Little Cherine Book 08 - BPost030
Okay. Everyone agrees. Will we be gone for long?I’m not certain I should trust you to provide a nice skeleton for us. Just teasing, I’ll ask.
5191
When everyone heard Arthur would be taking the family on a new adventure for an indefinite time, they were tempted to ask to go with, but they then worried he might keep them away for too long, so they decided to stay to help Jeskine and Orgg. The Normals were all enjoying being on the world of Jeskine and hardly noticed when they were told Freddie is going away for a while. Of Terran Cherinians, only Allan and his family and Christós stayed. Apart from the Akiards and their families, a few Inguel scientists, the Elipians and a group of Sparklers and Kinytians, only the Wirms in Freddie stayed since they were still not allowed to visit the planet below. All the alien spaceships left Freddie to wait in normal space.
Prudently Robert first ordered Freddie back into the void as they had been parked in normal space for a long time. Becoming the void he drew in energies to reinforce the outer and inner hulls and then they jumped to a different reality so that time would not be passing for the others while they waited for Arthur to send them on their way.
By the time they were eating their supper that evening they were joking that he could not think up a good adventure and they’d be stuck there for weeks.
Their anticipation, excitement and being able to relax from the work with the Neans, soon had them in a playful mood which became amorous. Samantha got carried away by the mood everyone was in and she was soon burning with her need to be making love. Gladly Robert grabbed her to him and tenderly filled her face with kisses. His tenderness quickly turned to passion, becoming one fire that burned within both of them and lit all the bodies around them. The next morning the girls teased Sam, saying she had made up for lost time.
They played games, talked, weeded the garden, had a swim in their pool and then lay alongside it, enjoying the warm breezes that kissed their bodies tenderly. Soon most of them were asleep.
Angelica had a dream. Her dream mind spoke to Freddie, showing him a reality and told him to take them there. Freddie could sense the reality was far out of the mainstream and as he jumped he showed Robert. Instantly both Robert and Vincent became alert. Angelica woke up.
“Did I really…”
“That was quite a dream! Arthur sure found a strange way to start us off. Do you remember what you saw about the new reality?”
“Not really, I only sensed it was strange.”
“Girls, be ready for a surprise. This reality must be removed from ours, what I think of as the mainstream realities, at least a million times. I’d say we are definitely on our way to some new adventures.”
Freddie was travelling in the void so it was only natural he arrive in the void. Robert went out to the void when Freddie reported a tingling ‘feeling’ in his outer hull. Solomon was waiting for him when he returned.
“I could not sense any forms of life, but as the void I saw something new. Among the streams of energy I saw some that seem to me to be an odd mixture of shades of green!” He allowed them to share his memories and they saw a green stream. At the heart of it the green was so pale it bordered on white and at its outer limits the green changed to a dark emerald colour. One other aspect of it was fascinating. Whereas the other streams of energy hold their positions steadily, moving from their paths slowly and over a great time, unless they collide with another stream, the green ones flicker, dancing about the void, never touching the other streams, but giving the impression they are searching for something as they wend their way among the other streams in sudden bursts.
Solomon exclaimed. “This has been seen by the eldest among us!”
“I was cautious about manipulating it, are there any further details about it in your racial memory?”
“I will return.”
When he did, he almost looked dejected. “There is no knowledge of what it is. If a Sparkler is touched by the green energy it explodes.”
“If there was green energy in our reality, where did it go to?”
5192
“Maybe if we know where it comes from, we’ll know where it went to?” Jade asked, hopefully.
Robbie laughed. “I’m not racing across the void endlessly to find its origin.”
“I wonder if I’m right.” Angel half said to herself. She realised she’d spoken aloud when she felt everyone waiting for her. “Robert, your crystal coffin and the energy it drew, could this be like that, another plane leaking the green energy into this void?”
“If that is so, I’m staying far away from it.”
