It is heartbreaking feeling so much pain, but knowing they will someday love their Robert and live, maybe, eternal lives, gives us the courage to bear their misery.
3351
After they saw how futile their attempts are and their rage calmed down into anger, there were moments they were able to put on a brave face and become interested in what we are experiencing and in learning more about us. Once they were able to smile when something funny happened, we knew we are well on our way.
Dommi decided we must do another telling, this time for the parents, though everyone who can will be attending. We first did a golden ring of love and only afterwards did the girl appear on the stage. Slanting the story to help the two Marians was not enough, the fathers are the biggest problem…or so we feel.
We never did learn why the one Cherine is not a ‘daddy’s girl’, but we think it is because he was more interested in visiting the pub than any other Eric Blake has been. Whatever they have been as fathers, in the past, has not altered the fact that the fear of losing their Cherine has made them more aware (or re-awakened) their love for her, making it difficult for us to get through to them.
One of our problems is that they have watched our previous telling and so they are aware of any tricks we pulled on their alternates to help them accept the Robert of their Cherine, so they are well defended against those wiles of ours (it is how they think). They are attending the present telling, but they are on guard for whatever tricks we try to pull on them.
When someone has a bad opinion of you, whether you deserve it or not, it does make it difficult to help them, so we finally wised up and decided not to try. It took a couple of days before the message percolated its way through to them and they grew even more suspicious of us. Luckily, those of us who found it funny, kept our amusement carefully hidden.
The two Cherines were not helping very much, for they are still little girls and don’t have enough experience to be more careful of saying or doing those little things that upset their parents. We had to keep on talking to them and reminding them that we are on this trip so as to help them win the approval of their parents. They would become penitent for a while, but then their zest for life would make them forget and they would do the wrong things again. I’m not talking about kissing or hugging or anything like that. Those they understand are not acceptable and will annoy us also, for it shows they don’t respect their parents. Luckily their Roberts both agreed with us and so they were careful not to give offence.
Mostly they angered and hurt their parents by not wanting to spend time with them and finding excuses every day to be away from them, even when there was nothing else of interest going on. This could turn out to be a double-edged sword; for if they start making more time for their parents, the parents are likely to take it as a sign that their little girl has seen the light and prefers them. Whatever the dangers, empathy demands they do what they can to take away some of the pain from their parents and they sensed how we feel. Being Cherines, they are stubborn, but after a few days, when we did not react to their rebelling, they allowed their own empathy to open them to their parents again.
When emotions are this strong, nothing remains static for long, so they flowed up and down, from joy to sadness and back again, but slowly the parents began to realise that they are not in control and if they want their daughter to love them, they will have to accept Robert. It was only to be expected that at first it would not be real, that they did so in the hope their daughter will see they are being reasonable and now can see Robert for what he truly is - a paedophile who is out to destroy their family life.
With time the pretence become less of a pretence and when they found that sometimes Robert would argue with his Cherine on their behalf, demanding Cherine be fair to her parents, they stopped seeing him as the enemy. Now it became Cherine who they thought is to blame. We did another telling and they passed through this phase without causing too much damage to their relationship with their daughter.
“I think we are now close to the day when their parents will be accepted as Cherinians by both Cherines.”
Dommi nodded. “I agree, but we must give them the time they need.”
“How long?” Robbie asked.
Dommi laughed. “Why? Are you worried that time is passing and you are growing older?”
There was a sudden stunned silence. Isn’t it funny how knowing something is not enough by itself. It has to be accepted somewhere deep inside and until it is, we can still find ourselves stunned by a simple observation or question that makes it feel real.
3352
“No hurry, love, no hurry.”
Those who had not heard, but had sensed us, wanted to know what had affected us and we passed on the question Dommi asked. It stunned them also, for they have the same problems in adjusting to the changes of being Cherinians, so they discussed it and the parents listened and maybe gave it some thought, for I think it was only at this moment that they began to appreciate what a miracle their daughter is - which then had to be expanded to include ‘their’ Robert.
We all love to think that we are in control of our lives, but it is such small accidents and the way they solve our problems or change our lives, that show us that we are indeed lucky that we have not evolved to the state of being totally in control of our lives.
