to them.”
“You’re a male, you can’t.” Cherine nearly giggled.
I was forced to allow all my loves to come with within my mind.
“Supreme Mother…”
She did not look well, even my alien eyes could see that. “Child, I am glad you came, for I found it difficult to ask for you.”
“Something is wrong? Are you not well?”
“I have failed child. All of us have failed Cherine.”
Tears filled my eyes, running down my cheeks and I could not stop them. “I’m so sorry Supreme Mother, I was not honest with you and have caused you grief. We have known of our problem and accepted a long time ago that there is no answer at this time. I used our problem to lead you to facing your own problem.”
There was a long silence. “It would be better you explain what our problem is, for I have not seen it.”
I did. The males rushed to care for her when they sensed her deep shock. A male came to me. “Our Mother wishes to speak to you, please do not leave, she will recover soon.”
I’d presented both scenarios. The first being that all are linked and what this would mean to their being Mothers. The second being that we had not found any souls of the males in the void, which explained why we had lost those who had been killed by the fire-world during our presence.
