Little Cherine Book 04 - BPost040
“We first need to check on whether the owners are still on board. If they are, we’ll have to respect their wishes. After all, despite what seems obvious to us, this could be a massive investment by some species, created for the purpose of researching the area it is heading towards.” He mused a while. “I don’t see how we can find out, as we have not sensed any efforts by them to communicate and we cannot pass through their forcefield - we can, but only as souls.”
2491
Jade shook her head, “No, we can enter as souls, but then we can create bodies - I think you should enclose them in energy fields so that we do not infect their world.”
Cassie added, “It may be rude to enter without asking, but we can’t knock on their door, since we don’t know where their doors are.”
Claudia wondered, “If the lip is about six hundred metres high, then the ship, from this side to the opposite side, must be about four hundred, maybe five hundred kilometres! How has it survived for so long, it should have broken apart long before arriving here.”
One of the female scientists nodded in agreement. “It is amazing to see that any species would build something as fragile as this, after all, it must represent an enormous investment by them and its loss must have crippled them.”
Seltwe touched her arm. “It is not good to make such assertions when we do not know the full truth. For instance, if you were to be brought, as one of their species, to see our spaceship, would you not ask that same question about Robert?”
She nodded and then laughed. “But I do!” It made all of us laugh, while Robbie looked on with a grin and a slight blush to his cheeks.
Robbie asked the protector to check the ship for any sentient beings and we travelled above the surface, looking down on it, in search of buildings or animals and people. We saw none of them, but there was some kind of anomaly at the center of the surface.
I was still considering the previous conversations, so I asked, “What if the hull of the ship is not of any kind of material? What if it is a forcefield which has been give the appearance of solid matter, maybe for aesthetic reasons? Would that also explain why it has survived the stresses of this area, while also making it far more flexible than any kind of hard material could be?”
Robbie grinned. “Your reading of science fiction has finally begun to show results!”
“Actually, I was only extrapolating from the previous discussions. It was a logical assumption.” Cherine was peeking in my mind and she giggled when his face fell in disappointment. He must be the only man I know who treasures the ability to be logical in females, and yet also desperately wants us to soar on flights of imagination - I guess he would hate for me to be a Spock.
I said, with heavy disappointment in my voice, mimicking Robbie “Oh Cherine baby, what am I going to do! You’re going to spoil all my teasing of Robert?” Jade was the first to burst into screams of laughter, soon followed by all of them.
Robbie glanced at everyone else and shook his head ruefully, but he could not stop a grin appearing on his face. “She’s not teasing Cherine, she is making fun of me, because I said that to Jade.” It still wasn’t clear to anyone else why it was funny, which made it, maybe, even funnier for us.
A while later the Anadir told us that they think I am right! They had also wondered how the spaceship could still be in one piece in this area which is so turbulent by the forces exerted by gravity, thanks to the tconcentrations of suns and so on.
Robbie left his body and when he disappeared from our senses, we knew he had become the void. A couple of hours later he returned. He sat up with a slight smile. “Something does not make sense. I felt that if everyone is right, then the hull of that ship should be flexing, distorting in minor ways. I slowed time as the void and watched it and then I sped up time, but in both cases, I could not see any kind of movement. What I can sense is some kind of energy that flickers and distorts around the spaceship, outside of what we describe as forcefields.” He paused as he considered his next words. “I don’t sense any kind of propulsion. I think it is drifting, being drawn to its doom. We better make certain there are no sentient beings on it, before it is too late.”
“If there aren’t, what do we do? Can we still save it?”
2492
Robbie shook his head. “If there are sentient beings in control of their ship who have chosen their fate, we cannot interfere; the only relevant question is what do we do if there are no people on board. What if they deliberately sent it without them, as a research vessel?”
Dommi shook her head. “No, I don’t think that is likely. If they were sending it for that reason, to be destroyed, why would they create an entire ecology, with plants and all kinds of life?”
A scientist replied, “They could do so as part of their experiment; I too would be interest to learn what the effects of variable gravity would be. Radiations I presume are controlled by the forcefield, so I guess this could be an experiment with regard to the effects of gravity on living matter.” I could sense Robbie feels we are stretching the possibilities to an extreme, so I kept quiet - I was also hoping somebody would come up with new, to us, theories.
