The size and strength of Ardrigio intimidated his attackers, but even tearing off limbs could not prevent them stabbing and slicing at him and the two faces convulsed and settled in frigid sleep as essential organs were pierced.
“You speak of the vacuum of space?”
Sam smiled. “Since you are of a spacefaring species it would be rather stupid of me to ask such a question. I speak of the place our souls go to when we sleep and when we die. I sense you do not! Have your species no myths about such a place?”
“Death is the end of life, what you claim is a paradox, there can be no further life once there is death - death is the dissolution of the spirit.”
“You died and yet you survived in Ivgos.”
“That is a gift he has that needs to be studied. If it can be duplicated then we must block his mind so that nobody else learns how to do the same. There will always be those with power who will selfishly wish to extend their existence and it must not be allowed.”
“Why not? If everyone has the ability, how could there be a threat?”
“That would bring about the total destruction of all species - of the universe! To have trillions and then trillions of trillions immortal with new births continuing? Can you not see the danger?”
“We live with the danger and fear all the time, but we have also learnt to control ourselves. Guhpan, try to keep your mind open to new possibilities for we have much to learn from each other. Are you comfortable with me, with my appearance - I would like for you to meet my family and friends.”
Samantha brought him to the taverna and then she pinpointed for Freddie the date she wanted to be here. Freddie jumped realities and returned in time. When Sam reached out we sensed Ivgos as a toddler and everyone wanted to see him. While we oohed and ahhed our healers also took cells from all the tribe so that we would not have to return to them again. Sparklers were left behind in the void to watch the tribe and collect the souls of all who died. We waited until the mother of Ivgos died, collected her and Freddie jumped back to the future where ‘our’ Ivgos was waiting (without knowing it) for his mother.
While this was going on, some of us were explaining to Guhpan and to prove what we said we allowed him to sense his people in their moon bases. We sensed he would now be more open to the ideas Sam wants to exchange with him.
Sorry Arthur, I had to take over for a while. What was said does not equate with ‘more open’ as far as I am concerned. Not that anybody did anything wrong and I have played the same games to make others malleable, but there is something about Guhpan that demands total honesty from me. There will be no games played with him if he allows me to play it straight. I’m willing to take my time with him so that he absorbs what I try to teach him, but at the same time is also, hopefully, able to teach me. For them to have created this world and run the experiment with so many generations born here, they must be one of the oldest species we’ve met. They could only have planned and started the experiment when they already were an old civilisation. Just the idea of how long they have existed coupled with the strength, inner and physical, that I sense, tempts me to fall in love with them as a species. If only they had a few more of our Cherinian attributes!
Although he continued staring at the Unation ship above us I knew he had recognised me. I carried a chair to where he waited. “The body that is you, it is not the same body you had before. When you died you were too much an alien for us to heal you, so we took a cell from your body and created a new one for you. I hope our healers did a good job.”
“Clones are never exact copies.”
My healer has told me a few facts about you that explain some of the differences between us. For instance, you never sleep. Does that mean you never dream?”
“It is possible, but is not a habit indulged often.”
“I’d say an important aspect of dreaming is being asleep and unaware to an extent. It makes it possible for my soul to leave my body and travel to the void. It seems we missed a golden opportunity when you died.” I grinned. “I do not think you would appreciate being killed so as to be taken on a tour of the void.”
“Would you explain about the void?”
I asked for Solomon to join us and then explained to the best of my abilities. Well, maybe I could have shared directly mind-to-mind, but not with someone I don’t know that well, thank you. “There is no way I can explain the Sparkler World, you’ll have to experience it directly. Solomon will take you there and I’ll come along so that you have a friendly face with you.” From his emoting I guess he did not think I’m funny or a friendly face. How did poor Ivgos put up with him day after day?
