While I slept, the girls practised and tried hard. Finally they left me with Irene and returned to the lounge, waking the others and got them all to try. When Annabelle created the first ‘doppelganger’ the girls, all of them, shrieked with excitement, waking me up. Groggy I found myself facing Annabelle who threw herself into my arms and kissed me. This shook me and I pulled her away, looking into her eyes. “Do you love me Robert?”I let them soothe me, but deep in my heart I wondered if I had not spoken the truth.
1171
“Of course I do. Where the hell is Keith?”
She giggled and drew me by the hand out to the lounge. Annabelle was sitting there with the arms of Keith around her. A few seconds passed and I turned and picked Annabelle up, feeling her weight and kissed her again.
“I feel like taking a knife and sticking it into you.” There was a shocked silence. “Don’t worry, I won’t. Teach me how to do this.” She did and I found it easy. I could not believe how easy it was. I felt everything my double did, but it was entirely under my control.
I took it to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and plunged it straight to the heart. It fell down at my feet dead. I waited, but it did not dissolve or disappear. I’d felt the stab, but it had not hurt me that much. I knelt and felt it. It was still real. I pulled out the knife and willed the wound to close, re-starting the heart. It stood up and I made it smile at me.
“This is perfect!!” I turned around filled with glee to find a room full of people in shock. “Sorry about that. I had to know what would happen to the original if the double was killed. If your double got a knife in the heart and your own heart stopped, it would not be of much use to us.” I let my double fade away.
“Solomon, could a Sparkler ride within such a double? I am hoping they will not give up on using the energy net - I think they still need the souls. I’ve been thinking about it. Look at how our own gifts have multiplied, why for a couple of years almost nothing and then suddenly we blossom? Could it have anything to do with the exchanging of slivers of our souls? I think I must now have over thirty slivers and I can feel a difference. How can I describe it, as an artist I think I might find my creativity reaching heights I would never have dreamt of achieving. As a Cherinian!! Can’t you all feel it?”
“He’s right!” Affirmation followed by affirmation we all stared at each other with glee.
“Your power has increased by giving of a part of your souls to each other?”
“That is right Perikli. Please, as a Cherinian we do not use the word power, we prefer gift. That way we remember it is something we should treasure and not abuse.”
“You ask this of me as if I am accepted as a Cherinian?”
“You are definitely not a spider. That is what he is, your ex leader. He sucks the power out of souls, strengthening himself at the cost of eternal lives lost forever. His crime is the worst possible. If I kill you and your soul is released to the void you are re-born. And so it should continue till the end of time. He steals that!! Oh god!! What am I talking about, even if he steals a million souls his crime is nothing compared to mine!! Solomon, my friend, what have I done!!” My elation was gone within the instant and I crumpled to my knees.
Niko muttered to himself, “Here we go again!” He walked over to me and pulled my face up. The back of his hand struck me with force. It was a shock, but I could not react. The grief at what I had done still heavy within me. Solomon came over and gently took the hand of Niko off me.
“This is not the way. If you had the weight of two hundred and sixty seven million souls on your heart, how would you be feeling?” Gently he took my face within his hands. “Listen to me Robert. I had not realised you thought you destroyed those souls. You did not. We thought you had when we thought the void destroyed them. Since you showed us that the void only finds them an irritant and sends them back to material worlds to be re-born, we stopped grieving for them. Those of my people, they do return as Sparklers, you did not think of that?”
“No. They were sent back Solomon, I did not destroy them?”
“No my friend, you did not. They will all return. I blame myself, we should have told you.” I sobbed with my relief and he held me until my girls took hold of me.
“He killed two hundred and sixty seven million!!”
“Yes, there was a misunderstanding of what we Sparklers were and what your souls were. He was defending his people, the people of your planet and he killed in one blow that many Sparklers and the souls they carried. Perkilis, Perikli, I am sorry, your name does not come easily to me, if he had not stopped us there would not have been one single human being left alive on this planet. We thought souls trapped here in material bodies needed saving.”
1172
“Och Thee mou, we dared to fight him!! This was at the time of the sleep-deaths?” Alki nodded.
“My friend, he reminds us constantly, not only with his words, but with his craziness and with the love that flows from him, that he is but a man. He does not see that he is blessed with gifts that make him something more. Do not hurt him by showing you think otherwise. Ordinx did, tried to worship him and he died, destroyed himself completely. It was a battle that took six months of your time to get him back together again.”
