Robbie opened his eyes to find Candy on his chest staring at him. He gave her a kiss and looked up at us.So much for our hopes of discovering a spaceship!
“So much for that. Does anybody have a theory how nothing can be creating that effect?”
Cherine laughed, teasing him. “Yes.”
“Oh?”
“The same way Candy knows when you are about to return.”
“Hmm, that bit of magic I don’t want explained.”
We told him about our theories and he saw how deflated we were to find nothing in there. We left the scientists to gnaw on the problem and try to think up new experiments to find out how and why the anomaly exists, while we took care of our man.
We woke up to the excitement in Jade. Soon as she sensed we were aware she told us. “Robbie, I think you used the wrong energy. It belongs only to the void and matter would not have stopped it, so how will it show us if there is anything in there? Can you try it again, but add another realer energy with it?”
“Realer? Oh, you mean one that may exist in normal space? How Jade? The phenomena will only bend it away.”
“Send the energy you did, but make it hollow inside and put the other energy there.”
“We can try, I think the energy will still get bent.”
“There might be one energy that can get inside.”
“That is Cherine?”
“I’m not telling you. Try Jade’s idea first.”
With the scientists at our side we tried it after breakfast. As Robbie had expected, the lilac energy was far too tenuous to mask the ‘realer’ energy and it got bent. We sensed Cherine leaving her body and I immediately knew. I rushed to the void, hoping Robbie will hear me as I screamed to him what Cherine is doing. He heard me and appeared.
*Go back Sam. Keep Freddie going if anything happens and take everyone home.*
*No. I won’t. I’ll bring them all to where Cherine went if you try to follow her.*
In anguish he cried out, *Please Sam.*
*No. She made her decision and we wait for her. Get back to your body and we’ll talk there.*
This time I was back before him and as he opened his eyes I spoke. “I want to know why you did not sense Cherine passing through the void. I thought you are the void.”
“I should have. I was not expecting…”
“I don’t care if you were expecting her to, or not. You are the protector, why didn’t you sense her?”
“Sam, what do you think you are doing?” Dommi asked, worried. I could tell the others were worried also. Cherine opened her eyes, but did not speak, sensing what is going on.
After a relieved glance at Cherine, Robbie replied, “Sam, I was concentrating so hard on forcing some of the baser energy in, I was not paying attention to the void.”
“I don’t care about the void Robert, I care about Cherine. Whatever the circumstances, however hard you are concentrating on anything, even if your life or soul is in danger, a part of you has to remain sensitive to her. Always Robert.”
“I would not want that Sam. You are taking things to an extreme.”
“This is not a matter you have a right to vote on Cherine. You do not have the right to decide whether we love you, only to choose not to love us. In the same way, you do not have the right to decide what is a priority to all of us.”
3362
“Sam is right love. Sam, do not blame the protector, I took it with me and sent it with the shaft to help.”
“It had no right to lose sight of any of it’s primes!”
The protector appeared. “I accept your indictment. Samantha Teller, I make no excuses, I am at fault.”
“Cherine is back, so it is perhaps good that both of you failed her this time - if it helps ensure you do not allow it to happen again. Robert, you know you have a bunch of impetuous and fearless women to protect. You must always assume the worst of us.”
Without a smile he answered, “I usually do Sam.” Nobody knew whether to be affronted by his reply or not.
“Sam, do you want to know what I saw or not?” Cherine asked, barely able to contain herself any longer.
“As punishment I should force you to keep it to yourself.” I grinned at her. “But I’m too curious to do so.”
She grinned back. “Just as well - for you. There is a spaceship inside. Robert, you are not going to believe this. The spaceship is not trapped in a sphere, not as far as they can see. From the inside it looks as if they are in a universe of their own. Here is the part you are going to love. Guess which spaceship it is and who the Captain is.”
He turned in amazement to Meli. “You didn’t!!”
“Didn’t do what?”