Angel grabbed Solomon’s hand. “The Sparklers that exploded, did they really explode or were they sent to another plane?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m going to find out someday.” She glanced nervously at Sam and relaxed when she saw she is not upset.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Laura asked.
“Let’s take a look at normal space. Freddie, on the screens please?”
They stared. “I’m not certain I recognise the galaxy. Does anyone else?” No one answered him. “It looks different from ours, slightly larger, as if it has more suns! Yet it is far too similar in many ways. If it is our galaxy, its history must have been different, preserving systems our galaxy has lost.”
“Why don’t we go to the closest sun?” Dommi suggested. “Maybe it has a new species for us to meet.”
While Robbie had a coffee and cigarette, they watched as the solar system expanded on their screens. An Akiard kid appeared close by the taverna and then all sixteen of them were there with their parents soon appearing, trying to shepherd them away from us. Cherine waved for them to come to us.
“This is also their adventure, please let them stay.”
eiu who was wrapped around Samantha’s hand vanished. Within minutes she returned and just as suddenly Sam was covered in dozens of Wirms, all trying to keep their eye in position to stare into hers. Silently everyone watched, even the kids not moving. Sam sighed and the Wirms left, only her friend staying.
“They tried to wish Arthur here.”
Athia’s face beamed. “That was clever! I wish I’d thought of it. Can’t they wish themselves to him?”
“Nothing happens when they do.” She hesitated and then admitted, “They say it is as if they are trying to wish themselves to someone who only exists in a dream.”
Cassie clapped, deliberately pretending she did not feel Sam, hoping she would help cheer her up. “Someone who exists in a dream used a dream to send us on an adventure! Wow!”
Luckily we arrived fairly close to the Istringal, for they are their own sun, in a way, and we would not have recognised the oddness of their ‘sun’ from any greater distance. Freddie was the first to become curious about the pale sun and once he had pointed it out to us, all the scientists rushed to aim their instruments at it, so Robbie decided we’ll stay where we are until after lunch.
After lunch, as we were enjoying our baked custard, we sensed the exclamations from the scientists as Freddie told us, “Robert, the sun suddenly swelled by about twenty percent and then a part of it separated!” We felt that Robbie was not troubled by his protector instincts, so we remained relaxed, watching the part which had separated grow in size. It took a while for us to realise something strange is happening - which awoke Robbie's instincts.
Angelica was the first to realise. “Robert, the ripples are not caused by them travelling, they are taking turns in fading and brightening so as to cause the ripple effect. I think they are trying to hypnotise us.”
5193
Robbie left his body and we did the same, but following at a distance so as not to force him to concentrate on protecting us. He soon arrived by them and diving in, floating among them. He let us share from his mind.
It was only once we were back in the taverna that Jade identified what was odd about what we had seen. “They have bodies, limbs, mouth and eyes, from what I can recognise, they do not seem to be only decorative, they seem to serve a purpose, but, has anyone else noticed that their bodies are not made of matter? I think they are only creatures of energy.”
Sol shook her head, “No, Solomon and many Sparklers have examined them closely and they say the bodies are made of matter."
Robbie asked all the other species who had gone to examine the aliens and they admitted that as soon as Jade mentioned that their bodies are made of energy, they recognised the truth of it. They are now troubled by the Sparklers seeing them as being creatures of solid matter.
Latreia asked, “Could it be that they have hypnotised us into seeing them as being what we want to be? Surely we are not influenced by our survival instincts?”
Robyn shook her head. “No, I think that they have too much matter for the Sparklers to think of them as being made of energy, while they are too tenuous for us to think of them as beings of matter.” Robbie's emoting was reward enough for her - not that we’ll let it be so…tonight.
Coral vacated her seat, which was next to Robbie, and Ashiir sat down. We could sense she was lost in her thoughts, but it did not stop her from leaning against the arm of Robbie and resting her head for a moment on his shoulder in affection. She then spoke of what is troubling her. “The bands of brightening and darkening run or pulse across their bodies very quickly, like your lasers in your club - and yet, watching them from a distance, it is seen as happening at a much slower rate. It seems they are able to synchronise their pulsing so that the effect from a distance is of pulsing at a different rate, with the fast pulsing occurring almost invisibly. I agree with Angelica, they are trying to hypnotise us - or else it is a tactic they use for disorienting those they are attacking…or hunting.”