We have derived a lot of satisfaction from our ‘vacation’ trips and are delighted that there are three new Cherinian realities - it really does feel as if our family has grown. We will have to return to help strengthen them and teach them how to jump to visit us, whether in Freddie or at our Athens home. A good idea was suggested some time ago; so that they know where and when to jump to. Our alternates can ask their Sparklers to find us by them aiming to find our Solomon.
While we were in these realities of our Syncosmi, though I did not mention it at the time, we did visit the local prison outside of Piraeus - as souls, since visitors are not welcomed. The problem is that they no longer have the death penalty, but we got around that by asking guards that we met during their off-duty hours. They were surprisingly willing to talk about the old days and where the executions used to take place, but there was an important problem that prevented us from pinpointing where the execution chamber should be. When they still had the death sentence, it was carried out by hanging, which was done outside, in an enclosed courtyard. Neither of the realities have ever had a death chamber!
As Robbie said, when we broke off our efforts (at the time we developed the gel dampener), we are going to jump directly to the alt Arthur reality. Since it is more likely Freddie can now be noticed by their growing technology, we will be parking almost far out by the Oort cloud and using our gifts to teleport us closer to Earth - or maybe even directly onto the surface, if we find it is safe to do so - if we can fool the reality into sensing us as using ‘normal’ methods for travelling.
We no longer have any set plans, as we need time to recover from our repeated failures and the seeing and being so deeply immersed in sensing the impending death of alt Arthur. I’m going to change my description of him, even if it is correct, for he has offered himself as a martyr to a selfless love and it is as such he should be remembered by us. Arthur the Martyr. Before you protest, Arthur, we did manage to communicate with him, so let me finish, okay?
Efforts six, seven, were just tests as we tried to get to Arthur. We were not only trying to touch his flesh, we also wanted to touch his mind so as to communicate, warn him of our efforts to save him and ask that he does not panic and co-operates with us. Since we did not want to be seen by his guards before making certain we can save him, we were making our attempts as souls.
Trip eight was the first assault against the rules of that reality. Arthur was coming close to the end of the passage and time was running out. Arthur, I know that you know that our Cherine loves you, maybe most of all of us, so it is not surprising that she tried the hardest, her trying more desperate than planned. No surprise then that she kept failing.
We hope your reality is not so dead-set against psychic powers and gifts, for this kind of reality is not a reality for Cherinians. There is nothing worse than trying so hard, giving it all of your heart and soul, and feeling all that effort dissolving and fading away as if it is nothing.
Because we knew that once we return to Freddie and to our Syncosmi, we will only have two more opportunities to succeed, we were obstinate and kept on trying past exhaustion and beyond the diminishing peaks of courage, our spirit dulled by the constant disappointments and failures. It was Dommi who finally realised what is happening to her family and called a halt, demanding we return to Freddie. Once we were in Freddie, she told him to return us to where the other Freddies wait.
3353
I doubt that by this time anybody cares, but a streak of something in me demands I mention how I feel - which makes sense, but is weird; it is as if we are watching our repeated deaths as we (the previous Freddies) disappear. I know it is not that, I’m just tired and feeling morose.
If I may go back in time a moment; when we returned as Freddie II, we saw that Freddie I disappeared after a while (the amount of time it took us to leave after the other Freddies put in their appearance). So, though for us, as Freddie I, the others permanently waited, we stopped being there when we departed, which, as I said, makes sense, but feels strange (I don’t know, why, I think I am just over-tired, I’ll stop and go to sleep before I continue.)
Okay, fair enough. I deleted some of the above from yesterday, for it made me feel I was being stupid, but Arthur typed some of it back in. I sense my loves agree with him, so it stays - even if he mashed up what I said and makes me look even more stupid than I was being. L
I am not the only one, there is a general feeling of listless apathy, which I presume does not only come from lack of success, but also from too great an investment of emotion. Nobody questioned us and they did all they could to ensure we recover in a restful atmosphere. After two days we felt well enough to share with everyone who can share from us.
A CherInguel, an-Spirdef, spoke for our friends, which includes Terrans! (A note, to clarify what will be said: when others wish to address us as a family, they often choose to speak to Cherine, which is good, for it indicates they still consider her our leader and they show they honour her above all else).