“Meli,” Cherine said, her voice still soft but awed, “it is the spaceship Enterprise and the Captain is Kirk. Captain Kirk, from the original series - the ones Robert loves.”
Robbie sort of flipped. Not that we weren’t stunned, but this is a dream he would never have thought to dream come true for him. Cherine called the protector to her. “At whatever cost, protector?” He smiled and nodded.
“Robert, girlies? Gotcha!!”
She ran away squealing with laughter as the lot of us went for her. Only Robbie did not move. Slowly our chase slowed down, faltered and stopped. We looked at Cherine, curious how the queen of empathy is going to handle this. She’d forgotten the protector cannot protect her against this?
By the time she got to him she was like a real little girl. With tears in her eyes she stood before him. “I’m sorry Robert, I did not expect it to affect you like this. I only thought you will be excited.”
In a heartbroken voice he answered, “It’s okay Cherine, I don’t mind. But did you have to make it Captain Kirk also!?”
“I…I…” She didn’t know what to say and sort of shrivelled under his understanding, it’s okay, I’ll be brave look. Robbie took her pale face in his hands and pulling her to him whispered in her ear, “Gotcha!!” and roared with laughter.
All our friends looked on in puzzlement or amusement at our antics. We must have appeared very foolish, but it has been such a long time since Cherine has pulled a fast one on Robbie and we all treasured it. Cherine does not mind that Robbie has paid her back. She will now be able to tease him about it for a long time. We all had our laughs while everyone else waited patiently.
Cherine told the scientists - and us, “I don’t understand. I could not enter and then I could. When I wanted to leave I had to press outwards and then suddenly I was able to pass through.”
“You did not see anything inside?”
“No, but I got the feeling something was in there and that it was aware of me.”
“Shit. We better get out of here. Go to another reality Freddie.”
“Stop! Wait. Robert, we don’t have to run.”
3363
“Sam, are you crazy? If it sensed her, it will come looking for us.”
I turned to the scientists. “Can you calculate how long it will take the two suns to move to a position where it can escape?”
“I would not like to stay here the length of time it will take us to get enough data to do our calculations. Can we move backwards in time, say about a hundred years?”
Robbie did so and adjusted our position to compensate. They asked him to jump forward in five year intervals, staying to take data for one or two days each time. On the eighteenth jump they asked him to stay there. After a day of biting our nails they came to us.
“A hundred years does not prove anything, but it does give us a few hints. That thing, whatever it is, has been trapped in there we think for a long time. As the two suns relative orbits change their positions, the negative sphere is being carried along. We calculate the orbit of the suns alter slightly, drifting apart temporarily, and in about eighty four thousand years it will be released, if it is still able to struggle to escape.”
There were a bunch of concerned faces staring at Robbie, but he did not seem to notice us.
“Sam, I don’t care what you say, the fact that it cannot escape does not mean it is weak. It’s strengths may be of another kind. What if it attacks and we are defenceless against whatever powers it has?”
“I’ve been thinking,” Cherine said, “first of all, it is not in our nature to abandon any creature that needs our help. I was in its space and it let me go. Robert, we have to take the risk and help it.”
The decision was unanimous. Robbie jumped back to the time we’d left it.
“Sam, you will stay here with Jade to watch over everyone. Meli, stay alert to help them with Freddie if anything happens to us. Claudia, I want you with me. Cherine, it knows you, I am presuming, so you’ll have to come with if you are confident no harm will come to our child. It is time we pay a visit and get to know our neighbour.”
The Anadir asked, “Robert, can one of us come with? This is an opportunity to study it before it is released.”
They left and we were only able to sense them to the point where the tiny dark sphere allowed them entrance.
“That was a dirty trick Cher played on us. It scared the hell out of me. I thought for a moment I had created a whole galaxy of beings without even knowing it. It was scary, Wendy.”
Gina asked, “Can’t you do it for Robbie? As a birthday present, he’d love it.”