When nobody did, I asked a question. “When you checked it as the void, could you sense any communications being broadcast, in any direction?”
He shook his head. “No, but I’m surprised nobody has asked what we should do if the protector does find sentient beings in there.”
Rosie asked, “Why would it be a problem? If they need help, whether they are alive or dead, we save them by taking them back to the future, after Lynda sensed this reality, so as not to create a paradox. If they are dead, we’ll have to search for their souls, which means we have to follow it back in time to find when and where they died.”
“Are you saying that our powers have made everything too easy for it to be interesting?”
She answered him, “Oh no, it will still be interesting, but not as puzzling as it might have been. Just imagine how bad we would feel if you could not save them - I much prefer it less puzzling.” Her cheeky answer amused him and us, so that discussion ended there, thank goodness.
Cherine asked, “So, are you going to tell us? Did the protector find anyone?”
Robbie gave us a serious look. “I have been pondering that question for a while now, as I’m not quite certain how I should answer. They have done something which could make life easier for us, but I admit I do not like it.” He paused, his thoughts turned inwards. He then recalled he has left us hanging, “Sorry, their souls are here, with their bodies - they are all in suspended animation. My loves, it seems they have decided to collectively commit suicide, but they did not want to experience the terrors of being killed.”
As he had known it would, the information shocked us. Well, it shocked them. Me, just a little, I mostly found it sort of natural. Robbie sensed me and twisted his lips as his eyes asked me for an explanation.
“If I was dying or going to my certain doom, I might decide to hang around until the last minute - out of curiosity. But if I had to decide for those I love, I could not choose that they be forced to endure pain and fear because of my choice. Dad, why don’t we suspend judgement until we learn from them what really happened?”
As I felt hearts lighten, Robbie nodded and agreed. “What do we do, I don’t want to return to the future right now.”
“Why don’t we take them back to whatever distance is needed for them to be out of this dangerous area and set them in orbit within a solar system which obviously does not have any habitable planets - we would not want any species evolving and finding them before we return.”
Goldi asked, “While we take them back, can we go there with created bodies? I’d like to see what it is like in their ship. It looks pretty.”
It did not feel right to me, that our spaceship-world remain without even one of us (I don’t know whether a few of the Sparklers remained), while we went dashing off to visit an alien spaceship-world…one that looks like it was made by a pizza cook! I later found out that the protector waited at the taverna, playing tavli with Maria’s husband, while keeping everything going. He also moved it in giant leaps so that it follows us.
2493
The oxygen content is not even over all our home planet, apart from the differences due to altitude, thanks to the oceans and the plants. The Earth percentage, at best, where oxygen is most concentrated, is about four percent less than the oxygen within the alien ecological environment. Robbie does not know, but he thinks it might be okay for very short exposure, but asked that we don’t try it more than once, for just three minutes. I had the thought that because my blood has iron in it, maybe the higher oxygen content will speed up the corrosion and my blood will become rusty? My loves (maybe I should not call them that, when they do this sort of thing to me) told everyone of my self-mocking joke and it caused a lot of amusement. One of the female Anadir told me that I will probably become known, in their history books, as the alien with rusty blood. At least she broke me out of my mood and I laughed.
Robbie is always considerate, so none of us were surprised to find that he has given us bodies that exactly match our own - which lie waiting for us in the platform. We could sense he has sheathed us, but after a few minor accidents, we realised the sheaths also protect us from accidents and lesser attacks. The reason for my comment about him being considerate? With us were the Anadir, also in their own bodies, with, in addition, about sixty Sparkler Thinkers - half in Terran bodies and half in Anadir. The only reason he did not choose for a few to be in Eminixx bodies is because those Sparklers would find themselves left behind, since they would only be able to move slowly.
Altogether, we are about one hundred and eighty visitors - if anyone is watching, we are hopefully a small enough group that we won’t be considered an invasion party. Anyway, with so many of us looking and acting like children, they might think us crazy, but they’d have to be really insecure to think of us as a threat. (added later on: Robbie says I am wrong, that even many adults of Earth see children as a threat.)