“Not all of it was unknown to us, for we have watched the recordings from the instruments within the platform, but of course you took none of us with you when you travelled as souls to the prison. We have keenly listened to you analyse your failures each time you returned to the platform and we hope we have a suggestion or two that may help you break through.”
Robbie responded. “Then please make them.”
“As you are aware, it is easier for persons of the same species to communicate telepathically, so we understood that you not only were trying to reduce the risks of rejection by the reality by not taking any of us with you. Are you now more confident of the platforms so that we can accompany you as souls?”
“As souls? You do not wish to be there in your bodies?”
“We are not speaking of wishes Robert, only of what is practical. It is easier to concentrate the power of our gifts as souls and it is essential for the successful application of our idea. Cherine, what we wish to do is be with you as souls, great numbers of each of us within your bodies and souls - we ask to be within, so that no hint of psychic energy betrays us. Our role will solely be to act as amplifiers, to boost and sharpen your own attempts to break through into his mind. Would this not help us secure his soul at least?”
Alki asked with a shocked voice, “You can do it!?”
He replied, maybe with typical Inguel dry wit, or maybe he was just being serious, “We do not know, but is it not worth the effort?” He then answered the question we had not asked, “We have practiced and it works while within Freddie, we cannot guarantee the effects will be the same when their reality tries to block us - if it can sense our efforts from within you.”
“It means that only those who are within me can help strengthen me? Cherine asked.
“Correct, but those can be hundreds, thousands, or even millions, according to the number you are comfortable with.”
Robbie burst out, “Alki, Marian, all of you, you must come with, even if only to experience this. It sounds like a super sharing…”
“I apologise Robert,” an-Spirdef cut in, “but there will be no sharing, there must not be, or else some of what is alien will be sensed by his soul and rejected, we must remain nothing more than a conduit and accelerator ring.”
Suddenly we were all absurdly invigorated, filled with energy and positive emotings again. If that was all they could offer, it would have been a valuable gift.
3354
Over the next few days we spent many hours practising and learning how many aliens we can comfortably fit without it causing negative results. None of the others were surprised that I could fit the most without any strain, but I was mainly relieved, for as ‘friend of aliens’ it would not have looked good if the opposite had been the case.
We practiced with half of us being on the sending end and the other half on the receiving. If we had been taught this manoeuvre so as to strengthen ourselves, we would have rejected it, for the one being bombarded is helpless to resist, even Robbie and Cherine - which is why we made an undertaking to never use this technique against anyone.
Everyone was giddy with anticipation of our inevitable success as Freddie IX, but unfortunately for me, I could not be a part of it, though I managed to hide the way I was feeling, for a thought had crossed my mind: if this technique is powerful enough for us to break through into his mind, why then will we have to return here to become the tenth Freddie?
That evening I professed an urgent curiosity and need to spend the night with Freddie, all thanks to my horrible curiosity about him, which has been growing too strong for me to resist for even one more night. The girls did not believe me, but Robbie only asked me, mock seriously, if there is time for me to first sit on his lap and cuddle for a while.
“I admit you caught me by surprise with your request, Samantha.”
We were sitting on a lawn with a lovely - and graceful plantation style house behind us, with the sun setting behind fiery red clouds on the other side of a lake. In my hand I held a glass of fruit juice so cold that drops of dew slipped down and wet my fingers. “You have a world of your own? It must be a lovely place to slip away to when we’ve put you through too much stress.”
“This place is not real Sam and your body is still at your home in a guest bedroom.”
“I’m glad you are able to have a place like this - it is just a pity you don’t have a girl waiting for you here.”
“For that to be worth enjoying, she would have to be real…not like this place.”
I nodded. “You’ll manage it someday Freddie.”
“Am I allowed to ask why you are here instead of within the arms of your family?”
I explained and he chuckled. “Many have asked themselves the same question, but have kept it to themselves so as not to spoil it for the others.”
I was quiet for a while. “Freddie, overseeing so many people in the way you do, does your position sometimes seem godlike?”
He did not answer me, deflecting me with, “The only godlike being I know is Cherine.” I let him get away with it, after all, it is a way of asking for privacy.