Robbie asked, “How many are coming at us and how many do you estimate make up the bulk of them who remained behind?”
“About fifty million are coming at us,” Freddie replied, “But it is impossible to estimate how many make up their sun-shape…is it a sphere, for instance, or is it disk shaped?”
“The odds are that they are sphere shaped, but knowing that does not enable us to estimate their numbers, since we do not know whether the sphere is filled or hollow.”
I grinned.” Ashiir, it is easy to work out. We have seen individuals - Freddie can zoom in close enough for us to estimate the strength of their glow. For the sphere to look like a solid sun and for it to be as bright as it is, surely we can calculate the minimum number of layers required? I’m more interested in how long they will take to begin to pulsate.”
“We are too far away for them to consider us a threat…so why would they pulsate?”
I asked Claudia, “Is the pulsing of those who are drawing close to us beginning to feel like a method of communication?” I put up my hand. “I know, of course it is, I meant, are they trying to speak to us?” I glanced at Robbie. “Will it upset you if it turns out they are not sentient? I mean, what with them having souls.”
“Good god! You’re right!” He gave me a slight smile. “I would prefer they be sentient.”
I was too filled with wonder to be patient of his teasing and shook my head. “It would be more interesting if they are not, for then it either means that in this reality non-sentient creatures have souls, or else, it means they are close to becoming sentient, which will be like a miracle for us…for the scientists mainly. Think, to be present at a time life is crossing the line, from non-sentience to sentience!”
Robbie stared at me through slitted eyes, pretending to be mean to me, “You explain why we are going to spend thousands of years here to Arthur. You are going to break his heart - he was looking forward to writing about an adventure, not about Cherinian nursemaids.” Of course, everyone thought he is hilarious, so I had to firmly keep my lips from smiling with them, so that they can enjoy his teasing of me.
5194
I think Robbie is now teasing the Istringal (I did not mention, we gave them the name, but if they do communicate, we’ll change it to their real name). They came closer to us than they should have, about twenty kilometres from the outer shield of Freddie, obviously intending to make us uncomfortable so that we back off, just like a school bully does (sorry, I’ve only seen it in Robbie's memories and in movies, but it serves well for illustrating what it felt like). Throughout the confrontation, they continued to flash their hypnotic effects - unfortunately for them, it does not work with Cherinians.
Two days later, they stopped flashing and began to withdraw. Robbie followed them, so they rushed back at us, flashing even more urgently. They waited another two days, to make their point, I guess, then really got upset when we followed them again.
During all the above, we kept testing them, but when we went among them as souls, they did not sense us. We do see them in the void, but they ignore the Sparklers and all of us - as if they cannot see us. Robbie did not want to take Freddie into the void as he is not entirely comfortable with them. He feels that they are not exactly behaving as non-sentients, but also not as sentients - and he has always preferred that everything has a place where it belongs - what is it they used to say? He can’t pigeonhole them, so they must remain a threat?
By now everyone has taken a trip to their main sun-like body and we estimate they number over ten billion, maybe even up to fifteen - it is difficult for the computers to make an estimate, as they constantly move and we cannot see all of them at any one moment.
Diana has been searching among the alien species who are with us, but none of them have copies of their data from the days of having bodies; even what we recovered for the Anadir, remains in Noelle; it is a pity the Unation ships are not with us, she might have found the information she wants from their historical or nature documentaries. She is trying to find examples of other species, sentient or not, that try or manage to hypnotise their prey. The only obvious one that we know of is the cobra and when certain animals stare at their intended victim in the eyes. I am told the yellow-amber eyes of a wolf staring at you with obvious concentration, can be quite disconcerting.