“I can’t do anything of that scale…an entire universe, Gina? First of all, I have never deliberately set out to create any worlds and I do not know whether I give life to them or whether they take life from me, or through me or whatever. Whichever way it happens, I feel I am then responsible for them. You think the world of Gilli is complex, try imagining a whole universe of galaxies! Not in a million years Gina!”
“Even a miniature one?”
“For them it will not be. I have a suspicion it will be far more complex creating a miniature world than a full size one. How do I adjust the laws Dommi. Will gravity be the same on the surface of a miniature planet? What about light? What speed will it have? Proportionately slowed down? If it has the same speed as here it will mean one sun will light up the entire universe instantly. Imagine then billions of suns!”
Rosie looked awed. “How could you create black holes and where would their wormholes go to Meli?”
“Exactly. We haven’t even scratched the surface of all the impossible things I would have to do.”
Diana spoke thoughtfully, “Not long after I was created, I wondered, what if some super human created the first people and our world. If it is so, am I then a copy of a copy? I don’t think of myself as a copy anymore, but can you imagine a Meli setting out to create a miniature universe and she creates ours. How huge she must be!”
3364
“In a sense that might be what Arthur is. I can’t think of him as being some gigantic man far larger than our universe, he must be the same size as us so that his universal laws work for us also.” I said.
“Why not Sam? Perhaps that explains why he cannot come here and we cannot find him. For all we know we might be a tiny speck in his nostril.”
“Ugh, what an idea Maria.”
Meli spoke thoughtfully. “Perhaps not in his nostril love, but in his brain. Consider, if our universe is infinite in size it will also have to be simultaneously finite so as to fit in his brain, or else his brain will also have to be potentially infinite in size. What about all the alternate realities and parallel universes?”
Dommi shuddered. “Meli, what if he too was created, as he himself suggested as a joke. Where would it end?”
“Who knows, perhaps back at us since time and space turns in upon itself.”
“Wow, I like that!” Candy said. “I’d be the biggest and the smallest Candy at the same time.”
“Meli, what if we are all of them at the same time - well, time is not the right word, but you know what I mean?”
A nervous sigh made us turn and look at the scientists. The one who had sighed, a CherInguel male scientist, spoke for them.
“Listening to you our minds at first hear the wild imaginings of children, though even then they are fascinating, until we remind ourselves that Meli has actually created a number of worlds within her mind. If we may contribute to the discussion, I think you should differentiate between mind and brain. If we truly are in the mind of this Arthur you speak of, then it will be possible for it to be simultaneously finite and infinite in size. Can it be that all minds are?”
“What if that is the true definition of a sentient mind? For the mind to be sentient and infinite in size it must be able to imagine. Imagination might be what makes it both infinite in size and sentient?”
“It does not make sense to me Tina, none of us have an infinite imagination. We all have our limits.”
“Not Robbie!” Goldi said, upset that we should think he has limits. Nobody even dared to smile within their thoughts, because she was immediately backed by nearly all the younger girls - except for Chantel. Should I count her as a younger one (?) - she is far older than all of us apart from Sol. Still, as a part of our family she is the youngest.
The Anadir said, “What troubles me might be only semantics that are confusing me, but Freddie is within a universe that is infinite in size. Within Freddie is the World of the Sparklers which is also infinite in size. How do you fit one infinite object within another? I would have said we cannot be within the mind of Arthur for that reason, but the Sparkler World leaves the question open.”
It was with relief we saw Candy position herself over Robbie - are you also wondering? None of us have ever tried to find out how she does it. If we share memories with her or Wendy we all carefully block any that might reveal her secret. It is important that each of us have at least one attribute that makes us stand out from the others. The moment when Robbie opens his eyes and stares into hers are precious to her and the pleasure she emits for all of us to feel is also precious to all of us.
“Stay out of our minds my lovelies.” They looked shaken so we were careful not to try and sense them.