I had been curious about the way Freddie spends his time when he is not fully immersed in running Freddie the ship, but had not really planned on questioning him. Now that I was in this place within his mind, my mind was filled with questions, but I also found this easy companionship precious and feared speaking, as I might change the way things are between us. Another point of interest for my future readers, I have, till now, always thought of Freddie as being Robbie, or a part of him, but now that I could sense him more clearly, I sensed he has changed and is not fully our Robbie anymore. Maybe that is why I also did not feel I have the right to question him, we first must reach that state of friendship where the kind of questions I may ask can be asked without harming our future friendship. An aside; when I begin asking questions, half of me is concentrating on the answer, but half is examining the answer as it comes and finding new questions within those answers, so I tend to forget myself and can sometimes be considered rude or inconsiderate. I don’t want that to happen with Freddie, he is too precious. Still…
“I’ve tried to picture what it must be like for you and I see two ways you can monitor us; the one way is that you grow something electronic which is akin to nerves that reach to the inner skin and somehow they can see and sense us, or else, you do so telepathically. I hope the first way is true, that would be more fascinating.”
3355
He chuckled. “Both are true, especially with visitors, as I don’t know them well enough to anticipate what they might do, either to harm others or through ignorance or bravado, themselves. I presume it is the same for you, that when you are out of Freddie, you are more aware of the emoting you sense in others…mainly as an instinctive need because they are relatively strangers to you and your family?”
We exchanged information of the kind that also help us come to know the inner mind of each other, and when he sensed me grow sleepy, he stopped talking and let the sky in his mental world darken and I fell asleep! I would not have imagined it is possible.
I woke up a bit later this morning back within my own body, and my time with Freddie almost felt like a dream.
Arthur, in about an hour we are returning to the alt Arthur reality and though I can sense you are itching to ask me questions, I can’t stay to chat as I want to be with the others, to share in the growing sense of anticipation and excitement as everyone watches Robbie checking and reinforcing the platform.
As we followed alt Arthur in the passage, I wished they would do something to make the passage less grim looking, but then I had the grotesque picture of some sick mind painting happy pictures for the soon-to-be-deceased, showing imaginary but beautiful scenes of the Heaven they will not be going to. I don’t know why I had that thought, but it made everything even worse for me.
We have permitted or allocated ourselves the span of time it takes him to walk four shuffling steps towards the death chamber. If we have not managed within that many seconds, then it means we have not found the correct or most efficient answer and will be reducing our chances of saving him by blindly trying repeatedly what is already indicated a failure.
The aliens within each of us were giving their all as we struggled to break through his non-psychically-liberated mind and when he seemed to stagger for a moment, we thought it showed something is getting through to him and tried even harder. It did not work and as he took his fourth step and we began to leave, alt Arthur muttered, “Damn fuzzies!”
It was too late for us to immediately try again as most of us were already gone, only Robbie, Cherine and Aganthi still there as they always remain behind to ensure we are all safely gone. We felt the excitement in the three of them when they arrived back in the platform, but Robbie asked us to wait until we are in Freddie.
“With so many helping, I felt we should each of us be here in whatever passes for a body, so that it feels more real. As we were leaving, Arthur muttered ‘Damn fuzzies!’ which we think means we were almost getting through to him, but it was not clearly enough for him to hear or understand our message.”
I frowned. “Knowing how Arthur always analyses everything, even if he hears us clearly, he will decide that his mind is playing tricks on him because of his fear, and his pride will demand of him that he ignores us.”
Cherine burst into tears, thinking my analysis of Arthur makes it impossible for us to help him. To explain what makes it so urgent for us that we help him before he dies. We can’t seem to enter their void - if there is one. If alt Arthur dies and we cannot prevent his soul leaving, we can then never get him…unless we maybe can identify his next life, but then it will be too late, that personality will have first rights.
When we feel our previous attempt was close to success, it is very tempting to return as soon as possible. Commonsense dictates that we don’t, that we first analyse in great depth, with Robbie stretching everything into slow motion, just in case we find flaws we had not seen during the concentration of our attempts.