We suddenly felt her intense excitement and she asked to meet us at the taverna. By us gathering there, many others came out of curiosity. She had her laptop with her and turned it to show us the screen. The video began and we also gasped with amazement. The video is a documentary called ‘Kings of Camouflage’ and it is about cuttlefish. Not only can they camouflage themselves, they also scroll lines of light and darkness over their surface like a disco laser, in an obvious attempt to hypnotise.
Diana laughed. “Arthur must have seen this video and decided he wants to create aliens like them - the movie even calls them aliens at the start…”
Arthur, by keeping quiet, you are admitting she is right?
I don’t know what to believe - Arthur has tricked me a number of times and this species is just too obviously a setup. Another point in my favour - we never, ever, name a species, unless we are certain it is not sentient. It must have been his assuming!
We are strictly limited in the number of ways we can try to provoke responses from the Istringal, for we cannot judge what they can withstand, both as physical and energy beings. Agapi said to Sol that it feels like they should be like the Sparklers and live in the void and Sol responded by saying that to the Sparklers they feel as if they should only live in normal space - and they do not understand how they can have souls, which is true for us also, since to us, at times they look and feel like souls.
5195
Robbie said, “When we speak of a reality being distant from ours, so distant that the differences must have accumulated, with further differences caused by those changes, can we really enter a reality like this one and consider it as being an alternate reality? Naming it an alternate reality suggests it is different in some ways, so that we tend to try to search out and understand the differences, whereas, it might lead to us understanding it better if we think of it as being a reality which has certain similarities to ours, but otherwise is totally different. We cannot extrapolate what the differences are and how they came about, for these differences came about out of differences that caused differences - who knows how many times.”
Sol nodded. “It is one of the problems the Sparklers have with all the various peoples of material bodies. For instance, early in the life of your solar system, life was basically of one ‘species’. Examining that one-celled being, how does anyone extrapolate and understand how it became…you…and spiders, for instance.”
Dommi smiled. “Perhaps this was the true intention of Arthur, that we break out of our mental cocoons and explore new ways of thinking?” I liked what she said, but knowing my Arthur, I doubt he did much more than try to provide us with a new stage where we can have the kind of adventures he cannot even imagine for us.
Robbie sensed me, for he asked, with a slightly teasing smile, “Well Samantha, can you think of any new ways of thinking that can help us understand the Istringal?”
“No, for that sort of thing, you would do better to ask Athia. I prefer to stick to my more prosaic strategy of analysing the details so as to generate pictures…in the hope one of the pictures will turn into a work of art.” I grinned. “For instance, why is it the Istringal have chosen this part of their galaxy? Which factors make this the ideal spot for them?”
“You do not think they evolved here? You think they came from somewhere else?”
“I have no idea - but why don’t we generate theories starting from both the possibilities? I am fascinated by our problem of identifying…categorising them as either energy or physical beings. How else can we think of them, or are there only the two possibilities?”
One of the scientists said, “I can think of a third one - what if they are neither; just ideas? They resemble what I see when I visit other minds.”
I flushed with pleasure. “That would make the individuals, thoughts, with the sum of them a mind.”
We felt Haven struggle with an idea, some concept she felt is alien to her, or maybe troubles her in some way, for her mind tended to snap shut at each attempt, rather than open for her to see more deeply, so we fell silent, waiting for her.
“When my people were only souls, we did not have a void World like you do, we were more like parts…cells…as if our entity were the body and we the cells, or it was the soul and we just the motes. Yet we each had our thoughts, our fears and nightmares.”
We went home with a number of disturbing, but exciting ideas for us to toss and turn over. I did not like the way Haven’s idea feels, so I mostly concentrated on the idea of them being ideas. What I think appealed to me, about this theory, is that we are then talking about ideas which are non-sentient. Can you imagine how it will mess up all our theories?
As she buttered her toast, Maria asked me, “Can we ask Arthur if any of our guesses last night are right?”
