Little Cherine Book 11 - BPost073

arthur.grafo13 (53)in #sfandf-fiction • 4 years ago

Robbie pulled Solace and Elpida to him as his eyes rested on the recently tanned face of Sol. “How could any of us have imagined how important the Sparklers would become to all life, offering all species a haven should life become unbearable in the material world.”

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Sol felt Tseri put her arms around her waist, but she kept her eyes on Robbie. “We will not be needed for as long as life has you as our champion Robert.” She gave a grin. “You and Samantha that is.”

I shook my head. “No Sol, just Robbie, or else, Robbie and Cherine - I’m not a warrior.”

We had declared the 15th of June as being ‘alter ego’ day, but we never really did much to make it important. I decided to allow Le’sase to have that day with our family while I visit Hesina. Within hours the news found its way to the media and we were suddenly inundated by requests for Le’sase to appear on talk shows. Cherine suggested I project for Le’sase and I countered that Robbie would then have to stay with him and they all agreed, asking where did I think they would all be.

David suggested we agree to appear on the show of a young woman from the Philippines. I watched a few of her previous shows and decided she would not only use us for her own benefit; under her rather dowdy appearance I sensed a warm and caring person. She was thrilled when she learnt we’ve chosen her and carefully saw to it that she was not available when her station was inundated with calls for her from bigger studios. I liked that. Her name is Juanita but her fans soon shortened it to a fond Jui (pronounced as Ju-i) and that has become her trade name.

Le’sase was so excited that I found it impossible to sleep, so at four in the morning I gave in. I moved away from the arms of Robyn without waking her and projected. As I took on his form, Le’sase emerged and I waited to watch from the background. Both Cherine and Robbie were the first to wake up and their excitement woke everybody else. All of them tried stroking roots or leaves but none, not even Cherine, tried to take him away from Robbie - or should I say, unwrap him from Robbie. Because I tend to think of Le’sase as being a male child, the others do so now and Le’sase is aware of the humour of the situation. Once I’d felt his happiness I dived into my mind to visit Hesina. She was raptly sharing from Le’sase, but quickly turned to give me a hug. I looked into her eyes that always show her happiness and good humour and saw something deeper. I told her to stay with Le’sase while I go check on Athel.

I sat next to him and stared at his face. I like his fine features and if I use my imagination I can see them in the older and worn face of Arthur. I hope he allows his Samantha to love him as he is. Athel’s lips twitched with a slight smile and I wondered what he was dreaming. I let myself sink into something akin to meditation that opened my mind to his so that I shared his dreams. When Hesina called for me to return I found out I’d spent almost the entire day lost within beautiful worlds of love and being loved.

“I think you should increase the energy flowing to him when you share his dreams.” I looked at Athel and was shocked to see he appeared to have slightly faded. Urgently I sent energy until he glowed. Uneasily he turned away from me, so I reduced the flow back to normal.

Hesina does not remain serious for long. With a laugh she took my hand and pulled for me to run with her. She led me to the weeping willow tree by the river and as I sat down where she indicated, she came into my arms to be held as if I were her mother. She noticed me glance at the fine branches hanging above us and giggled.

“If I tried your challenge again, would I succeed this time?”

“No.”

I stared at the ‘eye’ at the mountaintop. “I would be very disappointed if I made it all the way up there to find you were bluffing and there is nothing, no prize.”

She giggled. “You’ll never know.”

I took her reply as a challenge. “We’ll see, I just might succeed.”

She turned serious, her eyes and thoughts trying to see into me and work out what I planned. She really does not want me to succeed! I shrugged and said, in the hopes of placating her, “I’m not going to try again, if I do and fail, everyone will laugh at me.”

Relaxing, she asked, “Can we close our eyes and share with Le’sase? He’s at his interview.” She snuggled against me and we left our ‘bodies’ to return to Le’sase.

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It took us a moment to adjust to seeing through the eyes of Le’sase. The Terran body does look strange to him, as his mind does not have predefined definitions of the shapes that together create a face or body. Eyes though he has no problem in seeing as they are, and Jui’s eyes came across as a warm liquid brown.

“Many people have a problem with understanding why it is you speak of Samantha and yourself as being two separate entities. Surely you are one soul?”