3356
We decided that we had allowed our pride to blind us to the most efficient extension of our idea. Instead of each of us attempting to contact alt Arthur, which would also explain why he was receiving a jumbled cacophony of voices calling to him, we should have done as we did, but taken it the extra step by concentrating all our energy and beaming it to Robbie or Cherine and letting them make the final effort. Robbie knows what it would mean for Cherine to get through to him, so he asked that she be our final voice. For a while she was happy, but then she made a different suggestion.
Shyly, she admitted, “I also felt that because I love him, the love will get through so that he wants to hear me. However, if I am to think in that way, then I have to accept that I do not represent his best chance of being saved. Goldi does - she has a gift which his reality does not consider a psychic power, so maybe it can get through to him.”
Once she had said it, we also saw how right she is and started our training all over again so that Goldi has done it dozens of times and it comes naturally to her. For the first six attempts she was a mess, for she could not believe she really is our best choice, but once she accepted that whether she is our best choice or not, she is our choice and therefore must do her best, she concentrated and quickly improved. Once we felt she is at her peak, we made another dozen practice runs so that she does everything without needing to worry about the details - as if the entire process has become second nature to her.
Our friends suggested that as we are coming closer to our final attempt, we should also try to take a sample of his tissue, even if we only manage a couple of cells, as we might need then for him, but it is also likely we’ll need them for our Arthur. A separate group of non-family members was formed and they tried to train so as to maximise their effectiveness. Since they cannot reach out, beyond the Terran carrying them, it was decided that Latreia will be their means of transport and the one who will, using their power to boost her, reach out to take the samples. So that his reality does not sense her psychic attempt, she will extend a part of her soul into him and try from there. For the first time we are going there with two objectives and both are important, it is not a case of ‘at least succeeding with the one’.
Arthur, you would not believe how many spend hours every day discussing you. Not so much what you are as a person, but what you are as a force - we can’t help thinking of it as a psychic force, which is very confusing. You say our problem in contacting or finding you and your reality is because of you having a negative psychic force in that regard, and yet, with regard to us and our realities, there does not seem to be an end or limit to your powers. 
I agree, I was thinking of your imagination as being extraordinary, (you must admit you too would feel that way if you were on our side of the equation), and for an imagination to be extraordinary, it would have to be considered a psychic gift. I was over-simplifying and arguing that apples are pears; such an extraordinary imagination can only be considered a mental gift. Sorry, I guess there is nothing positive about you - psychically.
When you wrote that, I gave him a grin and told him, “Now you’ll never dare spank me, as you don’t want him to stop thinking so highly of you.”
He grinned back. “It may be worth sacrificing his opinion of me…at least once.” Don’t worry, he won’t.
As we start to think we are ready to make the next attempt, we pull back so as to re-examine our complete strategy and try to find ways to improve it, for this is going to be our last attempt - we don’t know whether we will succeed or not, since even success would not tempt us to break our rule. For there to be only ten Freddies, it means we, the tenth, will either succeed, or else we will fail so abysmally that there will be no point in returning.
Finally, instead of saying we’ll go ‘tomorrow’, we said ‘in three days time’. Nothing new was invented or created, so the day came and we filed into the platform, without knowing that these three extra days are to have played a crucial role in what will happen.
When we arrived, we saw that alt Arthur has taken a step in our absence and is at the door, which is beginning to open. Now that we can see into the room, we estimate he still has at least six steps to take plus whatever time they will need for strapping him and preparing the injections. Since we will not be returning, we will stay until the last second if we have to.
3357
Below is my poor attempt to show how we are organised; since our attempt is in our souls, not in our bodies, which wait for us in the platform, the schematic is only for the purpose of illustrating how we think of ourselves being organised, as in fact, there does tend to be considerable overlap, as our souls don’t exactly hold a consistent shape -
The three 1,000 ‘booster’ souls boost our psychic power to Cherine and her 1,000 ‘booster’ souls boost what she receives, plus her own attempt, sending it to Goldi, who has her own 1,000 ‘booster’ souls helping to boost all she receives, plus her own effort - plus there are an extra 100 booster souls trying to boost her ‘sweetness’ gift (neither they nor we, nor Goldi herself, know whether they are succeeding, since all they can boost is what they ‘sense’ from her, not the gift itself).