Robbie suggested we break up into teams of about ten and he then took us to the exact center, which luckily was not a mountain peak or lake, and each group walked off in a different direction. The agreement is that we remain mentally in contact, which us girls always do, anyway, and we call or send images whenever we find something of special interest.
One that Gina especially liked was a tree with coloured puffballs hanging from all over it, so that it looked like a Christmas tree. When we came too close for comfort, all the puffballs broke up and on fluttering wings flew away - to find another Christmas tree, I presume, but one that doesn’t have noisy aliens surrounding it.
Goldi found trees with thin streams of water running up and down the trunk. Only by using our gifts were we able to work out that the water was actually a stream of watery-looking ant-like insects.
I can’t say that I found anything special, as so many others did, but I was in love with the ecology. So much was strange and nearly all of it was beautiful. Our senses were extended as a precaution, so we should have felt or sensed any predators, but there was very little taking of life and what there was, we sensed mostly from tiny insects that consumed the dying bodies of other insects and small animals. Diana said that she thinks they do not deliberately eat them before they die, they are just in a hurry or hungry. I reckon they probably find their food is tastier if it is still just about alive, but I did not say anything, as I knew that the image would upset some of my more delicate loves (boy, I almost sound like Robbie - I’m a girl, so I should not have the same kind of judgmental attitude about my loves - that is what my loves would tell me, if they were willing to be judgmental about me).
I stopped to stare at a very small rock with colourful streaks creating bands that looked like they are made of different minerals, quietly floating on a large leaf - I think it was a leaf. I did notice that the leaf had a myriad feelers sticking out at the sides and underneath, so it was able to control the direction it travels. I extended my senses and discovered that the stone and leaf are, more or less, one creature, but they started off, my healer told me, as being three separate entities. As most of their food comes from the water or the bed underneath, they learnt to cooperate and by ‘old age’ they are one creature.
I and everyone else, was not really feeling this place is alien. It felt more like something designed in a virtual world by weird artists. Then we found something that made it patently clear that we are in an alien world.
It actually is almost the most boring-looking plant of all in this ecology. It is similar to some of the vines we see on Earth and it has not even bothered to decorate itself with a variety of colours. Its leaves are a mustard colour, with the stems or vines, a dark green. However, each plant has from ten to fifty fruit.
They are decorated with splashes of faded green and black, with the areas showing through, a dirty mustard colour. As I said, not really worth noticing, but Maria was curious, wondering whether the flesh inside is sweet, like a fruit of Earth. As she took one in her hand, to feel it, she emoted her surprise. She then tapped it with her knuckles and it sounded like an empty gourd. As she made to twist it off the vine, Cherine called out for her to stop.
2494
“Maria, it is not a fruit, inside the hard shell is a small brain!”
Within seconds all of us arrived, eagerly surrounding Maria and wanting her to let us feel and sense it - it would not have been polite of us to grab at one of the other little brains, this was her discovery, so we needed her permission. Anyway, we were more interested in sensing the brain. What kind of mind would a vegetable have?
It does not look like a coconut, more like a ball-shaped squash, but with a coconut-like shell. From some we found later, which had disconnected and were ‘dead’; where it was connected to the vine, it looks like the ‘eye’ of a coconut and is its soft spot. By the way, we took a couple of the dead fruit with us and the scientists are studying it, all the way down to its DNA…once they get more equipment from Alki. They say that the desiccated brain inside does have cells that could be part of a brain.
While we were still at that time, with Maria letting everyone take a turn holding the fruit-brain (brainy fruit? Boy, I think I’m going to be able to come up with tons of fun names for it), some were concentrating on sensing the mind. It is not sentient and nowhere as clever as our Bitsy (who is quite stupid, even for a dog).
Cherine however, was thinking along different lines. “Sam, what if each brain is not smart, but when all of them, of each vine, connect, do they then become one smart brain…or does the vine plant itself become sentient?”