When Cherine and Claudia joined Robbie for a coffee and even took a puff of his cigarette, we knew they have encountered something that has shaken them deeply. (I love the way we revert so often to the ways of the Normals for understanding each other).
“Cherine was right, there is an entity. We do not know the gender for it calls itself the ‘Ii’. It placed within us pictures that are meaningless. We are suffering a sensory overload, so I suggest we all meet here tomorrow morning when we might have made some sense of it.”
I asked, “Did it place the same load in each of you?”
3365
“Sam, imagine you visited Earth as an alien and they placed in your mind all the information held in all the libraries on the whole planet, in every possible language. That is what we are carrying in amount, and it is all a mess, I cannot see where to start or where to go from that theoretical ‘there’. We need time girlie.”
“Is it having an effect on your mind Cherine?” Dommi asked.
“Only as Robert said. I am still intact, the person I was, just heavily loaded with a lot of gibberish at the moment. It is like having thousands of voices trying to tell me something and they are drowning each other out.”
“The baby, it will not share?”
“No. You are right, the time for a soul is close, I have to ask the healer to delay it.”
Dommi turned to the Anadir scientist who’d gone with them. “Miada, how did it affect you?
She did not answer Dommi, so Dommi went to her as she asked the other Anadir, “Can any of you sense her? Is she in distress?”
An Anadir said, “Not in distress Dominique, in a religious awe. It is as if she has seen God.”
“A funny sort of god if it can’t escape by itself.” Latreia said, shattering some of the feeling of awe building up in everyone. The implied statement that Robbie was more powerful was not lost on anyone. I had to save Robbie.
“Latreia, perhaps it is a very ancient god and is tired. We know nothing about it, it may be mostly asleep, only a tiny part of it’s mind dealing with the problem. That or else it is not a god, just a creature or mind which has different powers from any of us. Let’s wait for tomorrow before jumping to conclusions.”
Robbie proved to be over-optimistic. We waited for days, the three of them getting together with Miada, pooling their ideas on how to find order in the knowledge they’d been gifted with. Miada wished she could transfer a copy to her computers, confident they will be able to sort the information, but we do not have any computers capable of entering a mind.
“I have a suspicion we will not be able to understand, however long we wait. The time-sense of the creature must be different from ours. If we can understand how it experiences time we might have the key to unravelling the knowledge it tried to pass on to us.”
Robbie nodded, agreeing with Miada. “My first thought was to quarter the information so that each of us carries a smaller burden. I find it difficult to think with this stuff in my head. No single piece of information seems to exist in one place…”
Wendy asked, “You mean like a hologram Robert? You remember that article we read that our minds might be like a hologram, every piece of information in each brain cell simultaneously existing in each other?”
“That always sounded like nonsense to me Wendy. How can each brain cell fit all the knowledge, every single instant of memory? I think I may have misunderstood the theory.”
“I think so, but what if that is how it is with the data given to you? Perhaps that explains why all four of you were given the same information.”
They kept on trying for over two weeks. Robbie woke up one morning with the decision made. He waited until all four of them were together.
“Dommi, you, Sam, Meli and whoever else you choose, I want you to enter my mind and rid me of this junk. If there is a way to block it off, you may leave it within me; if not, get rid of it. Do not try to take any of it within yourselves. Over the next few days I want you to do the same for all of us.”
When Robbie mentioned what he’d asked of us, Miada spoke up. “I wish to keep what you call junk Robert. We cannot throw away the information given to us, we’ll never be gifted so much information again - I cannot lose it. We may never have another opportunity to meet one of these beings and the next ones may not be so generous.”
3366
“Why do you think I waited so long? Miada, it is not only I, I’ve noticed we all are having difficulties in concentrating. I feel as if I’m eroding, less and less of me and more of the crazy stuff floating around.”
“I am a scientist Robert. If I have to sacrifice myself so that others may learn, then I am willing.” Her male looked distraught and we sensed he looked to Robbie for firmness and the order that will save his mate.