I suspect that in any other of our realities, with so much power being ‘boosted’ at one person, the recipient would be atomised within the first second. As alt Arthur shuffled the last few steps, we concentrated, trying harder and harder (if that is possible, but it is how it felt to us), but he did not seem to sense us. He was also probably sharply focussing his mind, concentrating with all his power on not showing his fear, despite his knees buckling with every step.
As he was about to be seated, Goldi cut us off, nearly ‘blowing’ is back into our bodies!
Once it happened, it was too late for Robbie or anyone else to intervene, which is probably why Goldi kept it a secret. Without warning us, Goldi had decided, during the last three days, that if she senses we are failing, she will appear in her own body and speak to alt Arthur. She did so, fully aware of the damage his reality will cause her, but she also thought she can return before it does too much damage. Her body appeared and as the 100 souls continued trying to boost her, it glowed with a golden light. Alt Arthur stared at her with shock and as she spoke, with delight.
Goldi spoke in Greek so that all would understand her. “Arthur, we cannot interfere in your physical world - and yet, we have been trying with all the power we can gather to collect you from this world that refuses to see the purity of your soul, so as to have you live among us, filled with our love. If any person has sacrificed his life for a good purpose, it is when that person does so out of love. You will be remembered and loved by us forever.” She paused and then added, “Above all of us, I must let you know that you are deeply loved by the one who is the best of all of us and her name is Cherine.”
We watched as Goldi, emoting as powerfully as she ever has, leant over and kissed alt Arthur on his lips. Neither of them could feel the kiss, for that has not changed, all she is able to do is be seen and heard - she does speak the words with her mouth, but we think his reality is interfering and they are not heard, the sound they hear is not auditory, she is also projecting her words telepathically, which I imagine will cause trouble for everyone present if they have recording equipment present.
If the look on his face meant anything, we thought, it meant he will die happy. However, Goldi had made a mess of their procedures and there were journalists present who were shouting, demanding that the death sentence be cancelled. Those present did not have the authority to do so, but it was postponed.
A guard did make attempts, seen and even photographed, to grab hold of Goldi - with her emoting so strongly, he must have a soul so insensitive that it must seem black when seen in the void. His hands passed through her and this frightened him and he quickly pulled back.
Goldi accompanied alt Arthur back to his cell, maintaining her smile of love, despite her pain, and as he sat on his bed, his limbs still shaking and his eyes fixed with wonder and awe and a growing pain as he saw her skin was being torn all over her, forming a multitude of thin red lines, she slowly faded from his sight and her body was returned to the platform.
Urgently we returned and immediately jumped back to Freddie and we returned to the reality we’d come from. The cause of urgency was Goldi. The alt Arthur reality had punished her direct encroachment on its existence by trying to tear apart her body. Can you even imagine what fortitude and courage it took for her to conceal from alt Arthur her pain and continue showing him only her love?
3358
Cherine ordered her to leave her body and all of our healers urgently worked together in repairing her cells and organs, while the healer of Robbie concentrated on healing and keeping her brain intact and alive.
The repairs to her body took less than a day, but her mind was also damaged and, I think, she had a subconscious fear that we were all blaming her for the failure, or else we were angry with her, for she drew deep into herself, her mind only superficially with us. It was such a strange absence; having our Goldi physically present, and yet her magical charm absent for the first time ever.
Once she was healed physically, we were asked to leave her alone when she wants to be on her own. She would come with us to the taverna for breakfast, but then she would wander away, lost in herself, and sit by the side of the water, apparently lost in her thoughts for the rest of the day. Nights were no better, which meant there was no loving among us, as we were more concerned about concentrating our love and concern on her.
After the first day, Robbie asked Jade to sit by her and only to respond if Goldi talks to her, otherwise to only provide her with silent companionship.
Jade can be a patient girl when necessary, but by the third day she was asking herself whether she is doing the right thing by remaining silent. Once Robbie has asked anyone to behave in a certain way, he does not become upset if they decide to change his request to something they feel is more ‘right’, so Jade knew she is free to do what she decides will be of more help to Goldi.
Although we know what is bad for us to eat and drink, we are not fanatical about it, so we still drink cold drinks now and then. Jade brought a coke with her and as she sat next to Goldi, she handed over the bottle. She waited until Goldi took her first sip.