Diana cut in, “You can’t do that! it would be rude!”
Robbie chuckled. “That has never stopped Samantha before. Why would it be rude, he is also a part of our adventure.”
“He has already told us he does not know - if we ask, it will be as if we are saying we don’t believe him!”
I softly corrected her, “No love, he was mainly talking about the cuttlefish, thus implying he does not know anything about this species, it is the way he likes to mess with our minds. It’s just a game he plays, Diana.”
5196
Cherine cut in, “Diana, we will not ask him, not as was suggested, but since Sam is going to write about our conversation anyway,” Diana’s face paled, she had forgotten, “Samantha can write about it as soon as we’ve had our breakfast. We’ll then leave it to him to answer on not, as he wishes.”
So, after that superfluous last sentence, here we are, at our present. Are you going to comment, Arthur?
5197
There goes my chance, now I can’t ask about the Istringal – I’m not being serious, I’m just relieved he has told us what was bothering him, though it is odd that he blew up over something he has shared with us before. I guess he just needed – and I don’t blame him. Thank god we have been able to prevent the worst of what is happening in our reality, I would hate to belong to his reality. When he started, we thought we’ll need to spend days on calming him down and arguing him out of his need to hurt those of the Cabal. Despite us knowing him so well, he still manages to surprise us. He simmers over whatever is upsetting him for a long time and then when he explodes, we think we will need days of arguing and soothing him, but once he has spoken of what was-is hurting him, he suddenly tries to calm us down!
5198
As is usually the case, among all he said, there were a few good ideas, plus some not so good, but which guided us towards new ideas which we think are good. Luckily we are not returning to Claire’s reality right now, so by the time we do visit, we will have calmed and given more thought to our decisions of the present. I’m not certain it is good for us to do so all the time; we must, sometimes, strike immediately because our sense of outrage demands we do. Otherwise, we could end up like those politically correct zombies who no longer think for themselves, because they are so busy nitpicking at what they feel, instead of trying to think. (Arthur, delete what I said from your end; I have no wish to offend any of your readers.)
The Istringal. I have the feeling that Robbie's teasing them (an effort to stimulate them so that they awaken to the need to communicate with us), is actually making their main body become neurotic, as they cannot make sense of what we are doing, because we are too alien to their way of thinking. We must find another way, we do not have the right to do this to them, even if we think it is for their own good.
Their ‘indistinct’ nature, seemingly belonging and not belonging to either the physical or spiritual world, does not trouble me as much as their inability to see us as souls. Everyone is just as puzzled as I am, even the Sparklers. The difference is that they cannot find an explanation, whereas I can - but I don’t like it, so I want to first make more of an effort to find an answer which can help lead us into discovering ways to communicate.
I’ve thought up an experiment, but I’ve kept it to myself, for I fear what could happen if things go wrong. With weeks going by and the frustration felt from many, I think I don’t have a choice, if it can be done with only the loss I fear as being the worst that can happen, then the decision is no longer mine alone.
I don’t know if my loves sensed me and called everyone, or if others also felt me and responded by arriving to be close by, so as to share directly.
“When I am in the void, I know I am made out of my motes, but I am not ever conscious of all of them, only some of them when I wish to exchange kiss or use some motes for a different reason. Solomon, if a Sparkler neutralised itself, neither causing me pain, nor pleasure, would I sense it if it takes a mote from me?”
I think he understood my thought, for he examined what he normally could not have. “It is not something we have ever thought of doing - it goes against our nature, but we can obtain an answer if one soul volunteers. I suspect that if we can attain the required degree of neutrality and only enclose the mote, the soul might not feel the absence - after all, all souls are…shedding motes all the time. If the Sparkler were to do as you once feared and strip the mote of its energy, there is a possibility the…attack would be sensed.”
Cherine asked, “Are you suggesting it is a possibility that our motes have some degree of awareness?” Even the possibility of it being so upset everyone, for we shed them by the thousands each time we are in the void - do we shed them when we are in our body? Lol, Cassie named them our spiritual dandruff, well, I found it funny.