“See if you can block the junk girls. We’ll decide after that about you Miada.”
It was fascinating being part of the team and seeing how they do it. I will not describe the process here, as this kind of power over the minds of others should not be common knowledge. Being in a mind with an absent ego or processor, it makes it easier to understand why the brain is compared to a computer. The data which is made up of live memories is similar to data on a hard disk, meaningless without the ego to process it. The big difference even within that aspect is the data is not just processed; it is coloured and viewed in a unique way by the ego because of data from other memories influencing how we view any memory called up to the processor. Even data from memories we don’t remember influence us.
The foreign memories were turbulent, shifting and changing continually and Dommi decided not to risk blocking them only. The problem was, how should we get rid of them?
Carefully we took a memory from the fringe and dissolved it, sending it to the void. It instantly reappeared, slightly to the side of where it had been. We tried it another time and the same happened, but this time the turbulence increased. Dommi instantly made us retreat. We stayed to ensure nothing else happened, we feared the turbulent swirls will spread throughout the memories of Robbie. After a while the violence lessened back to what seems to be normal for it. We returned to our bodies.
“…we were worried it might break up and spread throughout your mind, so we did not do anything further. Roberto, if you insist we do it - and I think you should, then we first have to make a copy of all your memories, just in case we have to dissolve all memories within your brain so as to get rid of the alien ones.”
“You are not confident blocking them will work? We don’t have a choice Dommi, get rid of them.”
I felt I was too new at this to be confident of my ideas, so I directed myself at Cherine, knowing she will examine my thoughts before answering.
“I have two thoughts on this Cherine. The one may just be my lack of experience, but the other one is startling and frightening. Should I speak?” She looked into my mind and her face tightened, growing pale.
“Tell them.”
“Dommi, we do not need to make a copy of his memories, we can get rid of the alien thoughts safely, if I’m right. We take the protector with us and surrounding them we block them off from his mind and before they have time to escape we send them to the void in stasis. Will that work?”
“Yes, I think so. Sam, if we do that, we are bound to include some of his memories, there is no hard line that separates them, so we must make a copy.”
“I agree, but then we only have a few memories to replace. I was worried because copied memories are never as vivid and real as the originals and Robert has had to endure this before.” She nodded, her eyes staring into mine, ready to hear of what had frightened Cherine.
“Please remember this is only a theory, a small possibility, not fact. What if the entity did not give us information as we thought. What if what you have within you are minor parts of itself. For all we know, this might be how it propagates it’s species. We saw an effect when we tried to remove a tiny part of it. That should not have happened if they are only memories. The reaction suggests self-awareness.”
“How can having a tiny part of itself within us propagate it’s species?”
3367
“The three of you have complained of growing disassociation, difficulties in concentrating. It does seem to suggest some kind of growth. We saw streamers beginning to extend into your own memories. That can be because of your efforts to examine them. Just for the sake of my argument, let’s imagine something else. What if the infant is growing? It gradually assimilates your memories and becomes you. Upon your body dying it is freed - that is if it has to wait, it might be able to go to the void as we can.”
“Taking everything with it!” Cherine stared at Robbie, her eyes terrified of the idea of losing him.
“Cherine, think on this. There may be species that welcome this, seeing it as a way of achieving a kind of immortality. Even as part of the growing entity there might remain a small amount of self-awareness.”
“That is meant to comfort us Sam? It only makes the possibility even more horrifying.”
“If I am right Robert, what do we do? Do we kill the infants by expelling them into the void?”
“Oh no!” Robbie put his hand over his eyes. “How do you do it Sam? How do you always manage to take a simple problem and turn it into a crisis of ethics?”
“Not my fault that you don’t think things through.” I answered archly, well aware he was teasing and emoting love and pride in me.
He smiled, taking his hand away. “Since you are capable of thinking things through, what do you suggest we do then?”