“Did you swallow the worm?”
After nearly half a minute, Goldi asked. “What?”
“The worm I put in the coke, did you swallow it or did it dissolve? I was told it will dissolve, but I don’t think it can happen that quickly.”
Goldi raised the bottle and looked, the act itself drawing her back closer to normal awareness. As Jade sensed her, she laughed. “There isn’t a worm, I just wanted to talk with you, so I had to make certain you can hear me, as it is boring sitting here doing nothing all day.”
“Who told you about the worm?”
“Nobody. Robert once spoke about coke dissolving a coin, but I had to grab your attention, so a worm sounded more interesting.”
“Why have you been sitting with me?”
“Well…you were a little bit like the worm in the coke, you were in danger of dissolving, so I had to make certain you don’t.”
“But you said the worm doesn’t exist…oh!” She forced herself back to full awareness - and she could now sense us all listening. “Sorry, you should have spoken earlier.”
“You needed time to think on your own. Have you done your thinking, is it okay for our family to join us?” Jade did not really have to ask since she also could sense the resumption of the sweet and magical emoting of Goldi.
At first only Cherine joined her. Goldi knows that our Cherine loves Arthur more than any of us, so it was best that she talks with her first - with the rest of us she will only reason away our attempts to make her feel she achieved something miraculous, thinking we’re only saying what we do so as to make her feel better.
As we’d hoped, Cherine succeeded in helping Goldi see just how important her success was. “When we left, his execution had been postponed. Goldi, even if they decide to execute him anyway, it means a new date has to be chosen and we can take years to plan our next attempt. If you had not risked yourself, he would be dead and there would be nothing we can do. You know how much it would have cost Robert, he would carry the feeling of failure with him forever. In every way I can think of, we are in your debt my darling daughter.”
3359
Goldi is still not fully recovered, emotionally, but then, it is the same for all of us. We had made an immense emotional investment in our efforts to save alt Arthur and though he still lives, we cannot pull ourselves together because we still feel we failed him and our Arthur. I don’t know why, but Robbie insisted that Alki and Marian return to the wedding-in-stasis, relative to us, though it will be very weird for them.
Robbie used this time to create a few paintings, admired by those who do not know him well enough to see that something is missing. Wendy wrote a few songs, some with Candy, but they lacked the spark that we expect of them. Jade stopped painting and went back to sketching and experimenting with ways to create illusions of depth and weird perspectives. In other words, we all returned to our normal lives in Freddie, we just were not that successful at it.
The aliens still on board are always welcomed at the taverna, even during supper, and a number of discussions are often held. So it was on this beautiful evening. Once Robbie understood what their problem is, for the sake of a few of them, Robbie took us to a double star system for them to try out some theories they had. I heard the word ‘gravity’ mumbled a few times, but mostly they talked using mathematics as their common language. If I understood correctly, they thought seeing the effects of gravitational distortions from the void, if possible, may give them new facts and theories.
The view on our screens were filtered and coloured, showing what only instruments have been able to record. The sight was dramatic and had us glued in our seats for hours on end. What amazed us was how alive it is. If we had thought about it we might have expected the forces to be static, the influence of gravity stable. Instead we saw the sphere of influence of every gravity ‘wave’ fluctuate constantly, perhaps changing as the positions of the two suns altered in relation to each other. They must have also had fluctuating influences affecting them from surrounding stars, the galaxy they are in and even distant galaxies. The scientists confirmed what we thought, but told us they are more excited about the fact that each body is fluctuating slightly also. They argued whether the gravity field of each body alters for internal reasons or only because of the effect on them from other bodies.
I asked, “Do you mean that if two bodies separate, breaking out of their mutual orbits, it is because the fluctuations, for some reason, exceeded the strength of their attraction?”
“You have presented your argument in an intelligent way, Samantha.” I think Robbie and Cherine were the ones flattered on my behalf, I was just pleased that I had not made a fool of myself.