As I thought about it, tried to imagine how it would work, tears began to roll down my cheeks. I had to explain before they begin to worry. “I think that they cannot think very well while they are still green - unripe. As they ripen, I think there will be more juice, so the brain becomes more alive as the juices flow within it…and as it becomes over-ripe and the juices begin to ferment, I think the brain will reach the height of its intelligence and all of them together, might even be more intelligent than any one of us. If I am right, which I hope I am not, it means that they only have seconds or minutes of sentience and then the alcohol in their brains burns them and the cells turn to mulch.” I stared with tear-filled eyes at Cherine as I told her, “They only have seconds to dream, Cherine.”
Robert had been determined to remain apart, enjoying our visit vicariously through us, but he now created a form. “Samantha, you are only guessing…extrapolating, don’t get carried away and treat it as fact.”
I nodded. “I know. But if I’m right, then this must be the saddest possibility in all our universe.”
Robbie saw tears in the eyes of our loves, so he said to me, acting indignant, “And you dare to call me crazy - Samantha!?” He made me giggle and it helped the other girls break out of the mood I’d been creating.
Robbie spun around as we heard someone or something coming towards us. We were caught by surprise, for we had not sensed anyone close by. It came out of some foliage and we stared at it with wonder our strongest emotion. It looked like a huge brain-fruit as it rolled towards us.
It stopped rolling at about ten metres from us and then it began to distort. As it took on the form it was trying for, we would see Anadir limbs for a moment and then they would flow and become little girl limbs, only gradually settling for the appearance of Cherine! It must have sensed her as the most important one of all of us.
“My apologies, I could not greet you earlier, as I needed to evaluate your presence here and learn your language. You did not make it easy for me, you have been speaking amongst yourselves in a number of languages! It was not helpful of you!” I thought to myself, *I wish it had stayed like a fruit-ball, then I could have named it the Nagball!* It sounded so petty and childish.
2495
Seltwe glanced at Robbie and then spoke in a soothing voice, “We apologise, we were not aware of your need. May we introduce ourselves?”
“I know your names, but not your species. You have formed a Federation? Are there more of you? How many species?”
Robbie answered, “We are five species, but are busy bringing thousands more into our family. The word you used, Federation, it sounds like you also have governments and politics as a way of life. we are trying to get away from that kind of thinking by declaring ourselves family to each other.”
“You may name us Family - if you had taken the Merhidlia, harming the parent and killing the child, you would not have been worthy of naming us Family.”
While it talked, Robbie, Cherine, Lynda, damn near everybody, was trying to work out how this could have happened. Could Lynda have been wrong, there is sentient life in this galaxy? But then, why can’t we sense it emoting?
We were feeling a bit stunned and off balance, so we answered all its questions. Maybe it is for this reason that it came to trust us and finally confided, “If we are to be Family, it can only be so if you allow me to be the representative of the Harrafin. Unfortunately they cannot do so on their own behalf, as the last one died about…I do not know what your time units are. You base them on the orbit of your planet around your star?”
Seltwe, who was still doing most of the talking for us, gave it a scientific base for it to calculate our time-sense.
“In your time then, the last died about seventeen thousand years ago - at about the time this vessel broke out of orbit.”
“There were none left on planet?”
“None. Most of what could be used of the planet was taken so as to create a mobile home for us to visit other species and learn from them.”
Robbie exclaimed, “You used the surface of your planet? It must have been a very small planet!”
“On your planet, you are able to use the entire surface?”
“No, much of it is covered by water, but what remains usable is far in excess of what I see here.” Robbie then asked, “If it is permitted, you mentioned that this vessel broke out of orbit…what did you mean by that? Was it not created to travel to other solar systems?”
“It was, but not in this direction! One of the propulsion units developed a fault and fired. By the time we were able to regain control of it, we were travelling at speeds this vessel was not meant to achieve and having travelled a great distance, we were caught in the galactic drag, without hope of escape, so all my people went to sleep…and died in their sleep.”