He must have looked around (that is literally, he can see from all parts of his body, except for the ‘flaps’ which are not photosensitive). He was not that impressed, just curious as to how we’d transported him light years to some strange solar system. Then we began flying at great speed. Less than a quarter of a light year covered with land below us continually was enough to make his emoting resemble gibbering. Instantly he was back in Freddie so that he can recover by feeling he is among real plants and so on. I then took him to meet our little goddess Lusalith at her home in the mountains. I was surprised to sense he does not enjoy the lush green and prefers not to be too close to bodies of water, but he found her fascinating and asked so many questions I wish I’d thought to ask that I kept my mouth shut and only listened. I sensed he respects her more for the way she controls the use of her power than for the power itself and she liked him, though she admitted he makes her giddy with his constant movement.
We explained that Freddie is no longer in his reality so he can take his time and whenever we return, he will be back with his people on the same day he left. He thought I had gone crazy. They have never even speculated about the possibility of other realities. Freddie returned him to the exact coordinates of the Ribbon Planet before it was terraformed and there was nothing there for him to identify. He had to examine the surrounding solar systems and galaxies for him to accept we were where we told him we were. Once the scientists gave him an explanation and went through their mathematical models he accepted that they had missed out on an entire aspect of the universe. He did find it impossible to accept that there are an infinite number of realities with them doubling or tripling or whatever every second. I can't hold that against him, we all have the same problem and that is why we keep on trying to evolve theories of elastic band realities snapping back into their parent realities and so on. Actually, now that I think of it, when you get here Arthur, you are going to love reading a book by Argin De Muys. He normally writes fantasy stories; the kind that has faëries, goblins and so on, but he wrote a story about a reality splitting and then the elastic band snapped them back, but a mistake occurred and the parent reality was absorbed by its child reality. He comes up with some strange scenarios and we all love his book.
At least Guhpan is now showing eagerness to meet more species and he has little time for me anymore. I guess I’m too ignorant to interest him. (Cherine: I had to interrupt to let you know I printed the above sentence so that we have a hard copy for framing.) I would have printed it for her if she had asked.
Now Sam is feeling too embarrassed to write and has asked me to take over for a while (Gina). Apparently, wherever Guhpan went, the most respected scientists and leaders told him he should listen more closely to Sam as she has moments of inspiration when she helps them unravel galaxy sized mysteries by some suggestion that on the face of it sounds naïve or simple, but proves to have many layers of depth to it. Anyway, he now wants her with him all the time and keeps on asking her questions that she doesn’t even understand. We adore our Samantha and this moment is far too precious for any of us to spend it here typing, so we’ll be back once he has come to his senses. Imagine being able to share this with Robert and the two girls; they are going to scream!
Inguel space ships are not that easily noticed in space. They tend to be of various browns with some wispy almost black patches. Only a student of the night skies could notice the ship so we feel it is safe to leave them the job of completing the healing of the moon-ships while Freddie takes us to the solar systems those moons originally came from. Guhpan’s colleagues were able to provided us with star maps and Freddie estimates we will be there in five days - he wants us to rest before we start working again. Sometimes he is just as bad as Robbie.
I pulled a face. “You think that is a problem? I’ve been worrying about something much worse. What if we arrive to find that the colonists have mutated and now have a Cherine of their own? It’s just as well Robbie won’t be with us!” That got them laughing and trying to think up stranger scenarios while Cherine frowned at me. I kept getting the giggles each time I saw her. I know I’ll pay for it back at home, she’ll find a way to get all the girls to join her as she throws pillows at me, but I have to get my fun when and wherever I can.
Although their galaxy is so much smaller than ours, the Federation solar systems are closer to the center of their galaxy and from their planets their skies are brighter with stars than ours are. The difference in distance between solar systems here compared to those neighbouring ours is not big but even a small difference must have helped bring them together. Before we arrived at the first of the systems we had come to investigate, the scientists were already excited by the discovery of a sun that had no planets, just a planar concentric ring of meteoroids. The ring stretches slightly beyond the distance from the sun to our Earth but the inner part of the ring starts from a distance equivalent to a position about halfway between Mercury and Venus. The inner meteoroids may be very hot but those at the outer edge have a lot of ice. The scientists are excited as they consider the chances of life evolving within the temperate ranges very likely. They have already picked up signs of gas - and oxygen is included! Freddie told them that, unless they have an urgent need to examine the system immediately, we should continue to our targets. He reassured them we would definitely stop here on our way back so they took what readings they could and then concentrated on the Federation systems ahead of us.