Robbie was speaking (verbalising) for Le’sase. “We are one soul and yet we consist of separate personalities. Each life our soul has lived remains as part of the soul and it can come to life should the center of our awareness, our ego, shift to that set of memories and personality. You might have heard that the Sparklers have had to examine certain souls deeply into their past lives and we are now becoming aware of rules that seem to apply to souls that are both surprising and disturbing.” Robbie hesitated as he shared with Le’sase. “Le’sase has just pointed out to me that Solomon is the first to acknowledge that they are only now beginning to scratch the surface and we are still very ignorant. For instance, it seems that as we travel back through the previous lives they begin to blur, individual lives blending into one. He asks how would his life blur with his previous lives if the other lives were short as ours normally are. The fact that he existed for thousands of years would not guarantee that his personality dominates, for his life and thoughts were slow and gentle. The frenetic life and sharpness of emotions and experiences of the shorter lived species might overwhelm his personality so that he disappears.”

“Are you possibly over-simplifying? Surely the strength of character and desire to live or to remain dominant are important factors?”

Robbie frowned unhappily as he stared at Le’sase. “May I remind you that Le’sase took the decision to return and become Samantha? I hope the need to remain dominant is not as important as you think it is.” He glanced down at Le’sase again and a broad grin split his face. “I think that with both Le’sase and Samantha, their strongest trait is curiosity, not dominance.” Robbie then made a mistake that changed much about the way the world thinks of him. Jui rather wistfully wished that Le’sase could speak for himself and Robbie answered, “But I do speak for myself, I’m a ventriloquist.”

Jui stared at him with a stunned look for a second and then as Robbie burst into peals of laughter her stare changed into one of not believing what she was seeing/hearing as politicians do not ever laugh the way Robbie was laughing, then her own sense of humour got the better of her and she also started to laugh uncontrollably. Soon she’d carried her audience, in the studio and everywhere else, along with her. They loved the way he was willing to pretend he is a dummy with the humorous connotations, but it was his laughter that won their hearts. His habit of laughing at his own jokes which we see as a sort of weakness, they saw as humanising him and making him one of them. We are lucky that Cherine was not with - having her sit there glaring at anyone daring to laugh at Robbie would have killed the moment. (R: As you’ve probably guessed, Sam was taking a dig at Cherine and she got hit by a flurry of pillows from Cherine. There has been much laughter in our home for the last few hours and I am truly happy - I just wish you were here to enjoy their laughter also.)

I’m feeling quite bemused. Images of Le’sase are suddenly everywhere. He is in Japanese Manga stories as the creature with roots invading every orifice of the females he ‘attacks’; Carver & Braite the exclusive jewellers created a brooch using an emerald for his eye and it was sold at an auction with the proceeds donated to a charity with Le’sase having to be present so as to encourage the bidders to pay a high price. His photographs are everywhere and I’m told that a number of ‘experts’ are writing books or scientific articles about him and his species. We’ll have to turn a blind eye to them as it is not worth risking the loss of goodwill Le’sase has earned us among the Normals.

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When we decided it was time for us to return to an a-reality the teams prepared themselves and went ahead before us. One team returned the same day and they asked to meet us in Freddie.

“Apparently the population exploded to the point where the growth was threatening the stability of their economies. A law was brought out forbidding anyone from having more than one child. They tried to make sterilisation compulsory after the birth of the first child but the masses rioted and to stop the killing and destruction of property the governments changed the law, making it voluntary and at the cost of the state.

Those who had agreed with the government began to act on their own, killing the child if it is the second of a family. As water restrictions grew more severe and food supplies were threatened, more and more of the public sympathised with the vigilantes and they grew in number. The leader of one such group in a South American country changed the rules. If a family allowed themselves to expect the arrival of a second child they did not wait for the child to be born, they execute the entire family.

The governments did little to curb the vigilantes, seeing them as a temporary but necessary evil. If police witnessed such killings they would walk away and it was well known that many of the vigilante groups were made up of law enforcers. As is only natural under such social conditions, groups formed that had little interest in preventing the growth of the population and more interest in satisfying their blood lust. They no longer waited for proof that a woman was pregnant with second child; any signs, such as putting on weight, was proof to them.

Robert, their population has fallen from nine billion down to two billion and is still falling. The governments are now anxious to halt the decline of their populations, but they’ve lost control and the battles between the police, army and vigilantes is far more vicious than the social conditions justify. They do not only kill each other, but make the families of the other group their primary target. We see the first signs of collapse and it will accelerate to the point where it cannot be reversed within months. Are we to interfere and if we are, do we do so openly?”

I did not wait for Robbie to answer. “I ask that everyone consider my question and answer before Robert does. Do our rules that make us human beings and Cherinians extend to the a-realities?”

Cherine bleakly answered me, “Sam, the rules cannot be selectively employed and if you try to, then there will be no more Cherinians.”