“If they are infants and the only way to rid all of you of them is to kill them, then we do so.”
Robbie was distraught. “A Cherinian advocating the murder of infants? Probably sentient too!” I did not answer, waiting for the emoting by everyone to calm down first.
Cherine said, “If it may be sentient, I cannot kill it Sam.”
Robbie surprised me by saying to her, “You will fight us Cherine?”
“If I have to. Please don’t make me.”
“Nobody will make you do anything Cherine. We will take our lead from you. If you feel it is wrong we will all keep the infants.”
She gave him a weak smile. “You can’t manipulate me by being so obvious.”
“He only spoke the truth Cherine, I would not agree if you do not.”
“Claudia love…” Cherine was slightly trembling and my heart went out to her.
“Chantel,” I asked, “your mind is different from ours, do you think the entity can do the same to you?”
“I don’t know, I think I can stop it.”
“Good. Robert, will you help her take a message for us? Chantel, stay only long enough to tell it what we suspect. If we are right, we are offering it one chance to save them. Instead of allowing the void to consume them, we will send them back to their parent.” I turned to Cherine. “If I’m right about what was done to you I disagree. If some man should manage to rape me and I became pregnant, I would abort the child - as early as possible. The morals are no different in your case.”
“I cannot do that either Sam, you are more like the Normals than I am.”
“For a born-Cherinian you mean? Yes, I have had to learn to use my brains and accept responsibilities, which means I’ve had to learn to do things I do not like.”
Robbie was no longer amused and stood up, his stance warning me he was angry and anxious.
“Calm down dad, I am not saying I am harder, just that I am able to make decisions.”
“That is not what upsets me. Sam, you said you have had to learn to do things you don’t like. What?”
“The worst?” He nodded. “Fight you. What makes you think I am any different from the others? All I wanted was to make you happy, but I keep on finding myself disagreeing with you.”
3368
“The only times you’ve done so love, were to protect me. I’m sorry I made life so hard for you.”
I grinned at him. “I’m not, it has been fun, at least when I’ve been right. Makes me feel sort of that big when I’m wrong.”
He put his finger and thumb about an inch apart. “That big eh? But when you are right, how big? As tall as that tree? I’ll get the protector to bring Alki over, we have to re-christen you. Your name should be Alice.”
“I know, I’ve thought of it. Being around you often is similar to being at the Mad Hatter’s tea-party. You can’t re-christen me dad, I’ve never been christened.”
“Chantel, are you ready to do as Sam asked? Also explain we tried to understand what it gave to us, but nothing makes sense.”
He left his body and as the void took her. I turned to Cherine. “One of these days I won’t be able to find an answer and you’ll end up sacrificing the whole family. If you do this again, I’ll help if I can, but straight after that I’ll leave for good.”
The look on her face made my heart feel like it was breaking. “I can’t help it Sam. I find myself feeling their pain and I can’t.”
“Their imagined pain Cherine - there is a difference. Protector.” He appeared. “When Robert and Cherine first came together to love each other, she would have withstood anything for his sake. She learnt from birth to dampen her empathy, reserving some empathy for herself and those she loves. Cherine has lost control and is turning into a mushy person, placing the lives of others before those of her family. Your prime is to protect all of us. Soon as this business with the alien entity is over, I demand you enter her mind and help her rebuild her defences. It is part of your prime order to keep us all alive, Cherine too. Allowing her to remain as she is puts her in danger along with all of us.”
“Cherine, will you allow me to try?”
She nodded, her eyes fixed to mine. “Please, if you can.”
“Cherine, we have to see that this does not happen to any Cherinians. As a people we will be vulnerable to those who hate us if we don’t control our empathy. Jade love, take over please, I need to be by myself for a while.” Dommi hugged me tighter than she ever has before and I left. I went to my waterfall, walked in behind it and sitting on the damp ground blocked myself from everyone and cried until I had no more tears to cry.