Robbie told Seltwe, “We must explain the reason for being here at this time and inform it that once we have dealt with the fire-world creators we will return to help it return the people…the Harrafin. In the meantime, while you do so, I will be moving their vessel outside of the drag, as it calls the attraction outside. Seltwe, I will take it forward in time, past the time we began our journey.”
“Surely it is not necessary? As long as it is placed in a stable orbit, we can leave it in this time, until we have dealt with the creators of the fire-world.”
“Agreed and thank you.”
I did not want to wait in the platform, so I asked to go with Robbie and the girls all clamoured to be allowed to come with.
I expected him to become the void and amass huge amounts of energy, but all he did is visit the Sparklers and sent them a message, *If you would like to strengthen your ability to manipulate matter with your minds, please join me in normal space. The more of you, the better, for the ship we must move is very large and heavy, while also being fragile.*
2496
The first thing Robbie did was gather the Sparklers to him (I think all of them came) and he jumped to a solar system about four hundred lightyears away. Once they had seen where we want to take the spaceship, we returned and looked for a moon of at least the same size as our moon. Visiting our taverna, he brought back with him sixty chicken eggs. These he planted all around the surface of the moon and then he asked the Sparklers and us to position ourselves evenly around the moon, and then asked we join our minds and keep the image of our destination firmly in our minds.
With a mental command from him, we all teleported ourselves and the moon.
Almost every single egg was smashed. Robbie sent us a grin and told us to take a break while the protector returns to the local supermarkets in Athens to buy us two hundred dozen eggs.
Taking the moon to and fro helped us understand why the eggs were breaking. When we jump from within the drag, the destination is relatively fixed - even though it is travelling in relative position to anything so many lightyears away. However, the drag on this side is strong enough for us to feel it, maybe because the velocity is increasing at an unsteady but constant rate. The moon, though we cannot sense it, is jerked as we grab it, and the eggs are smashed. The opposite trip means we start from a stable position, so the moon is not moving. When we arrive, the drag grabs it and with a jerk it accelerates, smashing the eggs.
I have no idea what kind of maths were used, but it was decided that it would not be safer to make a smaller series of jumps, at least it would if departure and arrival points are both within the drag - and the drag is not constant, so we would have to compensate on both sides.
By the time we got the ‘feel’ for it, our eggs were nearly finished. When Robbie reported only one egg is broken we rejoiced and thereafter no eggs were broken as we practised another three jumps each way.
Without Robbie warning Seltwe or the entity, we surrounded the pizza-ship and jumped. Instantly we all crowded into the ship, going to where Seltwe is. He looked at us with surprise.
“I was not expecting you to return so soon.”
The entity began to lose its form and then it solidified with almost what felt like an audible snap. “We have been moved further back, towards the edge of the drag!” He turned to Cherine. “You have done this?”
“Not me; perhaps about a billion or two souls joined forces to take you out. We wish to return to our homes and rest and soon as we can, we shall return to take your ship further out of the drag and set it in orbit around a sun. We need to know, what colour sun is required?”
Robbie searched for a sun that is a slightly darker yellow than our sun, which means it is older than ours, and once he found one, he had to jump there to make certain there is no local life. The Sparklers went with him and made a thorough check for him. When he returned, he arrived by our bed and was asleep by the time we jumped from the taverna.
Robbie wants to have a social chat with the Harrafin created entity and since his entire family is made up of girls who suffer from a more than healthy dose of curiosity, plus hating the idea of not being present and knowing what is happening, he arrived there with all of us. Robbie did not arrive on the ground, he aimed for just below the inner side of the forcefield and then we slowly sank to the ground, ensuring we are visible for some time before landing. As our feet touched the ground, the entity was already waiting for us.
Robbie asked, “Until the others arrive to help move your ship, would you be willing to converse with us?”
“You intend for an exchange of information from both sides?”
“Yes.”
“I do not have authority to provide you with all information you request, otherwise, I would enjoy learning of other people and ideas.”
Robbie smiled, “That in itself provides us with an important bit of information, as there are many people who are not willing to learn of anything that is different to what they already know. Do you know that there are some who would even kill others so as to prevent them providing new ideas that could change the way they live and think?” He made a point of looking around and added, “This is beautiful. My friend, I think I will enjoy meeting your parents, when it is time for us to return them to life.”