Solomon replied, “We have not sensed awareness, but they can be imbued with something you would call a quality? Such as when you send them for exchanging your love for each other? How that happens is not understood by us, so we cannot rule out the possibility of awareness.”
I sensed how disturbed everyone is, especially Robbie, so I quickly said, “There is no awareness; we have proof of it.”
Robbie demanded, “How can there be proof? What proof, none of us have even tried to sense for awareness.”
I shook my head, “There are many kinds of proof. First of all, Solomon is worried about us sensing it, if a mote is absorbed by them; that it might feel it as an attack and send back to the main body of motes some kind of signal of fear or pain? I know that Sparklers…and countless other souls, have absorbed motes of mine, they do not store my mote within themselves as you do, they draw the emotions and energy into themselves, yet I have felt no fear or pain. I tend to think of the motes I send off as being flavoured energy…flavoured by the emotion I am feeling at that time.”
5199
Allan had been nodding as I spoke, so I was not surprised when he asked, “Where is this conversation leading us, Samantha?”
“It’s not leading any of you anywhere, but the better I understand our own motes, the more effective I am in formalising a theory which is too intricate for me to like it - you all know that I prefer simple and obvious answers to our problems, so I was finding it almost impossible to see that which I think is the truth. For instance, I think the Istringal is one entity, perhaps the only one that exists, and yet…it is simultaneously almost billions. It is not a mother soul, but there is the possibility it will grow into becoming one in the not too distant future. What I am thinking of as motes, they are not, yet they do not seem to be aware of themselves, only as a part of what the sum of them are. Hence my questions about our motes, for I do not believe our motes are aware of the soul they are a part of, not even when flavoured by very strong emotions. If there was any kind of awareness or sense of purpose, when I send a mote to another soul, but it is rejected, should it not then return to me? I do not think it has a sense of being accepted or rejected, for it has absolutely no awareness. Dad, another reason we can be confident that our motes are not aware can be accepted by all of us as proof, but not by you. If the motes leaving Cherine were aware and were dying, would you not have been uneasy, at the lightest edge of your need to protect her? Another point Solomon, when motes are sprayed out by a soul, what happens to them? Thinking back on it, I cannot see or sense them as you do, but I have always had a feeling they just fade away.
When I am emoting love or happiness and my motes are absorbed, shared, accepted as an exchange kiss, whatever, it makes me happy that they have served as messengers, enabling others to share in how I am feeling, but I have never mourned those that travelled on, perhaps becoming a part of the energy of the void.” I quickly added, for their minds were already over-excited and I wanted to make the last unspoken point. “What is awareness? For a creature to be aware, must it be self-aware? Can it be partly so? I’ve been trying to find out why we named them, since Arthur is not to blame. It struck me that to all of us, of whatever specie, we find the name is ‘right’ for them. Could it be that they think of themselves as being the Istringal, and because the name is used so often, we picked it up? If this theory is even partly right, it means they are much closer to becoming sentient beings than we had thought.”
By my offering the possibility that the Istringal entity may be evolving into a mother soul, it has become infinitely precious to everyone and plans are being created at a dizzy rate as everyone tries to work out how we can protect and nurture it, so there was no point in my continuing with my plan. Since it could take millions of years for it to evolve and for the motes to become souls, I think they will come to the realisation that there is nothing we can do. What I would suggest is that we monitor it at intervals, maybe in the thousands of years, so that we can be here when it is breaking though (being born as a mother soul?).
There is the possibility that I am wrong and that it will evolve into something I have not, or cannot even imagine at this time - won’t it be miraculous if that happens? The more intricate the weaving of all the kinds of life, the more beautiful and precious is the tapestry created.
The only laughs anyone got out of what has been said, is from my complaint about the answer not being ‘obvious’.