Long before we were close enough to analyse the planets, we began to find evidence of a spacefaring civilisation. At the speed we were travelling, it was only hours later that the trails of energy from spaceships could be seen (by our instruments) to be criss-crossing the space between the planets and solar systems. Freddie moved into the void and stopped. He joined us at the taverna.
“Contrary to what Guhpan thought, it seems their home systems are thriving. I suggest we proceed cautiously as their experiences with the invaders are bound to have left them more xenophobic.” Our first step that was agreed by all was the sending of Sparkler scouts to check on whether the void was being used. They reported that out of seventy nine species, only thirty one visit the void, whether while sleeping or consciously. Those who arrive because they have died are just as susceptible to the rules of the void as we used to be - but the Sparklers no longer rush to save them. They have come to see the transfer of souls to new bodies as a natural development for the soul and will only interfere if there is a reason. Apart from some species suffering great pain when being sent on by the void and therefore needing our interference on their behalf, the reason need not be one that only motivates the Sparklers, any Cherinian of any species can ask them to help save souls for returning to their previous life.
Since the local species have embassies, trade delegations, I don’t know how many inter-planetary departments, plus an inter species space force, it means that those species who do go to the void do so from all the planets. Freddie arriving in the void would not be a good idea, so we voted to return to normal space. The Sparklers were able to identify the home planet of the Marmirie - the species of Ahram, and Freddie travelled in that direction at what is for us a slow speed so that they have time to prepare for our arrival. We all were impressed by Ahram and felt that even if they all were a little paranoid about welcoming aliens, his people would be the most likely to listen before attacking.
The local spacefleet were incredibly fast at calculating where our direction of travel was taking us and they must have been travelling at full speed, for they arrived only half a day after we did. Having seen that they were coming, we waited, only sending a greeting and message that we came in peace. They took formation around us to prevent our attacking the planet and space habitats. Their strategy was very simple and looked something like this ‘ (F) O ’. Their navy is represented by the brackets, the planet by the ‘O’. I suppose their thoughts were that by not encircling us they had more ships on either side to shoot at us if we tried to break away. In the early days, when we were still drunk with power and naïve in our attitudes, we would have re-sent a message about our peaceful intentions and then told them that while they consider their reaction to us we are going on a tour of their Federation. Jumping to the void we would have put in an appearance by a dozen solar systems and returned within hours, terrifying them - not very empathic of us and definitely immature. What we did this time is warn that a ship would be coming out of Freddie and the Muyzith ship did so. The Unation ship had volunteered and they are almost invincible but Jade wanted us to accept the offer by the Muyzith as she said that the beauty of their ship would enchant them, making it easier for us to convince them we come in peace. I guess it just goes to show that we have not really matured as much as I thought, for we all enthusiastically supported her.
The Muyzith took their time in landing within Freddie, first hovering a few hundred meters above the land as they travelled around to show them the various features and ecological niches.
When they emerged, they still looked stunned (sorry, emoted). The first thing they did was look up at the Unation ship, as if they needed to confirm what they’d seen from inside. It was obvious they were just as amazed by the sight of our eternal waterfalls. We had asked Alki to meet them as our ‘leader’ since neither Robbie nor our Hettie and Eddie were with us. We could sense he wanted to ask Campbell to take over but he could not, since Campbell is not a Cherinian. He surprised us by asking Kiris. Before any of us could protest, Marian told him to get on with it, so by the time the Muyzith made the introductions Alki had already taken his position. Our guests must have been told that we were all children for they ignored us and only talked to Alki and all other adults present. It amused us, so we relaxed, drank our cold drinks and chatted among ourselves while the adults handled the formalities.
“How long have you been studying us?” We could feel that the question had undertones of fear; the idea that we could have without them discovering our presence frightened them. Alki prodded for me to speak.
“There are two reasons why we can speak your languages, but neither are explained by our studying you. May I ask a question? When the Muyzith came to your ship, was their knowledge of the language somewhat archaic?”
Gently but slightly patronising, because I am a child, he responded, “That was astute of you, you are correct.” I felt my fellow Cherinians hold their breath, worried as to how I would respond.
I smiled. “I’m not very astute but thank you for your kind observation. We have among us a person who has a mental gift of languages. When that person is present, it does not matter what language is spoken, we each hear it in our own language. Secondly, the archaic forms of your languages that we did learn are the reason we are here. Your Federation stretches back in time to the period before you were attacked by aliens. Do you have any of the history of that period?”
“From before the Great War? Not much.”
“The governments of that time were worried that your Federation would fall apart because of species differences. It is not just a matter of logic and good intentions; each species have their own set of instincts and where they conflict anger and then enmity can replace the best of intentions. An amazing experiment was decided upon - you have no information about it?” I could sense their reactions so I did not wait for an answer. “Your ancestors hollowed out a number of moons, created habitats in them and sent them filled with volunteers to a planet far from here. The planet was terraformed to suit the arrival of many different species, each with their ecologies. It should be noted that the species and their ecologies were slightly adapted so that they could tolerate and protect themselves from the other ecologies. The Albaelits species were in charge and did not take part directly. They remained on the spaceship moons and monitored the planet, using the technology they had taken with them for controlling the planet. The terraforming was not suitable for maintaining a healthy planet so they did have to use their technology continually. I think that in many respects the experiment was successful and when they return they will have a few thousand years of data for your scientists to study. However, the Albaelits could no longer survive as their birth rate has fallen drastically and they decided it would be kinder to prevent new generations being born so that they do not have to struggle like animals to survive. I suspect there will be many questions of ethics to be argued but I hope all species of your Federation keep in mind that the Albaelits care about their charges and made their decisions based on logic but also the same emotions that drive parents. We do not ask that you take our word for all I’ve told you, if you advise your ships that we will be absent for about ten minutes, we’ll take you to see the experimental planet and meet some of the persons there so that you can ask your questions of them.”
Some of the local souls may have seen us as we jumped to the void, but they would have been very puzzled when we instantly disappeared. From the other reality we jumped back and arrived by the Ribbon Planet. Of course we remained invisible to the locals as it is not time yet for them to know about us and the truth about themselves. The seven who came with us are not scientists, but they listened with fascination as the planet was explained and they had many questions. Finally one of them thought to ask us why we had come here. That was a question we did not have an answer for - can you imagine us explaining about Robbie, Candy and Robyn being here in a dream life?
None of the seven are of the species of Ivgos but one of their communication experts is. Dommi suggested Guhpan accompanies the seven, the one Leussan and myself. I then asked Haven to go in my place. She glowed with joy as she hugged me, happy to be close to her Robyn for a while. I knew she also wanted to sense how this adventure had changed her.
Ivgos, with his parents and group, were visiting on the tier level occupied by the Prince and his people. Guhpan went to call them so Haven and the others wandered around, mostly staring and exclaiming over the amazing view of the immense cliffs surrounding the divide. There is a grandeur to the view that cannot be conveyed by viewing it through the screens of Freddie.
Haven had only sheathed herself, keeping her usual appearance. She wanted to see whether any of them would be reminded of their original personalities. I already knew they would not but I guess this sort of thing you have to experience for yourself. I was more interested in how she would react to seeing them in the flesh, so to speak. I was not disappointed; just as I had felt freaked out when I was confronted by Robbie and Candy, despite having spent a few years watching them on our screens, so did Haven react to them. As for Robyn - Haven just adored the way she looked and felt. She told us that her tiny golden eyes were worthy of a Goldi.
Guhpan started with the explanations. “Ivgos, Ahram, all of you, it has been decided that the time has arrived for you to be told the truth about this world and myself in a lot more detail. After I have done so, you will be introduced to these people who came with me.”
Ivgos had approached and touched Haven as Guhpan talked. He looked up at her. “You are the same kind as Samantha?”
“Yes, I am. Ivgos, let’s do it the way Guhpan suggested. Once he has told you why this planet has so many species we will then discuss Samantha and myself.”
While Haven concentrated on those she wanted to monitor, I was more interested in Haikra and Ivgos. Haikra because he is an adult with a good mind and Ivgos because he still sees the world through the eyes of a child. His emotions are more extreme, but above all, it is as if he is being told that the universe has magic in it and his entire inner world has lit up with excitement. Maybe we’ll have to take him to the reality of Jesus/Christós, just for the pleasure of feeling him.
As the adults asked questions, Ivgos politely came to a stop before Haven and waited for her to notice him. He then asked, “The golden light, was it God?” I don’t know what I would have answered, but he asked Haven and Haven is Haven.
“No. It was Cherine, mother and sister to all in my family.” She paused, giving me a chance to object. “Would you like to visit our world and meet her?” Seuria heard her and felt Ivgos. She quickly came to stand by him, her cilia sparkling as the sun shone through them, her determined stance making it obvious she would not allow Haven to take him without her. Suddenly it felt as if the two hearts of Haven were racing with fear. She took a deep breath and asked, “Would you like to come with him Seuria?” as soon as she confirmed she would, every heart or equivalent organ in Freddie was racing. Taking Robyn away from her dream world, how might it affect her?
It was like setting up a row of dominoes and then knocking over the first one. Haikra also did not trust us yet and would not let Ivgos go without him. Once it was agreed he could come with, then the yearning of others became too powerful to ignore. Dommi told Haven to announce that Ivgos, his eleven and his parents are all invited. We had a good laugh when Grosts panicked, afraid that he would become afraid and lose substance, making it impossible for us to bring him to us. This, of course, made him less corporeal and he had visions of being left behind on his own and it made him miserable.
Nearly everyone in Freddie looked forward to meeting all the visitors, especially Ahram. However, we all first wanted to meet Ivgos and Seuria. It was not only because she is Robyn; we found the possibility of a species like her fascinating. I’m not being entirely honest (by omission). Most non-family in Freddie are eager to meet Robbie and Candy. It does not make any difference as to what species any of us are, they and we find the body the two of them share very odd and cannot believe that such creatures actually evolved and exist. I think that for my loves and myself, we see their trip from the Dream Mountain as being an adventure and if they are given a strange body, then that can only be a part of the fun of experiencing something new. Some of us even envy Candy for sharing so closely with Robbie. She may or may not enjoy it right now but afterwards, these days will be very precious to her.
Ivgos arrived with his mother and father holding a hand each. I suspect they were more frightened than he was and found comfort from being with him. The first thing I did was to send my healer into him with specific instructions. From my visit to his world, Ivgos was already at peak health and what I wanted from the healer now was information as to whether he would suffer any adverse reactions if I gave him a taste of things like chocolate, ice cream and so on. Unfortunately halvah would cause him problems as it has too much fibre for him but chocolate, the dark kind, was not a problem.
When I made my way through the crowds towards him, I saw his eyes light up. I gave him a grin and the one he gave back to me exuded sheer joy from him. “Mother, father, this is Samantha.” He then turned to me, “You remembered.” I love the strange way he said my name.
“Of course I did.” I leant over to speak softly, “Everyone is so excited at meeting you that I think we better let them have today and then we’ll spend time together tomorrow.” I asked the mother and father, “Did you like Saïli? He comes from your home world and has a lot to tell you about your people, so grab whatever opportunity presents itself to be alone with him.” Their emoting made me giggle as I reassured them. “You would not believe how excited he is about meeting you and he has thousands of questions to ask you. Make him answer yours also.”
Ivgos asked with genuine puzzlement, “Why does he want to know about us? We live as we always have, we keep to our traditions.” His parents emoted that they too had the same naïve point of view.
As I walked away from them I sensed Cherine smiling in my mind. *We’re lucky Arthur didn’t give you the gift Ivgos has or else nobody would stand a chance against you.*
I sent back a grin. *You have a chance? Are you certain Arthur didn’t?* She laughed aloud, my loves joining her. I wonder why they didn’t believe me? I said to the rest of my loves, as earnestly as I could, *Cherine is only teasing me because she knows Arthur gave her the gift, not me. Just think about how we all love, adore and are fanatical about protecting her.* As they thought about it and began to wonder, Cherine sent me a tick. It is not often I can reverse her teasing to score a tick from her - if it happens again soon, it just might go to my head.
I am curious as to how his gift will change as Ivgos matures. It is strange that those who are selfish are immune to him while anyone with the slightest empathy falls under his spell. That Robbie, with his known weakness for children, should have been susceptible is to be expected. I’m not certain why Candy and Kainas were but with her present gift of empathy, it is only natural that Robyn would be overwhelmed by a need to protect him. As Guhpan comes to realise the truth about Ivgos he will have to face the fact that he is not the hard-bitten cynic he pretends to be. Here is the strangest aspect of the story of Ivgos and his species. They all have a very strong need to protect others of their kind and that is likely to be the reason they developed the ability to call the souls of those they love to themselves, finding a way to nurture them. They did all this without learning about the soul and the void!
I saw someone cutting across the crowd to speak to me, so I waited. It was a Sparkler Thinker that I do not recall meeting before. I bent my head for a moment in respect. “I am honoured.”
“I am of those you named the Spartans and for this visit am willing to adopt a name of your choice. Greetings Samantha and the honour is all mine. May I make a request of you?”
I pretended to frown (after all, with Robbie not ‘present’, someone has to provide continuity). “Your question poses a problem I might need assistance in solving. You request permission to make a request? If I answer permission is granted, does that mean I gave you permission to request my permission or should it automatically be assumed that your request to make a request is granted?”
“I am pleased to note that you have observed how illogical the manner your species speak is, at times.” His unexpected humour made me laugh and he politely waited - so I realised he was not being funny.
“No name is required unless we are to indulge in a long conversation that spans a number of meetings. Please make your request.” I was not just being polite, none of the Thinkers like having to use a name. It took us a long time to find out as they were too polite to allow us to sense it.
“We wish to study the Leussan people, especially Ivgos and his family. Their ability to take in souls and give them a place within their soul-mind, it is unique among those who have not opened their minds to learn of their soul and healer or acquired abilities such as telepathy. We do not understand how they could have evolved such a gift without acquiring other gifts that should have existed in advance of their ability becoming common to them.”
“I can assure you we all are puzzled and I hope you are able to discover an answer. You do not consider the ability of Ivgos to converse with Seuria as evidence of telepathy?”
“Seuria and Ahram. No, we believe it is the ability of the other two that made it possible.”
“You are probably correct. Spartan Thinker, there was no need to request our permission, only that of the Ivgos family. All that we can ask of you is that if you reach any conclusions that would advance the knowledge of all Cherinians, please share with us.”
I joined various groups but did not speak, only listening and enjoying the way each species seems to have its own slant on life - and ethics. Gina came to me and I put my arm around her. She leant against me as she listened with me. Softly she said, as we walked away and towards the beach, “I find it most fascinating that our dreamers have adopted alien ways of thinking.”
“I’d say it is better to think of them as being the personalities they are now. The Dream Mountain may have used their personality and character as a foundation for what they became but they are not, Robbie for instance, pretending in a hypnotised way to be Ardrigio. He is Ardrigio. It makes him a totally alien version of what makes our Robbie the man he is. The same goes for all of them.”