2497
“Parents!?”
“Of course, did they not create you?” I kept my grin hidden as I thought to myself that he certainly did not take long to upset our host.
It mulled over what Robbie had said for nearly a minute. “For new ideas to alter my thinking, they must include new information that demands such a change. You have not done so.”
Robbie nodded. “I am pleased, being open to new ideas is only of value if we are not gullible and question everything, demanding proof where necessary. For instance, if you told me that our galaxy was formed out of matter and energy spilling into our universe, from another, through a white hole at the center, I too would ask you what proof you have that it is so.”
“But I do not believe it is so.”
Robbie grinned. “Neither do I, even if I hope it is so, for then it means our universe is not a closed unit within the Great Universe of universes. If it is not a closed unit, but can make exchanges of energy, then it becomes possible for us to hope that it does not have a pre-defined end and may truly be eternal.”
Even though an artificial mind, it must be very developed, for it does not seem to trap itself within loops and it responded, “You speak of possibilities that do not exist - or you have proof that there is more than the known universe?”
“I’ll provide the proof a bit later, but I can tell you that our scientists were able to come to the discovery of such possibilities through mathematics. As a small courtesy, when we provided you with our names, you did not respond with yours; do you not have a name or is it too difficult for us to speak?"
“I can be described as being DOH-Inos.”
Robbie guessed, “DOH stands for the series and…Inos?”
“Inos can be translated to mean ‘the final’.”
“May I rename you?”
For the first time it did something very human; it gave Robbie a surprised look. “It would please you, or is it a requirement?”
“Uh, it would please me.”
“Then you may do so, my creators would not mind, since they are no longer able to use the name they gave me.”
“In the language of the Harrafin, is there a word that signifies ‘the first of something new’?”
“Not by one word, hei na somisa.”
“May we call you Somisa, with such name, each time it is spoken, to be assumed to have the meaning of the full sentence, hei na somisa?” It agreed, so now I can start to use a name. Somisa, I like the sound of it.
“Somisa, are or were the Harrafin divided into different cultures? We call such divisions ‘nations’.”
“Allow me to illustrate my answer.” Somisa gestured and instantly a hologram of a planet revolved above us. As a part of it that was coloured mustard, within the brown and reds of the rest of the planet, came into view, the planet zoomed closer with the rest of it fading so that we can see the mustard area. It was not a solid area, but was split at its edges by what looked like rivers of brown and red invading the mustard. On a guess (not good enough to be called an estimate) I’d say the mustard area was about the size of Australia.
2498
“The areas which are not conducive to life were too poisonous for the Harrafin to explore and all efforts at the borders to heal the land were not successful. When they realised that storms are carrying spores from the poisonous land into their homeland, they decided to create this vessel and search for friends and perhaps another planet more hospitable to their kind.”
“As far as you know, they never split into factions? They did not fight and kill each other?”
“How can that be Robert? Life is too rare and sacred for such to be a possibility! Is this idea something new you wish to teach me?”
“No. Somisa, there are species who kill their own kind - my own included. Those of us you have met, we too believe that life is too precious for such ways of living to be an acceptable way of life and it is the reason we are no longer part of our species in all ways.”
“You too are orphaned, without a planet to belong to?”
“We have not moved out, all we are doing at this time is hiding the knowledge about ourselves from our people, for they would fear us for being different and try to kill us.”
“I understand, you wish the Harrafin to become family and help you? Robert, they do not kill.”
“We do not want their help in the sense you mean, we prefer to help our species grow so that they also, someday, cannot kill.”
Now that Robbie felt that the likelihood of us being attacked is minimal, he decided to take the risk.
“Somisa, are you able to leave a part of yourself here, so as to maintain the ecology and ship, while a part of yourself comes with us? I wish to provide you with proof that the universe is more than you think it is.”
“It is possible, but is it advisable, Robert?”
“Why would it not be advisable?”
“If you cannot return the Harrafin, then there will be no purpose to my continuing, so an investment of such size in teaching me would not provide you with a satisfactory return.”