It was only days later that the scientists announced they have discovered an anomaly. Robbie focussed on the area they designated and at first we did not notice anything. When it was pointed out to us it then became obvious. There is an area where no forces exist and never exist. The shape and extent of it had to be calculated by computers. They used thousands of frames, superimposing them to create a picture of the way the fluctuating waves of energy avoid an area. It is a spherical hole of darkness, the fuzzy part or corona about the size of Jupiter, with what almost seemed to be a solid central darkness no bigger than a television set (the old kind, not the flat screens).
“That cannot be natural Robert.”
“My first thought was it might be a microscopic dark hole, but then it would have been drawing in the energy around it. This is actually repulsing them. Can it be a white hole?”
The Anadir scientist smiled. “Apart from not having physical proof that such a thing exists, your visit at the center of the galaxy did not prove it conclusively, even if we are to postulate that it does, will it not emit energies, the opposite of a black hole?”
“True. What then?”
My sense of humour got the better of me. “If it is not a black hole and it is not a white hole, what if it is a flat hole?”
“Huh? Flat? What do you mean?”
“Well, a black hole has gravity that pulls energy and matter into it. A white hole spews out energy and matter. Maybe a flat hole is just a part of space that is allergic to energy and matter - as Robert claims it is between the interfaces of realities.”
3360
A few of the scientists began to discuss my theory earnestly, enjoying trying to work out theoretical reasons for what could cause such a space to come into existence and how it would affect space around it. When they walked off to try and create a mathematical model to prove-disprove my flat hole, I sent Cherine an amused signal of victory and she giggled.
Because the others had their own theories, they ignored me. “What if it is an artificial object? We cannot pierce the outer shell since even light is not allowed to enter so we cannot guess at what lies within it.”
“What if I test it with energies from the void?”
“We were hoping you would offer.”
“I see. What was wrong with asking?”
She gave a short laugh. “Asking will leave us beholden to you. You are insinuating we are anyway?”
“I am insinuating that either way you would not be. We are, I hope, going to be spending a lifetime of discovery together. I had hoped we travel the road to knowledge together, or were you planning to keep any knowledge gained to yourselves? If you were, then you are right, you will be beholden.”
Even as they stuttered and tried to apologise their way around the words he’d used on purpose to stop them from feeling they have to worry about asking him for anything, Robbie was already leaving his body, on the way to becoming the void. He knows how powerful are the forces emitted by the suns and has a healthy respect for the object or field that negates them, so we sensed he was careful not to leave himself open to any harm.
“Can you rerun the frames to look for movement of the object? Is it staying in exactly the same spot relative to the suns?” I asked.
It took a while, but when they had what I asked for they brought it to our screens. We watched the highly compressed frames and saw it was moving, jerking slightly only, but still, jerking. They first argued between themselves and only then explained to us what is troubling them.
“You will notice it keeps moving, bobbing in two directions. At first we thought it was reacting to the changes of the gravity forces surrounding it. Unfortunately it is not. It appears to be attempting to move at approximately, on average you understand, an angle of ninety degrees from the lines of force exerted on it. What does that suggest to you Sam?”
“It is trying to escape?”
She nodded. “It appears so.”
Claudia said it first. “It could be a spaceship!!”
“An assumption we dare not make at this stage. For all we know it may be some creature that survives in the vacuum. Like the fire-worlds. If it is able to negate gravity and bend light around it there is no way it would be noticed under normal circumstances.”
“Whatever it is, this is exciting! We must let Robert know.”
“Why the anxiety Sam?”
“What if he unintentionally assists it to break free? We’d lose it.”
“We wish to try a small experiment. Can Robert take from normal space a small amount of matter and throw it at the phenomena? If it is allowed to pass through, that will indicate it is not a spaceship, at least, not any kind we can understand. What we are seeing should be a shield of some kind and thus, also be engineered to deflect matter.”
Impatiently we waited for Robbie to return. His efforts were being transmitted back to us and we watched as he tried various energies. As he moved away from the more common and tried the rarer ones, those that normally only existed in the void or else cannot be sensed in normal space, he began to achieve some success. An energy type that was portrayed on screen in the faintest lilac broke through as if no shield existed. It did not show anything, coming out the other side. So much for our hopes of discovering a spaceship!
Robbie opened his eyes to find Candy on his chest staring at him. He gave her a kiss and looked up at us.
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)30th November, 2019
- posted: 30th November, 2019
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