I sensed that they all agreed with her, despite understanding what it would cost us. “Then why is Robert being asked the question? As to doing so openly, no, we do not. We have a number of a-realities that do know of our existence and I fear it was a mistake that will cost us many lives. From now onwards we must only give what help we can secretly - we do not have the right to risk our Normals because of our ideals.”

Lynda has tried to concentrate on a ‘nicer’ a-reality and we are on our way.

This must be the most ‘far out’ a-reality we’ve ever visited! We’re totally lost and haven’t a clue where we are. The navigators and astrologers (cosmologists) have been studying the galaxies and they do not recognise any that we see here. The Sparklers searched the void and report that they have not found any souls - of any species. Since it is highly unlikely they’ve experienced a fire-world, we are wondering what could have denuded this a-reality of all life. Lynda told us that she had not sensed it as a dead reality so Robbie has decided to enter and explore the nearest galaxy.

With the equipment of all the species being employed at their maximum range, the two Sparkler nations to either side of us and Robbie and Vincent taking turns shooting off into the depths of space as the void, it only took us about two hundred light years of travel before we found signs of life. We rushed to the solar system after returning to the void so that we would not be sensed. No souls were found in the void and when Freddie extended a tip we saw a planet with life, but no signs of civilisation. Robbie and Claudia left to investigate. No sapient life was found.

The reason we did not just leave to continue our explorations for sapient life is due to the strange ‘layering’ of plant life. The heart or central layer is a darker colour and very dense. Within it we can usually see a source of water. Surrounding this vegetation is a lighter coloured layer of vegetation and outside that is another layer that is almost desert-like with dry forms of plants or their equivalent of cacti.

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On closer examination it was found that the outer ring cannot find nourishment or water within its territory and sends long dry roots into the middle ring. There are signs of many such roots decaying, so we’ve concluded that the mid-ring fights off such encroachment, but does not do so very effectively. The mid ring sends its shoots into the dark central area but it does not invade the area to any great depth. Again there are signs of their roots being damaged by the local vegetation, but not to extremes.

The above only starts to make sense once the areas outside the outer ring are examined. The plants there are highly poisonous and some of them are even mobile to a limited extent. They cannot travel through the arid and almost desert-like area and we see evidence of many such plants trying and dying before they are anywhere close to the cacti plants. The plants of the outer ring and the mid ring seem to be related but neither can survive within the territory of the other. The lush humidity of the inner layer is both tempting and necessary to the survival of both outer layers, but poisonous if indulged to an extreme as the dampness causes the plants of the outer two ecologies to rot. The central layer has a plethora of insect life, the mid layer has some insects and we have not found any in the outer layer. Surprisingly the poisonous areas between these islands of layered vegetation is rich in variety of insects and they seem to be related to those of the two inner layers. We do not understand why none of the insects have discovered flight - some can glide from high points but that is the closest any of them come to flying.

Everyone is fascinated by this planet. There are ‘islands’ that must be ancient (in their terms at least) and some of them are dead or dying. There are also signs of new ‘islands’ developing. How is it that such ‘islands’ can develop from within the poisonous areas without any ponds or lakes being evident and yet within an estimated four years, rudimentary layers are formed with the beginnings of a lake at the heart? There must be a unique kind of cooperation and hostility between the layers that has evolved over many thousands or millions of years. What role do the insects play? As I said, many are fascinated and Robbie has agreed to an Inguel spaceship with an inter-species group of scientists remaining here for a few years. We’ll travel around for a while and then jump back to collect them before leaving this a-reality.

Although we have not discovered sapient life, we feel we have made an auspicious start and with recovered spirits we are continuing our search. Lusalith is travelling with us and though she has her own home, she spends some of her time with her people and most of it with us at our home or at the taverna. Robbie created a water feature right next to where we sit to eat and talk with friends, so there is no need for her to suffer. She says that even sitting with us close to the waterfalls is like being back home and her skin (shell) remains supple and healthy.

Neither Robbie nor her people find it easy to adjust to the way she moves independently of Freddie, returning to her home planet whenever she wishes and yet back with us the next morning. She also keeps the small platform Robbie made for her (she did enclose it with her coral so that the energy lasts far longer - an innovation that is bound to make the e-car far more popular if we can figure out how to manufacture the coral as required). If Lusalith sees a peculiarity in space and is curious about it, she jumps there within her platform and if she thinks it may be of interest, she shares with us and the scientists. Robbie feels strange to us when she does so, for he is so accustomed to being everyone’s protector that he is left feeling unsettled by her, especially as she is a child.