Robbie grinned. “You sound like a businessman…or a politician of my world. Let me worry about what I will earn and allow yourself the pleasure of learning - however short or long is the time remaining for you.”
Since we will only be in normal space, Robbie chose to take us in the platform. Once Somisa had entered, he jumped out of their ship, so that Somisa can see that we are out in space, and then he jumped us to an area beyond our moon, as it is less likely that at such a distance our arrival will be noticed.
“This is our home, she is beautiful, is she not?” I suddenly realised that for Claudia’s gift, plus I suspect the programming of Somisa, to allow gender to be used when speaking to him, they must also have females, which suggests they have males.
“I am not certain I understand what I am seeing, but it is pleasant. It is a world containing mostly liquid?”
Without answering, Robbie jumped without warning and we arrived at the Earth of the reality of Somisa. It could be seen that this is the same planet as before, but that there is no life - and almost no water.
“This is our home world in your universe Somisa. We are going to enter the atmosphere for you to see how the land and seas are dead, empty of life, compared to our home, in the other universe.”
It was obvious that this planet did have life once upon a time and there were still some patches of plant life and many insects, but there were no remains of cities. There must have been humans or else the fire-world would not have come here, but it seems they were relatively few and had not even attained the successes of the Roman Empire. All we could see are remains of towns and villages.
Robbie jumped us back home, but about two hundred years in our past and came close enough for our cities and larger populations to be seen, without them seeing us. Once Somisa had stopped looking and was lost in thought, Robbie jumped us back to the Harrafin spaceship.
2499
Only now did Robbie explain about alternate realities and what Somisa had seen, including the explanation of our reason for being in his reality.
“You spoke truly, Robert, it is difficult to keep the mind open to so much strangeness - especially when it is so ugly! Is there a way I can help?”
“Leaving you and the ship here, at this time, it worries me. I need to ask a personal question and if I have misunderstood who or what you are, I apologise in advance, for I have no wish to hurt your feelings. In our society we use computers and it is expected that we will soon have artificial intelligent computers, which will not use programs made by humans and to most intents and purposes they could be considered alive and self-aware, as all sentient beings are. Are you the product of such a technology, though far in advance of what our people have?”
“Without my making judgements, you have assumed correctly and incorrectly, Robert.”
“I have read, from a number of sources, that time is not the same for such AI entities, for they can think thousands of times faster than biological minds can. If so, I must not leave you here alone, it would be better your ship is moved to the future, so that you do not need to spend thousands of years waiting for us.”
“You can take me forward in time and then return yourself to this time?”
“Yes.”
“Then why not return to this time once your mission has been achieved? I shall not be bringing any of my parents back to life, so no paradoxes will occur. You can time your arrival so that little time has passed on this end?” Somisa hesitated, but then continued, “Time for me passes in a similar fashion as it does for the Harrafin, so I therefore assume it is similar to your senses? I can speed up my thought processes during a time of need, but it was not considered efficient to have me living at a hundred times the speed of those I care for. My body is not artificial, I speak of the sense and form you were suggesting, for I was created within the body of a parent. This body belonged to a mind that was torn by conflicts and it died. Parts of the brain were replaced by artificial cells so that I can become what I am. Included is the ability for me to change form, as it was foreseen that species we visit might find it more comfortable to deal with at least one of us looking like them.”
“I am amazed! We have postulated the possibility of creating cyborgs - using a human mind within an artificially created body, but we never thought of doing the opposite…perhaps the reason being the mortality of our bodies.” Robbie laughed. “You are right, since we must still follow the fire-world back in time to its origin, time need not pass for you. Somisa, I will be looking forward to meeting your parents, for if you are any indication of their own personalities, they must be a very gentle people.”
It suddenly struck me, as the holo of their planet continued to revolve above us. “Somisa, could you show us images of what the Harrafin look like?”
I expected the planet to fade away, to be replaced with an example of male and female. Instead, we seemed to zoom into the mustard area and then we began to identify what must be their city and I sensed everyone felt the same as me, they loved it. The actual buildings themselves are not what enchanted us, it is the way the rather stolid building hide themselves within the trees and plants.