Cherine appeared next to me and without a word put her arms around me. She came as an adult, so I settled against her, listening to her heartbeats, with the warmth of her body and her emoting a comfort.
“I think I changed the future of all Cherinians today. Did I have the right to do so?”
“Every Cherinian does so all the time love. Every decision any of us makes can affect the future. Robert should have made the decision you did today, but he is blinded by his love for me and he trusts me to solve any problems I have.”
“He is afraid of changing you in any way. So am I Cherine.”
Her arms tightened and I sensed her smiling above me. “I won’t let anyone change me in ways I don’t want to change. I think you should relax, rest awhile and tell your healer to fill you with energy, you’re going to need it tonight. Everyone feels the need to love you.”
I giggled. “Everyone will say I think up these ideas just for that.”
“Only non-Cherinians. I have to go my love, we are returning the memories or infants. Would you like to stay here on your own for a while?”
“No. I want to be with you and help. Cherine, afterwards, can you and Dommi make me forget how to do it? It can be a terrible weapon if the wrong people learn how to operate on the mind.”
“We’ll block it so that you can use it if there is a desperate need. It is not as dangerous as you think Sam, the person it is being done to must agree and want it to happen.”
“I bet I can convince many people. Not everyone is smart Cherine, not even among the Cherinians.”
3369
“Why will Dommi and I be trustworthy and not you koukla mou?” she asked gently, rising to her feet.
“Not even Robbie, Cherine. It is not a matter of trust. The less of us who know how, the less chance of the knowledge being used for the wrong reasons.”
She took my hand. “Later then, let’s go.”
Soon as they returned I asked Chantel to open her mind to me. It would have been a lovely experience and a part of me noted it and decided to return as soon as possible, but I was intent on finding anything anomalous placed there by the entity. Not knowing her mind I cannot be certain, but I did not find anything obvious.
“I passed on the message as you asked me to. It did not respond, that is why I waited so long. It did not even try to send me anything.”
“Robert, will you take the packet from Cherine first? Dommi, shall we?”
It took far longer than I’d expected. First Dommi blocked off an area larger than the space occupied by the alien memories. That meant a number of her memories were enclosed. Delicately she picked out Cherine’s memories, one by one, and transferred them beyond the block. Those we could not remove as they had been affected by the adjoining alien memories we decided had to be sacrificed. Luckily nothing significant will be lost, mostly little details of times when nothing was happening. For instance, one of them was parts of a book she had read.
Dommi tightened up the block so that nothing can enter or leave and called to Robbie. He surrounded it with his energy and took it to the void. He passed it through the interface of the entity and returned.
“Robert, how are we going to do you?”
“Jade, you and the protector do it for me.”
Robert was not that easy. Dommi had to struggle with him as he has a revulsion stronger than any of us to anyone tampering with his mind,. Slowly he quietened under her soothing influence and we were free at last to do our job. Dommi carefully checked each and every memory of his we had to abandon. There were two she decided have some significance, memories of his childhood with Nicko in them. We copied them, filtering out whatever we felt was affected by the alien and instead of copying them, as I’d thought Dommi would, she took the incomplete memories out and merged the copies to them.
The alien thoughts were more active in him and tried to break out of the blockade. Quickly the protector and Jade took them out, not taking as much care to wrap the bundle completely, only doing so in the void. A small part of it was lost to the void, but we did not sense any agony. They kept it there until Robbie was released and soon as he recovered he returned to the void and delivered the package.
Claudia asked to be left for last so we now had the almost impossible task of handling an alien mind. Our many years and experiences with the Anadir have made their minds familiar enough for us to enter, but not to recognise as clearly what the effects to the adjoining memories are. We asked her mate to join us and help with each memory we examined. He was not as experienced in entering the minds of others and fumbled a few of the memories, losing one of them into the alien thoughts. As if the alien mass of energy had discovered a food source it tore at it and Dommi and I panicked. Not wasting any time we blocked the area without worrying about the memories she will lose. Robbie collected it and made his delivery.