I had a good reason for the prologue about Lusalith. She sensed an oddity and jumped to a solar system. She returned broadcasting her excitement. “From a distance I saw that the sun has clouds. I was excited at being the one to make such an important discovery so I jumped closer to examine the clouds. The clouds are not of moisture as ours are - Robert, they are made up of tiny creatures.”

“They live in the atmosphere of the sun?”

“No, they orbit the sun at about half the distance Mercury orbits your sun. The sun is a darker yellow and not as hot as yours.”

“What do these creatures live on? They probably photo-synthesise as our plants do, but they should need chemicals and some kind of moisture.”

Diana said, “Not necessarily Robert, as a matter of fact, I’m certain they do not need any kind of moisture - there is no way they could exist that close to the sun if they do need moisture.”

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Freddie jumped to the solar system, but kept his distance so that our gravity does not affect the clouds. Not only scientists are curious, so Robbie is kept busy providing platforms for everyone to visit the clouds. The ‘creatures’ do not seem to mind the platforms flying into the clouds they form and we are grateful for the platforms, as it soon became obvious that the clouds are siphoning the energy they are made of. The wispy creatures turn a darker almost black colour for a short time when they’ve taken some of the platform energy - the opposite of what we’d expect.

The ‘creatures’ that make up the clouds are so obviously alive, reacting to our presence by their movements and dancing so beautifully to the solar winds, that we thought the scientists had made a mistake when they told us that the ‘creatures’ are not alive in any sense that we use the word. The ‘creatures’ are chemical clumps or sludge created from the soup of chemicals the space of this solar system is filled with. The sun has no planets and one theory is that the mass of matter-energy that should have coalesced into planets is what provides the area with such a rich diversity of chemicals. Experiments have proven that the ‘creatures’ are reacting to our energy, gravity, static electricity and probably other factors we are not aware of, as can be predicted by certain mechanical rules. Despite the proof, we find it difficult not to think of the ‘creatures’ as being alive. The Inguel told us that this solar system would be ideal for them to grow their ‘space trees’ as the sun is gentler than ours and the soupy space would be a rich source of nutrition. Robbie suggested we search for solar systems that meet the criteria within our own realities. The Inguel were touched by his suggestion as they’d expected him to ‘remind’ them that they are not supposed to spread to other solar systems.

Lusalith was a little bit depressed to find out that the clouds of creatures are not alive, but she perked up (mostly because she was amused) when Dommi told her that this solar system is now named after her. Although her people have such a strong interest in earning glory, they have not invented the idea of naming things or events after themselves and our habit of doing so amuses them and other species. It does seem to be an idea that is catchy so I guess the day will come when they all do it.

A few eyebrows were raised when I said that I hope we do not find a sapient species. I feel that the only reason this a-reality has turned out to be good is because there are no intelligent species capable of being selfish and cruel. I wish I was just being cynical.

Freddie took a long jump out of the galaxy so that we can get a bird’s eye view of whatever could be of interest. We each took guesses as to what the scientists would want to see. Robbie chose the center of the galaxy as it is very bright, but with a dark streak running through it. Cherine chose a sun that seems to alternate in colour between green and purple (most of us backed Cherine’s choice). Bernie chose a system where seventeen suns are in a furious orbit around each other and they are losing tiny sparks of matter that could be future planets. None of us noticed what the scientists did.

They chose an area close to the heart of the galaxy where the solar systems are tightly packed. The area they picked does not have any suns and seems to be a dark hole without it holding a black hole (they can tell since no energy is being drawn in from the neighbouring suns). (R: Everyone had a good laugh thanks to Sam. Lucy asked Laura why an empty spot was of more interest than other phenomena chosen by us and Sam quickly cut in so as to tease. “Lucy, it was stupid of all of us not to notice such an important anomaly. Do you know why it is empty? Look at the area and you’ll notice that it is big enough to hold at least six solar systems - and that is exactly what it does hold. The scientists realised that the suns in there are the rarest kind of suns anywhere - they give off negative light.” The reason I say we all had a good chuckle - the scientists went off to be by themselves to discuss the possibility of Sam being right. Lol )

Nobody is laughing anymore and now this a-reality is not as well-liked as it was. We have been within the empty area for five months now with spaceships, platforms and even souls exploring the area, looking for an explanation that makes sense. With the movement of the galaxy, the twisting and turning within it of solar systems and spirals, this empty space is an impossibility - unless something is keeping it empty. This morning we gathered to be given the latest theories and facts. Their emoting was grim as they prepared to give us their theories.