The Inguel asked that we give them time to grow a new kind of plant which can live for thousands of years and monitor the Istringal, they suggested they’ll need about six months. Robbie created a large platform, they transferred what they need from their laboratory and we departed, jumping to about seven months in their future. They were not ready, so we helped them restock whatever they need and jumped another five months. This time they were ready and the plants were placed at a distance, so that the Istringal do not get upset with them.
Knowing that we are leaving made everyone want to visit the Istringal main-body one last time. I guess everybody was secretly hoping they will be the one to make a breakthrough. I hope none succeed, for it must not become aware of us until is fully sapient.
The screens only showed four planets in orbit around the sun. The one planet is at the correct distance for life and it has an atmosphere. Staying in the void, Freddie moved closer so that he can zoom in on it.
“There are no souls in the void. I think there cannot be sentient life here.”
5200
Robert was curious. “Are you certain all sentient life has souls? I dare not presume it is so in this reality - not after discovering the Istringal. We’ve never visited a planet that has an atmosphere without it having any form of life, so I’m curious.”
The tip that protrudes into normal space was just outside the atmosphere and they could see pockets of vegetation on the land below them. Robert left his body and as the void shot down to the surface. A few hours later he returned.
“I have never seen anything like it! There is no animal life, not even insects, only vegetation.”
After discussing it they agreed to visit the world with Robert accompanying them as the void. He created a large platform for them and they swiftly flew down to the surface, aiming for a spot alive with plants.
The platform landed on bare sand and rock just at the edge of the vegetation. Everyone was preparing to leave the platform as Robert sheathed them, when they saw movement. With astonishment they saw the platform being surrounded by plants that are growing out of the previously dead land. Robert left the platform to take a look from outside. Without warning the platform left the surface, flying up and then hovering at two hundred metres. Robert took on his form.
“I’m sorry, we had to leave urgently, the plants were using the energy of the platform to grow. I need to bring more energy as the hull is now too thin in some areas. Do not jump to the planet, the energy I sheathed you in will be sucked from you by the plants. I cannot believe how fast they are!”
They did experiment. Even areas distant from any vegetation came alive as soon as they landed. It seems the plants do not need water (perhaps they can tap whatever they need from underground rivers?) but they react instantly to energy.
As they hovered, they saw tiny pockets of vegetation spring up and shrivel away within hours.
“Maybe they store energy from the sun until there is enough for them to grow, seed and die.”
“It’s like instant soup.” They teased Dommi, telling her she is an expert on instant soups. They were too busy joking to see where it came from, but they all turned to see what had lit up the sky. From just over the horizon there was an expanding glow. It collapsed on itself. An instinct in Robert made him send the platform shooting away when a beam of light just missed them and hit the ground. As they sped away they saw a huge forest grow where it had been plain sand and rock.
From space they were able to see the pockets of green that grew out of the beams that hit the planet and they were able to identify where the beams came from. This was the second planet from the sun and the beams came from the first one, halfway between the sun and the instant soup planet they’d just been on.
“Are they at war?”
“What? The plants?”
“No. I meant, maybe they had a war and all people died on this planet, but the others don’t know it.”
“I’m going to take a look. Wait for me here.”
As if he would be obeyed. The girls left their bodies and from the void returned to normal space to follow him. He pulled them within his energy, hoping he can shield them against whatever it is that thinks it is at war.
Carrying such a precious cargo meant Robert had to be cautious. He waited for hours before coming close enough to examine the areas he’d identified as being the origins of the beams. They could not believe what they found. From space they could see the planet is densely packed with vegetation. There are huge dark spaces which, as they drew in, turned out to be leaves.
I wish we could take back one of those leaves. I bet it would be entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest leaf ever! It must have a circumference of at least twenty kilometres!
His words excited Samantha. Why don’t we start a Cherinian Book of Records? We could also do a Strangest Book of Facts.
I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love - and should some of it be true for our reality, I hope you will love our Cherine.
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)2nd February, 2020
- posted: 2nd February, 2020
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