The city grew and then we were down at street level and we could see the Harrafin.
My first thought was that they seem to be covered by chitin and they look real tough. Then I noticed the children and adolescents. Their skin is soft, only in some are patches of chitin showing - among the older youngsters, though we did see a younger child with chitin already forming.
Wendy noticed that the adults are awkward in their movements; to her it seemed that the young move according to some internal music, while the adults have their music constantly interrupted by yowls or other unpleasant and shocking noises. What she told us did not make sense and yet we could see she is right.
Cassie asked Somisa, “What is wrong with the adults?”
“The thickening of the outer skin causes pain and constant discomfort. The thickening and hardening is the way their skin tries to protect them from the poisons blown here by the storms in the outer lands. Once they transferred to the ship, within a year their skin was already growing thinner and more supple. It gave them great joy and hope for the future.”
2500
Robbie changed the subject. “What is known of their history - I mean, how far back do they have records?”
“Under the adverse conditions they had to live, surprisingly their records go all the way back to nearly three thousand years pre departure.”
Hesitating, worried he might cause distress, Robbie then asked, “Is it possible their history goes much further back, but they had a war and destroyed most of their planet?”
Somisa was not upset by the question. “The theory has been suggested, for there are fights between individuals, so theorising the possibility of people aligning themselves in an argument into two opposing groups does make it obvious that wars are possible - at least theoretically. The possibility of there being some truth in such a theory forced them to make great sacrifices to build unmanned vehicles for searching the poisoned lands. Nothing has been found, Robert, no signs of buildings or technology, so we finally agreed that it is a disproved theory and since it is also an unhealthy theory, it should not be considered again.”
Robbie nodded. “I guess their minds were greatly soothed by the conclusions they reached?
“It is so, for no decent people can enjoy the thought of it being possible for them to harm and kill others.” I’d rather be dishonest than be the one to disillusion him, even if he is a super AI.
While us girls waited inside, with Somisa, Robbie joined the Sparklers outside and they jumped the ship to the solar system Robbie had chosen. The jump was so smooth that not even a leaf trembled, and yet the winds swirled with a slight excitement for a moment and then settled.
We have taken our leave of Somisa and we are back in our home. We are all hungry, so we are going to the taverna to eat, even though it is after midnight here.
This morning I woke up to find Robbie had raised himself on three pillows, his thoughts examining in detail all we had learnt the previous day. He sensed us looking at him and returned to give us a broad smile as he wished us good morning.
After breakfast he had his usual coffee, without a cigarette, and asked us, “What did you think of the old chap; is Somisa as disingenuous as he appears to be?”
Some of us had liked him very much, so Robbie's question upset most of us. I bet Robbie is proud of the fact that not one of us protested, instead we used our Cherinian memories to search through every word he said to us.
Goldi won our hearts all over again when she said, “He seems to be, but then you seem to be and I know you are not, so I don’t know.”
Robbie gave her a smile and she smiled back at him and suddenly it felt as if our spaceship-world is filling up with golden motes of love!
With just a hint of a smile, Maria brought him another cappuccino, but this time she placed a packet of cigarettes next to it and he lit one - trying to give himself time to recover from Goldi, I imagine.
He asked us, “Did none of you notice that he avoided even giving us a hint of where their home solar system is? I can’t help asking myself whether he was being cautious or did he feel he does not have the authority to release to us such information?”
I grinned. “Well, you did go to considerable pains to convince him they will be returning.”
He nodded. “Maybe so, but if he were all sweetness and light, as he wished us to think of him and his creators, surely our gesture of good faith of taking him to our home planet should have earned an equal trust?”
Candy asked, “Why do you call them his creators, but when you are with him you try to make him think of them as his parents?”
Jade told Candy, “I think he wants to see how the Harrafin will react, will they speak of him as their child? In a way he is, since he lives in a body of their kind.”
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)21st October, 2019
- posted on Steemit: 21st October, 2019
If you wish to read from an earlier book, from Book 01 to Book 04, use this link button to open the LC Book Index:
