“.......Remember when we hit that time ripple where Meli’s world was? The spaceship shuddered, knocking me flat on my face. I bet none of you thought to worry about that massive amount of water slopping around.”
)
2861
“My thin triangle would have been smashed!”
“Afraid so love. Have you been studying civil engineering?”
“I saw an article about stress and found it interesting, so I read whatever else I could find.”
“How would you like to go to university and study it properly? I’ve heard the university in Glasgow has a highly respected name in that field.”
“Really!? But how? I don’t even have high school degrees.”
“That we can take care of. If you do it, I think you should do it in a way that you get to enjoy the feeling of being a student there. You rent a small flat in Glasgow and make friends and do all the partying and so on that goes with it.”
“I couldn’t stay away from all of you Robert! It is too long!”
“Nothing stopping you from jumping over for a few hours or the night.”
She looked so happy, happy and scared. She laughed. “I could invite the girls over for the parties.”
“I won’t be surprised if a few of them decide they also want to study.” I sat looking at her, remembering the frightened little girl we found and wondering when did she mature so beautifully. That is one of the few problems I have with my loves. Because they stay as children for me, I forget to look at their minds and see the woman that hides within them. “I’d be tempted to suggest we block your mind so that you forget you are a Cherinian while there, but I’m scared to do so. You’d probably give in to the crowd of men who’ll be chasing after you and take for yourself a boyfriend.”
She teased me with a nonchalant, “I suppose so.” and surprise, surprise, I actually felt frightened. That made them all laugh at me, but in the end she sat on my lap and clung tightly to me.
Apart from the family, the rest; Alki, Perikli and Allan, are getting bored. Luigi does not have a problem. He either goes for walks or sits in a corner at the taverna and scribbles. Since we are going to be spending a lot of time waiting, mostly when the Inguel and Anadir scientists (with the Sparkler thinkers helping) try to reverse the damage to the fire-world, I asked them if they would like to return home. Allan decided he would like to see the fire-world, but the other two decided to return. We had a party the night before and they left in the morning.
Soon as we saw the Inguel arrive at their planet, we left for the past (our present). We found the fire-world and saw it has changed direction. I pointed out to the scientists (I’m sure they did not need me to do so) that it must be incredibly sensitive. There is only one sentient species within this time frame, the Elabet and their planet is very distant. This gave them another aspect of this amazing creature to study.
I reckon the scientists are going to be keeping me fairly busy, so I’ll hand over to Sam.
Busy! Like every few days or weeks he has to do something for them. Anyway, I sort of missed writing the diary.
Allan is one weird hombre! Robbie took him up close to the fire-world ‘mouth’, flames shooting out at them. He was terrified, totally paralysed with fear. When he was able to speak, he asked Robbie whether it would be possible, soon as the beast has no energy from the parallel universe, for us to enter the ‘mouth’ and come out of the tail. He wants to try it!
“Think, once it is not anti-life anymore, we could train it to direct its tail into any reality we want. That means those who do not have the ability to cross realities could use a spaceship to visit other realities.”
Robbie said, “That sounds a bit farfetched to me Allan.”
“No,” he said with a grin, “just impractical. I’d hate to go visiting and find it got an itch and twitched its tail to somewhere else.” We then laughed when he added, “Unless of course I just happened to have all your lovely ladies with me. I could stay lost for a very long time - maybe forever.”
2862
Robbie does not get teased very often by anyone outside our family, so I think he enjoys the novelty of it. To tell the truth, we are a little worried about Allan. He sits for hours at the taverna, if we are there, and we sense he feels deep inside him a sadness. Sometimes it gets to his eyes, if he thinks he is unobserved. He does not admit it though.
Allan hates exercise and is no great lover of nature, not if it means discomfort, and yet he has left us for a ‘walkabout’ as he calls it. Says he needs some time by himself. Dommi seems to be the only one who understands.
“He feels lonely.”
We all protested. We hardly give him a few minutes each day to rest. He is incredibly patient, will play with us, whatever the game, and we sense it pleases him too. Not that we aren’t aware he gets physically excited, but we also sense he has no intention of allowing himself to try anything. Not because of Robbie - well, not that much - but because of us. He feels to try anything would only make us not like him. He knows we love Robbie and does not want to do anything ugly to spoil things for us or him. We decided it is okay for him to be attracted or stimulated if we happen to show a bit of leg or whatever. What counts more for us, is what he does about it.
Dommi said, “I remember from before Cherine. My loneliest times were when I was with others. When he is alone he is solitary, he has the ability to enjoy his own thoughts. It is when he is with others he feels how alone he is. He needs someone to love, to feel he belongs to someone.”
Meli said, “He has surprised me. I thought he would either fall in love with you or Cherine.”
Dommi blushed and Cherine replied. “Meli, he is a little in love with all of us. He tries to keep it to himself because he thinks it would upset us. We have to help him find someone to love.”
After weeks of chasing the fire-world and probing it with all kinds of beams; after asking Robbie to reproduce the differences in energy he’d seen, they decided to make an attempt. The fire-world came to a complete stop, then shot off at a terrific speed. We watched as it twisted this way and that, flames shooting out even though no one was close to it. It seems to have forgotten it’s mania to get Robbie. We are keeping pace with it, but not going close enough to provoke it. Robbie does not want to make it uneasy, he worries it might be suffering.
Since there is little danger at the moment and we are keeping a discrete distance, Robbie allows us to go out to real space in groups or alone to play in spheres of energy. Goldi and Jodine asked if they can go outside and Robbie obliged with a sphere, turning over to them control of movement. It soon became evident they were not playing. Robbie did not interfere, but we could sense he is extending his mind to watch over them.
They approached the beast without coming close enough to panic it and both of them sent their healers to it. They also tried emoting friendship and worry about it. That did not have any apparent effect on it. They returned and the next ‘day’ repeated their performance. This went on for days. Robbie did not broach the subject, so we all avoided asking them what they hoped to accomplish.
The girls approached the beast and this time it swivelled around so that it’s dark hole faced them. Robbie and the protector were instantly on guard. No flames came out though. What did happen was far more terrifying. The pull of its mouth increased, dragging at the golden sphere of the girls. Robbie sent a blast of energy to reinforce their sphere and then expended it on steering them. He allowed them to approach the dark hole at a huge speed and then used the speed they had built up to swerve around it; same as he had done when plunging towards the sun with the first fire-world. It did not try to follow and continued on its way.
“I think you better give up girls. I don’t think it will love you.” Robbie wryly said to the two when they returned to us.
Jodine did not smile. “Robbie, that energy they shot it with, the poor thing feels a burning at the back of its brain. That is why it is running away. We tried to get our healers to help it.”
“How did you know, don’t tell me you sensed it?”
“We were curious about what it was doing, so we checked by sending the healers. That is how we found out.”
“We Jodine?”
2863
“Uh-huh!”
Since Goldi was happily nodding he kept quiet.
“Excuse me, did you help rid it of the pain?” an-Fisp asked.
“No, not really.”
“This is serious Robert, we did not mean to cause pain. Could we try our healers?”
“I’ll send my healer with yours.”
That is how we ended up zigzagging all over trying to play nursemaid to a black hole beast. Once Robbie had felt its suffering he was grateful to Jodine and Goldi. He waited a few days so that Jodine would not associate the two and then he made it a special night for her. She does tend to be on the quiet side (when in the bedroom, always waiting for Robbie to claim her sweet body, never pushing for her turn, often seeming to be trying to do a Natalie on us when she can), so the next morning we were all pleased when she walked around like she had just re-discovered her body. That night we played the country song, teasing her, ‘Jodine, don’t take my man’… Robbie responded by pulling her on to his lap and she got another sweet evening out of it.(Actually the song is called ‘Jolene’, not ‘Jodine’ but Wendy changed it for us).
Of the Inguel, an-Fisp is the closest to us. isi-mi being a bearer (as her name indicates) does not often come to visit on her own. We’d just had supper at the taverna and most of us were too full to run around, so it turned into one of those quiet evenings where thoughts wiggle until we allow them to blossom and become words. The Inguel had joined us, many of the Anadir too. Sol had grabbed two chairs, putting her legs up on one she lay across with her head on my lap so that I can tease her hair. She loves the feeling of fingers being run through and lightly pulling at strands of her hair.
“Robert, we have been honoured with two storytellings. Those are of the past. You have not told us how you see the future developing. What do you expect of the Cherinians? What is our future?”
“Even if I had an idea what is to happen, which I don’t, I would not say so. There is not one future an-Fisp, we are made up out of individuals. Different groups are bound to form with special interests of their own. Some might see life closer to nature as appealing to them. Others may wish to dedicate themselves for a long time to visiting other realities and helping them become Cherinians. There will probably be thousands of other differences in attitude I cannot even imagine right now. Why do you look worried? I am speaking of life, hoping it happens the way I say. For us to all settle for the same way of life would fossilise our culture and we would be a failure - another experiment by nature that did not reach its true potential. Diversity and change is important.”
isi-mi, who makes no secret of her admiration for Robbie, asked, “Do you think you will ever meet an enemy you cannot fight? Do you think there is anyone more powerful than you?”
“There is.”
That short answer spoilt our calm mood. We all sat up, everyone wanting to know what he meant. Cherine and Jade were alert as if a hidden or invisible enemy were among us already.
“What do you mean? Who is it; where is it?”
He smiled. “My enemy? All around me. Throughout a number of realities.”
He was half teasing, but he also saw that some were afraid that this is another prophesy. It was foolish of them, for we could sense his mind and knew it is not - he only sees something the rest of us do not. I had to ask though, for the sake of that cold dread in the hearts of my loves.
“Am I your enemy dad? I mean, will I be?”
“No my love. None of you, at least I hope so.”
Sol sat up. “Please don’t imply Robert. Tell us, who?”
“I think not the Sparklers. Mostly they will be the Cherinians of all the Earths. Once the Anadir and Eminixx have their own physical worlds and bodies, perhaps them too.”
2864
As his loved ones found courage in his words so did the rest become disturbed.
One of the Anadir scientists spoke, a female of course. “You are trying to plant seeds of doubt in our minds Robert? Please speak more clearly.”
“I’m sorry, I spoke falsely. It is not you who will become my enemies - it is I who will become yours.”
If that was meant to give us all some measure of comfort, it failed abysmally. I became aware of Robbie as my mind raced. Usually when he pulls a stunt, there is an impression of good humour, but this time there was none and that is what finally frightened me. He did not even glance at me.
“Samantha, relax.” He only calls me Samantha if he is upset or annoyed. “Nothing drastic is to happen. The universe has always been made up of people who like us, don’t know or care about us and those who hate us. It is true for every individual and cannot be otherwise. It is only frightening to be hated if you deserve it.”
“And will you?”
He quickly hid a flash of amusement. “In a way. It depends on whose perspective you look at it from.”
“Ohh!!” It was a cry of frustration by me, not of understanding. The others all empathised with me. “I think you are playing games. Was all this just to tease us?”
He sat with his head leaning over, his eyes distant and we all knew he is about to tell us what he truly thinks. “The Cherinians of this time, however you define the time, are very lucky. We exist during a time of transition, a period where we are learning about ourselves and growing. We have a bit of spice added to it by being chAllanged every so often. I’m going to look back on these days with a lot of nostalgia.
What does the foreseeable future hold for us? I have to spend the equivalent of centuries in this spaceship-world of ours bringing back to life a couple of thousand species. Seeing them brought back, their unique cultures, their ways of looking at life, even just the fact of their existence, it will give me joy, but the truth is, most of the time I will have nothing to do.
Hopefully, many who are of our species will be discovering the beauty of being Cherinians and someday among all the Earths we know of, the majority will be Cherinians. That will be a wonderful time for us. It is after that that the seeds of dissolution begin to germinate.
Claudia, you love history. What has studying it taught you?”
She thought for a moment. “You fear we will be like the Romans?”
“Explain to the others.”
She explained about the Roman Empire. How they conquered most of Europe and became so strong they ended up without any enemies that could threaten them. She explained how most of the wealth flowed through Rome and the people who were in control became decadent and losing sight of their true roles, they concentrated on internal manoeuvring until they drained their people and then savages who could not have been a threat before, finally brought Rome to its knees.
“Think of what they must have been like in their days of battle. Brave, disciplined and proud. Not long before we were born, in a previous life of Cherine and I, the Romans, now called Italians, invaded Greece. They had manpower, weapons, wealth and knowledge, but the men had lost the hunger and self-discipline that drove their ancestors and the Greeks quickly forced the much larger invading army to surrender. They still prefer to concentrate on art, beauty, music and so on. I’m glad,” he added with a small smile, “that Luigi and Sylvestro are not with us. They might have felt insulted.”
“You fear this for the Cherinians? What time period?”
“I have no idea, perhaps a thousand years, perhaps one hundred thousand.”
Sol laughed. “You are worse than the Sparklers. We plan over very long times, but do not get depressed now because of what might happen thousands of years in the future. Life is too good to waste it on problems that may never be.”
2865
“Sol, they will be. My problem is I fear I may miss some of the early stages and be part of or a cause of the problem. I cannot allow that to happen.”
“How early?” Alexis asked.
“The day I met Cherine?”
“You’re joking!” Dommi said in astonishment.
“I’m not my love. If we take or have taken the wrong direction, it will not be obvious for a long time.”
“I still don’t believe it! Give me an example.”
“What if my killing of Wendy’s father gives the wrong message to people in the future? Or worse, what if my attempt to return in time to kill him is to blame? Whatever is done now will serve as an example and excuse or justify actions for unscrupulous people in the future. What I fear even more is there will be those who in their heart think they have good intentions and what they intend doing is acceptable because Robert did the same.”
We looked at him fondly, his ability to surprise us still a surprise. As my heart melted though, my mind raced on and made some connections and without thinking I blurted, “The Inguel! That is what this is about.”
He nodded, “I handled it badly. I have become what I feared. I was arrogant and forgot to listen to my heart.”
Ordinx looked thoughtful, but there was a hint of amusement in his eyes. “You are planning to become as you were when you first met us? You think you will be considered the enemy because you will insult them?”
“If that is all Ordinx, I will be pleased. You should have noticed I said this will happen to those in physical bodies on planets within normal space. I do not know why, but it seems we all dream of attaining a goal and when it has been achieved the body takes over, attempting to enjoy a slothful existence without dreams to egg it on. As happened to the Romans.”
“The evolutionary council! That is why you created it. You were worried about this since then.” She was not worried, Cherine showed mostly wonder that he had been thinking so far ahead from then.
Robert grinned at her. “I’m probably worrying without reason. You and I might retire to some beach and let Sam handle it. She is much tougher than me and with Jade at her side they’ll keep everyone on their toes.”
I could have pointed out to him why that wouldn’t happen, but he was enjoying needling me, so I let him. I also realised he had only skimmed the outer layers of his fears and had deliberately turned away from letting us examine his thoughts. We will explain to our friends later what he meant when he said his enemies will be more powerful than him. isi-mi is still trying to work that out and I wonder how she will take to learning the true meaning of his words.
The healers were having a tough time. The mix of plant and animal made it difficult for them to find the answer. Some of the results of their trial and error efforts made us laugh. Have you ever seen a dog chase its tail? The tail moves as the back part of the body moves, but this beast has such a long tail it could reach it. We thought it might try to ‘suck’ in its tail and worried what the result would be, but it only rubbed along it, as if trying to identify where the pain comes from. Another time it bobbed up and down like a yo-yo with little gasps of flame shooting out. Dommi thought the healers must be hitting on some nerves, like when a doctor taps your knee (most of us had never been to a doctor and we sat for a time tapping each others or our own knees, laughing at the feeling and reaction).
The strange thing is that they did not find any damaged cells. What they finally reported is that the energy had upset the balance of the way its body ‘married’ the plant origins. They determined that the mixture is not one even thing throughout. Certain parts are mostly fibrous vegetable, though so tough that steel would have seemed, in comparison, to be the vegetable. In other parts, or in certain organs, the origin is mostly fleshy pulp. To restate the obvious, the old Inguel scientists must have been very knowledgeable about genetic engineering to be able to create this beast.
2866
Finally we learnt that the ray of energy had made one of the nodes within its brain, which is mostly pulpy plant - as I am told, the softer plant material is easier to program than stringy cells - breakdown as its circulation (blood? I can’t believe that) dramatically increased to that area and that brought a higher temperature which is killing some of the plant (brain) cells. The healers do not know what to do about it, but as they watched, they saw how the body itself is fighting to find equilibrium again and using that rudimentary knowledge, they were able to assist speed up its recovery.
The beast did not exhibit any interest in Robbie again so we could not lead it away from a solar system that lay ahead. When it became obvious to the astronomers that the beast was aiming directly for a sun we shot off to investigate. Robbie knew there would be no sentient life, but the astronomers told him there might be a planet suitable to life.
From space nothing could be seen. Landmass did not exceed three per cent and what little of it there was did not look larger than tiny islands. Robbie sent a probe into the atmosphere and he exclaimed, a sound of pure pleasure and wonder. Carefully he withdrew the probe.
His mind seemed to have filled with dancing lights. We have only seen his mind like that when one of us do something childishly endearing, something that surprises him with delight. This is the first time anything else has affected him like this and to this degree.
“Everybody is going to want to see this! Would it be selfish of me if I wanted my family to be the first?”
Dommi tenderly touched his hand. “Not selfish love, but unnecessary. Part of our enjoyment will be sensing our friends as we view it with them.”
He grinned at her. “I’m not going to even try to tell you. Girls, call them all, I can’t wait to see your faces.”
“If we will be anything like your mind is, I think you’ll be watching us instead of whatever you saw down there.” Cherine teased. He nodded in agreement, still grinning.
I asked Meli to write the description of what we saw; in desperation, after Wendy, I even asked Candy. This needs a poet, an artist. Robbie I will not ask, so you will all lose out - unless it becomes a place for all Cherinian tourists to visit. As widely as we differ among species with regard to what we consider beautiful, on this we all agreed: never, anywhere, at any time, have we seen such delicate ethereal beauty. When you consider that it is possible - no, let me take it in the right order.
Once our domed platform had entered normal space and floated within the upper layers of the atmosphere, Robbie altered the properties of the energy so that it became totally transparent, giving our eyes the illusion that we stand unsupported in the air - which scared the hell out of Allan, but he refused to show it, if keeping his eyes closed most of the time while crouching on hands and knees doesn’t count.
We passed through some gauzy streamers of cloud and looked down, but still saw nothing that could have caused such an impression on Robbie. A planet with mostly the blue of water with icecaps at either end and a few squiggly lines of land here and there. Pretty, yes; beautiful enough to move him like that? No. We dropped to about two hundred feet above the water and we gasped. The water is not flat, as with our oceans it has waves and whitecaps rolling over it. There was that natural part of it, but what was not natural was every so often the water seemed to rise above the surface in a lacework that arcs and flows from shape to shape. We saw spires of water-lace reaching sixty, seventy feet above the surface. None of it moved, apart from an odd gentle sway, like bamboo in a breeze.
With extreme caution we sank under the waves, Robbie extending himself to avoid touching what we thought are glass sculptures or cities. When he stopped moving we waited, wondering what he was looking for. He just sat there with an idiotic grin on his face. I stepped up to the shield and looked carefully. I could not see anything. I looked upwards towards the surface and saw marks where the lace broke the surface tension, the rippling of water around them and the separation of small waves making it obvious. I tried to see where they come down within the water and saw nothing.
“Either those glass fronds grow on top of the water or else the water makes them invisible down here. For you to be grinning like that, it means we are presuming something and we are wrong. Robbie, it is not fair if you are using your energies to see what it is.”
He gave a short bark of laughter (I’ve seen other authors use that phrase, but it makes him sound like a dog, I don’t like it). “We have a batch of scientists here, no startling revelations from them? Okay, have any of you noticed anything peculiar? Sam, I’ve only used my eyes and common sense.”
2867
*You mean you have some?* I asked. He did not answer because he saw I am furiously trying to concentrate on whatever clues he has noticed.
“Glass could be invisible under water if it is absolutely pure. How…no, that is not the answer. Robbie, wouldn’t the tides or storms shatter the glass, if it was glass?”
“No moon love. Perhaps storms do shatter them, how would we know?”
One of the scientists tried shining a light, but the sun was too bright at this depth for it to make a difference. We rose back up into the air. Once he was about half a kilometre high he travelled swiftly. He was aiming for the polar region and before the ice began he hovered a moment and then sank down to the water. Nothing. Nada! Just water. I can’t really say that Robbie is to blame for anything, but nobody was trying to hazard a guess - none of us did because we did not trust him, unreasonably feeling he is tricking us, trying to provoke us into looking like fools. We all know our minds well enough to see that it was a subconscious suspicion, that he was also perplexed, but he was also amused and delighted, like a child with a new toy, and that fed our suspicions.
“Let’s try the night side.”
“Before we do, could we return to where we can touch one, perhaps also take a sample?”
“No samples yet. I’m sorry, I dare not even let you touch them. We cannot open the shields, our bacteria could destroy this world. We will return to warmer waters and I’ll allow you to stretch your arms through the shield, but your skin will be sheathed with a layer of energy to prevent contact with this planet. It should feel as if you are wearing an extremely thin glove. Be very gentle, we don’t know how strong this lacy stuff is.”
Emmie was the first to notice. Indripp confirmed it and then we all tried to sense it and felt what they’d felt. There is a very slight tingly feeling to them, as if a tongue is touching the nodes of a small battery. I think the scientists wanted a sample so badly they could have cried, but Robbie was adamant, he insists we are learning without causing damage and that is the way we should continue. He did agree that once we have exhausted all possibilities and if we are confident we will not cause adverse reactions, he might allow a small piece to be broken off.
I gave him what I consider my most evil grin without saying a word. At first he pretended to ignore me, then tried to find out by mind-speak and finally he stopped our movement and turned to me, certain that I am going to make him look foolish.
“Okay, what is amusing you?”
I waited until everybody’s attention was on us. “What is your favourite pastime when you want to be alone and think?”
“Are you asking what do I like to do or where do I like to go? If I answered, to walk on a beach, would that be the right answer?”
“Yup.” I was convinced he understood, but he played along, never shy about making himself the fool if it helps make one of us look clever or feel good.
“So? Not many beaches here.”
“What do you see on the beach?”
“Sand?” He grinned. “Okay, bits of shells and… oh, you mean seaweed?”
“Marine vegetation, pieces of coral and so on. Why not search on one of the islands here. We might find a piece for the scientists to experiment on without having to do any damage.”
Ettoli asked, his voice puzzled, “Why would any creature build these tubes? I am convinced they are filled with water inside.”
Enztepir replied, “If the life-form that created it lives in the ocean, they would need water inside. Same as we have air in here for us. You are right though, I had not thought of it.”
Robbie had raised me to his face and he said softly, “We’ll search a beach later love. Let’s go see the night side.”
2868
“Why?”
“I don’t see any organisms. Perhaps they only rise out of the depths at night.”
As we out-raced the sun and dusk turned to night we all stared below us with amazement. We slowed down and sank to about a hundred feet above the water. Even the scientists forgot to ask questions and we were all lost, enraptured, captured by the beauty below us. I’ve seen the pale green phosphoresce of our tropical seas at night, but this was so much more. All the lacy structures phosphoresced in all the most vivid pastel colours. Every possible colour seemed to glow under our feet. Not only did they glow, but the colours seemed to move, rippling colours flowing from one into another. It is true for the parts above sea level, plus the lacy structures that are below the surface. We can see the colours reaching down into and under the water.
In a rapture Candy exclaimed, “The whole sea is a beautiful garden!”
Goldi whispered in delight, “Sea-fairies!” She was right. This is too beautiful for humans. Lacy fairy-towers, gardens of colours deep under water, it turned the night into something magical. There was one spot that went from lightest lilac to a deep velvety purple. Seltwe suggested this might be because that area, on the seabed, is rich in a particular chemical.
None of us wanted to leave. We spent nearly two weeks there, spending time in the daylight and night. We touched tubes on the night side and the tingling is much stronger. We also searched the beaches, but no pieces were found. That did not make sense. Robbie kindly made no mention of my suggestion.
Solomon innocently made a comment that sent the scientists scurrying off to try new experiments. He said, “It looks like water that has been made hard.” We found a growth that did not seem to be part of any other and Robbie allowed a small piece to be broken off. It was extremely hard to break and when it did, it dissolved into water before they could bring it inside to examine.
For a while, at the point where they had snapped it, water flowed out. It slowed down and within the hour it had re-sealed itself.
We sent our healers into the structures, but no life was found. There does not seem to be any life on this planet! That does not make sense. It has atmosphere, water, is rich in chemicals and life is so persistent, always cropping up wherever it has even the slimmest chance of surviving. Our searches on the islands did show remains of simple lifeforms. Something is killing any form of life that appears. There is no plankton in the sea, no vegetation on land or water, and the planet is entirely sterile, apart from the lacy structures.
“This is not something to be examined over a few weeks Robert. We will need months or years here. I suggest we return with a group of scientists properly equipped. If you insist we must not contaminate this world, then bring space suits and closed environments for them to work in. We might be able to suggest improvements to the suits your people make.”
“Seltwe, I understand your needs, but it still worries me. We do not even know how these glass-like corals are formed. The beauty we have found here must not be put at risk. My experience is that whatever safeguards are put in place, accidents will happen. Over time, familiarity and an apparent lack of threat will make people careless. All we need is for one person to decide to break the rules. This world has a right to exist as it is and our right to know does not supersede it. I also would like to declare this world a Heritage site, which means it is a treasure that belongs to all life, not just to us.”
“Robert, could we use one of the sealed off sections on your spaceship-world? We could fill it with the atmosphere and other elements of this world. We could experiment there without risking this planet. I would like to see whether the structures would grow there.” The suggestion by Enztepir was enthusiastically adopted by all, so Robbie gave in. Us girls noticed he was not happy and something seemed to be bothering him, but we kept quiet, knowing he will tell us later.
It did not surprise us therefore when we saw him take all the safety precautions he could think of to prevent our world from becoming contaminated. He strengthened the shields around that section; gave it a totally separate supply of water and air, not just filtering them as he usually does. Around all of that he placed another shield with the land in-between a ‘no-mans’ land, dead and sterile. The next morning he took it a step further and removed all matter, making the section float in a vacuum. Sorry, Robbie says it is not a vacuum. It is the void. The void would instantly destroy any matter that escapes, however microscopic.
2869
“We have been concentrating on not causing damage to the ecology of this world. No one seems to be worried about the fact that there is no life here. Why is it that every time life has tried to appear, it has died off? What is inimical to life here?”
Sol said, “Robert, tell the scientists that their first experiments should identify that. If there is something hostile to life here, the possibility will ensure no risks are taken.”
We watched Robbie scoop up soil from the seabed and water. He did it by creating a shell of energy that enclosed all, soil, water and atmosphere within a globe just smaller than the section he has sealed off. Once it was all in place, he decided to leave that globe (energy shield) as further protection. A couple of the younger scientists were assigned to this area while the rest concentrated on learning all they can about the planet while we are still here. One of the Inguel asked to study the space surrounding the planet and the sun. Within days he returned to us, excited.
“I think I have found the enemy. We must not leave yet Robert. The sun is giving off some form of radiation I have not seen before.”
He came up with a theory that needs to be tested over a great amount of time. We shot back a few thousand years, he sampled the radiation and we returned another few thousand years. By the time we returned to our own time he was surrounded by all the scientists and they were all chattering away in their own languages, using English to communicate across species (so it seemed to me).
“This is only a theory and it needs to be studied further. Robert, if we have understood it correctly, the sun fluctuates in size and when it expands it gives off a radiation that kills all life on the planet. The sun does this every three and a half to four thousand years.”
“Then the structures are not alive?”
“We do not think so.”
“I do not understand. We have certain chemicals on Earth that will grow in the form of crystals, but these structures do not seem to be made of any concentration of chemicals.”
“We believe Solomon supplied us with the correct clue. We do not understand how it happens, but it seems they are made of water that is held within a form of energy.”
“Energy? Why can’t I identify it then? It cannot be a weak energy otherwise the structures would not be able to grow to such heights. When you tried to break off a piece it needed more force than we expected, for us to succeed.”
They nodded happily. “That is why we need to stay and learn. This could teach us much that would help all species.”
He smiled. “So soon? You have forgotten our beast? Let’s finish that job and we can return here at some other time. Before we leave, I suggest you measure the sun; we do not want to arrive here at a time it has expanded and is giving off lethal radiation.”
“It seems the beast is settled in orbit around the sun. We could do both at the same time.”
“Why has it chosen this sun?”
“What do you mean?”
“It had a choice of billions of suns. Why did it chose this one? Does it need that radiation you spoke of? What would happen to it if the radiation increases, or decreases?”
I guess this means we will be stuck here for quite a while longer. We don’t mind. We have lots of books to read and other things to study. Whenever we need a change, Robbie takes us on a tour of the world below. He has relaxed a lot and that means he becomes very loving. Even when making love he often fools around, making us laugh. He insists we must maintain a certain amount of routine; study at a certain hour, eat at the right times and so on. Dommi agrees with him. We are not always successful - especially when trying to study, and he comes along and massages the nape, his fingers then straying to our shoulders and then onwards, making it impossible for us to keep our concentration on what we are reading. None of us are complaining though.
2870
Jade asked him to create a sphere for her, she wants to visit the purple spot to paint it. He did so, providing her with food, a bathroom, a bed and chair and table. She can control the illumination and move the pod if she needs to. She was gone for two days when Robbie suddenly said ‘shit!’ very forcefully and disappeared.
He brought the pod out of the ocean and kept it in the atmosphere for the scientists to take a look at before bringing it to the void. He waited until it was absolutely clean again before bringing it back home.
He explained to the scientists and us. “As you know, each of the pods is controlled by a small part of me. It is not truly aware, mostly only able to run a certain number of pre-set tasks. Luckily I decided to make the part of me that ran Jade’s pod slightly more aware. It sensed the energy field was being corroded. Parts of the structure surrounding her had grown over and around it. It must have been attracted to the energy. If I had left the pod there for another day it would have achieved penetration.”
“Those pieces that were growing on the shield, they were beautiful Robert!”
“Yes, I noticed the change in colours. A different source of energy must alter the colours.”
“Then the purple patch is because of a certain type of energy, not chemicals as we thought.”
“Perhaps, it seems reasonable.”
“We need to check it out. We are so limited in the equipment we have! I wish I had a …..” He used a word in his own language that I can’t write.
That night we sat at the taverna, most of us with fruit juice as we waited for supper. Robbie, Allan and Aganthi were having a good go at our supply of beer. Poor Robbie was not really enjoying it. He is extended in so many pieces with the scientists still on the planet in their pods, that he could not allow himself to get too intoxicated and had to use the healer to flush his system of the alcohol.
He pulled a face. “I thought of this spaceship-world as being a second home for my family. The way things are going it will soon end up full of equipment and scientists.”
Allan laughed. “You could put fifty laboratories in here and not see them.”
“I would sense them though.” Aganthi lit him a cigarette and he stopped to give her a smile. “Every species is asking me to bring more scientists. They say they need help, there is too much for them to handle. That means more computers and equipment. This galaxy is filled with too many wonders for me to refuse them, but I do not want cities in our world.”
Em-e called out, “If we do, can we have a movie house?”
“How about an ice skating rink?” Claudia asked. Soon we were all asking for something.
He looked at Allan who was laughing and laughed, throwing his arms up. “I give up.”
“You better come take a look at this Robert. Bring your family with, they will want to see it too.”
We went to the purple patch. They asked Robbie to sink down to the seabed. They switched on their machine, aiming it at the center of the patch.
“Circle around it please.”
Robbie did so and the machine built up a 3D image. It made no sense. He fiddled with the image, lopping off arms and leaving only the heart of it. We were all excited - Robbie and Allan more than all of us.
“I’ll be damned! A spaceship!”
“Exactly what we thought too. Robert, this means more to us than you can imagine. The ship under all that, it is one of ours.”
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)19th November, 2019
- posted: 19th November, 2019
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