“The first clue was the background radiation. By itself it was not enough to hint at the truth, but by examining the surrounding solar systems and their planets, we think a picture is now emerging that is extremely disturbing. In a sense Samantha was right, if certain assumptions are accepted, we believe this area held four solar systems. If we may also borrow from Samantha her terminology, the four solar systems were a family. They seem to have been closer to each other than is usual and they also seem to have been in orbit around the main system that had a sun that must have been hostile to any life existing within its own system for it is estimated to have been at least a thousand times bigger than your sun Sol.”

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There was an excited buzz as everyone offered their own theories or questioned what we’d been told. Robbie asked, “Does the evidence show that the big sun pulled in the other suns?”

“As we said earlier, most of the evidence was found in the surrounding systems. Robert, whatever happened here seems to have sterilised all the surrounding systems and those behind them. As a first estimate, over four hundred solar systems were sterilised. We do not know whether any of them had any forms of life at that time.”

Robbie’s face froze and his voice lacked all emotion and life as he asked, “What is the evidence you found and what does it prove?”

“We found the remains of military bases on numerous planets surrounding this area. From the records and destruction found there, it seems one of the species was at war with all the others and they developed a method for dispersing the atoms of the suns and planets to distant parts of this universe. The after-effect was an immense explosion of radiation that sterilised all the surrounding area. Robert, we need to examine solar systems further out to learn exactly how large an area was killed off.”

In a hollow voice, Robbie said, “They destroyed their own people, their own home world and solar system just to win the war?” Within seconds Cherine was on his lap and everyone sorrowfully left us alone with our close friends. None of us could find any words to heal Robbie, so we concentrated on sending our love.

Sam again. They’ve left you to me since you will not answer them. First of all, allow me to tell you that I find your offer very deléastiko (tempting) as I also fear the way they are changing us. However, even should we have the power to do as you want and seal ourselves off from them, we must never do so. We have one soul from there and she is growing with love as her guide and her soul is reaching out so that one day she too will be a Cherinian. If she can, then so can many others. We will not turn our backs on them. As Cherine said, we will grow stronger (and hopefully wiser) without turning inwards towards selfishness and cruelty. Please trust us Arthur.

We have shared with everyone in Freddie and they all have asked us to pass on messages. Mostly they tell of how proud they feel that you have decided to trust them, but that they also feel loved. Do you see Arthur (?) we really are not like the people of your reality.

While the above discussions went on with Arthur, two days passed our side. Everyone was feeling down - not depressed, just slightly down. I think of it as being like an arrow flying without a target. I had read something that stuck in my mind, so, in the hopes of stimulating our minds with a discussion, I asked. “I read that when meteorites are examined, sometimes atoms with alien isotopic ratios are found. Am I right in presuming it means that before the solar system formed, while it was still a solar nebula, material from a previous solar system or a long dead star in the vicinity blended with the local material being formed?”

“You have presumed correctly Samantha and it has been a part of our standard tests for a long time when we explore a new solar system. You had a question?”

“Sort of. Have you ever found a large enough chunk of alien atoms for you to look for atoms alien to them, atoms from a time before their star was born? Wouldn’t that give us a method for comparing and finding whatever differences there are in the different times?”

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“I would imagine the likelihood of us finding such a large chunk, I’m speaking of a few tens of millions of atoms which is negligible in size, is close to impossible. Such a search would be extremely expensive and pointless since we can find meteorites from the various generations by examining matter between solar systems and even between the galaxies.”

Robbie, Diana, Claudia and (I admit I was surprised) Gina were captivated by the idea of finding matter from different generations of galaxies and asked where Freddie should go to find them. The answers excited me.

“Dad, if we can find them in this reality, and then return to one of our own to collect some there and then compare three generations not only against each other, but also against their twin from the other reality, we might find important differences.” The idea excited the scientists also so the search began.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but I’m just as excited as everyone else. Arthur, the conclusions we’ve arrived at are weird and we have to know for certain whether we are right or not, so we are going back in time. I guess I better explain; we only found a few examples of a previous generation, but they are not of previous galaxies, just of older solar systems! Robbie offered to take us one billion years into the past as the scientists feel it is likelier previous generations of matter will be more abundant at that time. Why do I feel I might want to cry? What if there are none, but our reality has at least three generations? Does it mean our realities are older than yours? How can that be? Can you really assume we existed before your realities did? Would it be a paradox? If it is, could we go far back in time to a date when your realities did not exist and assume the existence of your realities? I love the idea, it means we could pay you back for assuming our existence - hmm, should we call your set of realities ‘Cherine’s Revenge’?

The scientists are in raptures and are working non-stop. They are finding so many differences between the a-realities and ours that it is astounding their brains are not exploding from their excitement. We are all like children in our enthusiasms and I can guess that Robbie will soon offer to return another billion years.

I was asked not to write for you until we have proof of what we believe. Arthur, since I last wrote we have returned another billion years nine times - we are slightly more than eleven billion years in your past! We dare not return any further as the universe is barely tolerable as it is at this time. If we did not have the void to visit we would have had to instantly jump forward in time. Arthur, your realities came into existence thirteen point eight billion years in your past!

When we arrive to collect you, we will present to the scientists of your world all the visual and documentary proof we’ve collected. Seeing so many brand new galaxies and so many still forming, it is a wondrous sight - really awesome! I can’t even begin to describe what we are seeing, but I can tell you that despite all our shielding, if not for the coral lacework in our shields, FTS would have been a dead place. The radiations bombarding us are really fierce.

We decided we should not stay any longer, as the radiation levels within Freddie are rising and we do not want our ecology to be affected. One more item of interest Arthur. Both Robbie and the Sparklers experimented and neither of them could find void energies transferring to normal space, only the other way around. It seems your scientists are right, your realities do have a set lifespan. Once we understood that, Freddie was a place of grief and tears and love and more tears. For this once, Allan is just as affected as all of us. Arthur, you twisted and changed what is or was, to make our realities as close to eternal as possible and now we have proof that you succeeded. Your realities began with the big bang and ours did not, ours has existed for as far back as we can imagine it did and will survive far beyond yours.

We arrived in our reality with euphoria still burning within our hearts and spiralling throughout our minds, so it was only natural that we announced our discoveries immediately. It amused all of us, especially the scientists who’d performed the experiments, when the Terran scientists, astronomers and so on behaved as if they were affronted by our news. They did not dispute the proof provided, but the need for changes in their way of thinking upset them.

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The photos and film footage of the galaxies only two and a half billion years after the big bang had to be uploaded to dozens of sites as the demand for them would have crashed the servers. At almost every chat show, even where no Cherinian was present, everyone earnestly pleaded for another expedition as close to the big bang era as possible. Robbie gave in and promised a new trip will be undertaken as soon as he succeeds in designing and building a new platform or spaceship that can survive the harsh ranges of radiation. Most species announced they are designing new equipment for examining or testing conditions in space or within the galaxies being formed. When asked how close to the big bang Robbie hoped to visit, he stunned all the scientists. A strengthened Freddie, with the scientists, artists, poets and so on will travel to a period of one billion four hundred million years after the big bang. We will then launch an unmanned vessel with equipment for examining conditions five hundred million years after the big bang. The vessel will remain there for one year and a heavily shielded spaceship equipped with grav-lock, with only one person inside will jump to it, grab it and jumping a hundred million years back into the future it will leave it there for a year for experiments to be continued. In the meantime the one man ship will have downloaded all the data and that will be passed on to the main ship before returning to move the unmanned ship another hundred million years into the future. Six such trips will take place and then the unmanned ship will be brought back for the scientists to devise a plethora of experiments. Just the experiments based on examining the effects of radiation, fluctuating gravity fields and, possibly, fluctuating time, will keep hundreds of scientists busy for decades. It is believed that space warps to greater extremes than it does now and at far greater frequency with time sometimes reversing itself backwards and forwards for milliseconds, which means the unmanned vessel will be subjected to immense stresses. I should mention that it is planned that the outside shield will have hundreds of strips of various metals, crystals, plastics, ceramics and other synthetic products with most of them attached to leads that report to computers deep inside the ship.

The three ships are being built close by Noelle, but most of the technology comes from the Unation with the various coral layers being provided by Lusalith. It is estimated they will need four years to create the prototypes which will be tested (to destruction) by flying them into the sun. With what they learn from that, they’ll design and build the three vessels to be used. Those vessels will all have to survive flights deep into the atmosphere of Jupiter. If successful, a side benefit is that we will learn a lot about conditions within Jupiter.

The only question that was not discussed was the identity of the person flying-jumping the shielded ship between the unmanned vessel and the main spaceship. Everyone expects it to be Robbie, but they also expect us to fight him so they’re keeping quiet and waiting to hear from us. In turn, we are waiting to see how Cherine reacts.

While we stayed in our Athens home, visited friends, attended various charity functions and jumped to alternate Earths to visit our families and friends, we kept ourselves (psychically) stretched to the maximum in an effort to sense the person who’d delivered the psychic cloth to us. We have a lot of questions to ask him and we believe he poses a threat to our realities if he really does come from an a-reality. Michael, Dimi and many other Cherinians have also kept themselves on alert in the hopes of finding him. It seems he must have jumped back to his own reality, as he has not been sensed in any of our own.

Dommi’s birthday has always been special to all of us, but with so many others also celebrating on the same day it is now a very important date for us. As a reminder, these are the people celebrating their birthdays on the 14th of November:

The only way we (I) can recover without getting soppy, is to continue with the news. Next (PC) year Cherine will be sixty years old and we have been given notice by all, Normals and Cherinians, that they intend celebrating her birthday with parties in all the realities. As is customary, all Cherines are treated as being the same age on that day so a lot of birthday presents will have to be bought .

7779

Goldi gave all of us a big fright yesterday. Most of us like to meditate on a fairly regular basis, so none of us paid Goldi much attention when she sank into herself. Time passed and we wondered why she was meditating for such a long time since nothing had happened to need time or great depth for unsnarling our psyche. Then Robbie began to panic, feeling she is in great danger.

The shock to the body and soul if disturbed during a deep meditation precluded our forcing her back to reality. That means we cannot even enter the mind. Since Robbie was in a panic this qualified as an emergency, so we decided Dommi should enter her mind from the time she went into meditation. She left for the void with Robbie for him to carry her back in time.

They have returned and Dommi still has the shakes. With Goldi tightly held to her (now) she explained. “Goldi sank into her meditation in the usual way, as all of us do. She was floating as close to non-thought as possible when an idea flashed across her mind. Curious, but also attracted by the idea, she formed a dark cliff and standing at the edge she dived. She imagined the area beyond the cliff as only being space without end. As she sank she saw images flash by her, images from her past and others that were only imaginary - at least I hope so. She saw lands float by as if they rested on the upper surface of clouds. Gradually the images lessened and Goldi sank even deeper into non-thought. She was at such a depth of peace and oneness with the dark emptiness that it felt to me as if she were dissolving, becoming one with the emptiness, the void.” She fiercely hugged Goldi and after kissing her face she said to her, “Don’t ever do that again! How would we live if we lost you?”

Robbie had not returned with them and only after everyone had recovered and held Goldi for a short while did he return. He told us that he’d had a conversation with Solomon and Adam, asking them their opinion as to whether Goldi had really been in danger. Solomon admitted he does not know, but Adam told Robbie that we would not have lost Goldi, that she was at all times within her mind and would have returned. Robbie does not agree and still feels she was in danger - or rather, that we were in danger of losing her. I don’t want to be influenced by Robbie’s fears and I do not accept that Adam is knowledgeable enough to justify his being so confident of his opinion. I withdrew once I’d had my turn of holding Goldi, Dommi and Robbie so as to think it through on my own.

I’ve spent a few hours thinking and I find that I tend to agree with Adam; however deeply I’ve sunk into myself during meditation, I’ve never had a problem with identifying the need to return to my body - the body does call me back. However, I cannot dismiss Robbie’s fears either, I trust his instincts. I sent a message and asked to meet the Dalai Lama.

With two others sitting by him he listened as I explained what had happened and the confusion I felt. As I finished talking I sensed from the other two that they had seen the answer to my question and that it pleased them. The Dalai Lama remained silent for a long time. When he opened his eyes and stared into mine I saw he was tightly controlling himself.

“What you have described does not have one simple answer Samantha. For a soul that has arrived at true perfection, such an achievement would signal that the soul is becoming the light, one with all the levels and has no further need to return. For us, such an achievement would fill us with joy and encourage us when our spirit is flagging. Samantha, Goldi would not have been lost to your family, she would have been part of the all and therefore a part of you. Your beliefs are not the same as ours, so I regret I must admit that the instincts of Robert are right, if her soul had dissolved, according to your ways of thinking, she would have been lost to you for a long time - until you all achieve the same degree of perfection and no longer need to return to a material existence.” He did not glance at his companions and yet I sensed he next spoke for their sakes also. “The Mother interfered so as to bring back her daughter and that is how it should be and yet, for us, what has happened is a tragedy. For a soul to achieve such perfection and yet be recalled to this life for the sake of others tempts us to feel grief for the sacrifice made out of love. We would be wrong. The soul that attains that perfection sees far more clearly than we can and if it saw reasons for it to heed the call and return, then it has seen that it still has something to learn. Samantha, we have felt the soul of Goldi and known of her purity for a long time and yet, we ask, could she visit us for our people to sense her and be strengthened in their own pursuit of attaining perfection?”

I grinned, not that I felt like smiling, I was too filled with awe for our Goldi. “When I tell her why you’re inviting her, she’ll feel too embarrassed to come - don’t worry, I’ll bring her.”

What we did was whimsical, but people reacted by sending tens of millions of e-mails. When the cities where Christmas is celebrated dressed themselves for the season in sparkling colours filled with life, Robbie and Freddie got into the spirit of the season and FTS was moved into a closer orbit and energies of many colours from the void were shaped and FTS was dressed in strings of coloured lights that stretched out for twenty thousand kilometres on either side. The effect was nothing like a Christmas tree but it was beautiful and as I’ve indicated, it touched many hearts.

7780

It is March and I still have little to write about. We feel we should be travelling, but Robbie is often needed for helping with the spaceships being created by the various alien species. Lusalith returns to her home world as often as she feels she needs to, but she also has to be available, as the scientists keep on coming up with new ways of utilising her coral for strengthening the ships and probes. Apparently they are even using the coral in the lenses of the cameras so that the electronic equipment are not as quickly affected by radiation.

I had decided not to write until we have left, but something happened that is worth writing about. Some beautiful resorts have been built on the Island of Timor. They are mostly popular with Cherinians as flying by commercial airplanes is still time consuming. A Cherinian enthusiastically shared with us a cove he and his wife discovered and they suggested we buy the land and use it for ourselves as we’d have privacy. We leased the land and Robbie asked us to create shelters from natural products for us to lie and snooze in the shade when we want to. He refused to build anything of a permanent nature, even though the government gave us permission to build as we wish.

We enjoy going there when it is winter in Athens and sometimes we’ll jump to neighbouring islands for a meal. This time we decided to jump to Broome, a town on the North Western seacoast of Australia. The locals immediately recognised us (not many men travel around with fifty odd little girls) and we were warmly greeted by those who spoke to us. We found a fish restaurant on the beach just outside of town and enjoyed a nice meal. As Robbie sat back with a smile we sensed a man approaching us. Robbie’s mind sharpened with interest and then he told us not to interfere. The horrified Normals saw the man pull out a pistol which he aimed at Robbie and there was the sound of a shot. Robbie’s body convulsed and fell off the chair to the ground, bright blood all over the front of his shirt. Not really understanding what Robbie wanted, we sat as if stunned, waiting to ‘hear’ from him. Perversely he remained silent, forcing us to try and guess how we should react. The man walked up to Robbie’s body and looked down at it with a satisfied look, as if he’d achieved something to be proud of. The shouts and screams of men and women, the certainty that the police will have been called, none of it seemed to be relevant, his only interest being in staring at the corpse lying before him. Cherine grimaced and walked over to him.

“Why?”

“I had to, he was an evil man. Anybody who is willing to hurt other people is evil, but those who get pleasure from hurting others are worse. The worst are those who hurt and destroy children. The world is a better place without him.”

“That is Robert Teller.”

He nodded. “I know, that’s why I used a silver bullet. You are free of him now, go back to your parents.” He paused. “Do you need help to find them? Maybe the Anadir can help?”

Cherine shook her head, “Robert is not a vampire, silver bullets cannot kill him.” She looked at some of us and they quickly went to stop the police from approaching. “I am Cherine, what is your name?”

“John. To me it looks like silver did stop him.” His eyes lost their focus, as if staring deep into the ground beneath. In a haunted whisper he asked, “They’ll never stop, will they?”

Cherine hesitated. “The children?” He did not respond, his mind far from us. Her voice was very gentle as she told him, “John, I’m going to take you to Greece to meet a friend of mine. Don’t be afraid, I’m only going to touch you to teleport us.” He nodded and Cherine took him to Dr Maria who was expecting them.

Candy stood over Robbie and after ridding his shirt of the blood she sat on him. “Cher is going to be angry with you.”

He grinned and pulled her face down for a kiss. “She won’t love, she can feel John.” He stood up with Candy held to him and went to apologise to the police and the Normals who’d had a fright, thinking he’d really been hurt. He explained that John is a nice person, but thanks to suffering and loneliness he is living in a world of his own and needs help, not punishment. He promised that John will be returned as soon as he is healed. We paid for the lunch and jumped back to our home in Athens. Cherine was waiting for us and she was soon back on Robbie’s lap from where she pretended to scold him.

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