We apologised to Miada for losing her memories and her mate explained. We sensed the fear in her as she listened.
“Thank you for not allowing me to keep it.”
It is ironic that after what I said to Cherine, Robbie decided to come with and watch us as we cleared Claudia. I did not say anything and Cherine did not even look at me when he told us he wants to come with. I suppose she wanted to leave me free to decide whether I should object. I kept quiet, my wish to keep the knowledge from him was partly based on my presumption that he will not want to know. I would not have objected to anyone in the family knowing if that was what they wanted. Contrary to the way I sometimes speak, I am not here to police anyone.
3370
After it was all over and our friends had left, the protector appeared and Cherine let Robbie and all the others see what had been decided. Robbie became misty-eyed and took Cherine within his arms as he opened himself to her, relishing for this last time the way she feels, before she is changed. I saw the tears on Cherine’s cheeks as she let him hold her to him and I felt a pain in my chest. God, how love hurts!
The protector and Cherine left for a distant part of Freddie and we all sat there like zombies, afraid to speak in case it makes everyone cry. We are going to miss this Goldi version of our Cherine.
“Whenever we hear you’ve left, we imagine you all having fantastic adventures and when you return and do your storytelling we all wish we could have been with. Now that I’m on a trip with you, we fail to save an Arthur and it makes us grieve and now we meet a nasty monster and everyone has spent half the time here crying.”
Though Latreia meant it, she used her words in an exaggerated manner, making us laugh.
Dommi said, “This trip has not been unique Latreia. When the story is told, you will see. We have our share of troubles…but one thing you should remember; there are very few monsters. Even a mindless beast like the fire-world turned out to be something different than we’d thought at first. If we find a way to get to know this entity it might turn out to be a good friend. There are very few truly evil people love.”
“Have you met any?”
“Yes. You’ve heard about them, the ones on the penal world.”
“I meant ones that are strong and can hurt you.”
Dommi spoke thoughtfully, “Apart from the Teddies? No, even they were not truly evil. They just had a peculiar instinct of self-preservation. I wonder, do we see as evil those who have very strong instincts for preserving themselves or their kind?”
“I don’t think so Dommi.” Claudia said. “There are people who really are evil. They have no empathy and enjoy hurting others.”
“What will we do if we meet a species that has no empathy or compassion?” Jodine asked.
“How can such a species survive? Even the Teddies had empathy for their own kind.” Em-e said.
Meli mumbled, “The soul eaters don’t.”
“Tell us more about them Meli.” Jade asked.
“No.”
Jade insisted, driven by her own needs, “Do you know anything about them? What if they escape from your world and come to ours? You should tell us whatever you know so that we can protect ourselves.”
Meli’s eyes were almost black as she stared at Jade. “There is no defence against them Jade.”
“There better be Meli.” I said. “One day they will be free.”
She looked frightened. “What makes you say that?”
“You cannot hold them forever. How many millions or billions of years can you hold them? What of the day you no longer exist as Meli, become a part of the grand or mother soul everyone talks about? If they are released then, they might go on a feeding frenzy and eat up the mother soul.”
Dommi sighed. “Oh Sam, not again!”
Latreia giggled. “I like Sam. She makes you think. She doesn’t hide behind wishes.”
“Wishes?”
“You know, when we don’t like something we wish it not to be and then pretend it is not.”
I had to grin at her phrasing even as I blushed at her compliment.
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)1st December, 2019
- posted: 1st December, 2019
If you wish to read from an earlier book, from Book 01 to Book 05, use this link button to open the LC Book Index:
If you wish to use image, r/click and copy link
If you agree with my protest, why not make it a habit of upvoting all who have set their post to "Payout Declined"
(if you do not see they plagiarised or are running a scam)
The bigger your vote the better, but even a zero value vote shows you support them