“No wonder he calls the other one a spider. Solomon, if he truly accepts me as a Cherinian, it is an honour I do not deserve.”
“My Robbie never accepts anyone as a Cherinian who does not deserve to be one.”
“Thank you, er...”
“I am Rosie his daughter and wife.”
“What!!”
Solomon put his arm around him. “You are receiving shock after shock, perhaps you need to give them time to sing you the song of who they are. When he told us he was considered a criminal on his world for loving children, we were shocked to think we had accepted a criminal as our leader. He did not tell you? He is the leader of our people, the Sparklers and of the race of Ordinx, the Anadir. We have since learnt of what becoming a Cherinian entails and see that it is the laws of your people he spoke of, they cannot be the laws of the Cherinians.”
With one thing and or another, it turned into quite a glorious but traumatic day and night for many of us. The words of Solomon have taken a terrible burden off my heart, one that I did not even realise at times was there. This has given me new courage for facing the Spider, it is difficult to call the kettle black when you are the pot.
I read this diary since we all were stuck here. It started as a love story, the sex scenes were great, not having my Roberto here, I was able to read his words and with just my finger feel all the pleasures he described. I would imagine it was his finger or tongue within my sex, my flower as he loves to call it, and I would explode and come in my panties. The story has changed. It is no longer a love story. All we seem to be doing is facing problems and wars. He never writes anymore of those moments we spend loving each other, of the sex, but also the love and tenderness, how it fills and gives us the feeling of all belonging as a family.
I think I am lucky, those who are born to him, even you our darling daughter, they will never know what it was like to be without someone like him and then to be found by him and brought into this circle of love. To have seen the other extreme, where the heart of a child is torn along with the body, where all dreams are shattered and killed. To know that a short time of being abused and hurt remain, just for providing a plate of food for a family who do not love or care for you, then to have the magic of a Robert come into your life and change it the way he did mine - I am the truly lucky one, not his daughters, not Cherine and Dominique. I and those such as I, Wendy, Theresa and those I know are still to come. - Aganthi
What can I say? I had expected that maybe Cherine would be the next one to place her comments in here, maybe take a few digs at me. I did not expect it to be Aganthi. She has found the words to touch my heart as it has not been for some time now. To love me and then count it as a blessing that she is not my daughter and that she has suffered so much!! My sweet Aganthi, you make my heart weep with happiness that I could be loved by someone like you.
She is right. I have been forgetting that this diary is meant to be the story of love of a group of people who are a family. It seems I wrote more of our sex when I was tortured by the fact that I was making love to children. And then, when it was my own children, it was a way of being a catharsis, of seeing in black and white why it is such a blessing to love, be loved and make love with such special people whose hearts are now part of mine - instead of my solely using the need and compulsions caused by the void to justify what Normals would only see as evil
1173
I know that I am not just Robert, that I am the protector too and the strongest urge (after my love for them) is my need to protect them. Facing a danger which threatens them makes that side of me take over and it seems all I am able to do is describe the events where I have had to face the terror of possibly losing them. That too is a catharsis my sweet Aganthi, the writing of it helps clear my heart of the fear and fill me with determination to ensure that you are all able to be by my side for all eternity. I will return to my description of the events that are shaping our lives right now, but I promise I will not forget our moments of loving too.
It has been a strange few days. For most of us it has been as if living amongst zombies. It is mostly the men, Alki, Themi, Tasso, Savva, Michaeli and Perikli They are concentrating on their doppelgangers as they go to work or negotiate deals and so forth. Unfortunately our doctor, Maria, found she is not as effective as she cannot sense her patients directly, so she has posted a message that she will be away on holiday for a few months.
I tried an experiment that was an abysmal failure. I created my doppelganger and set it before my computer and tried to use it to paint a picture. I won’t be trying that again.
Alki says that he is happier working this way, for he can look up and see his beloved Marian and his children whenever he wishes and yet still concentrate on making money, which is something he enjoys doing very much. Keith sits doodling on papers and is deep in thoughts that none of us understand. We sense an excitement in him, but he is not willing to speak of it yet.
Keith is still a wonder to me. A man who I respect, but do not fully understand. The love he has for his Annabelle has deepened and grown, as has hers for him. They have grown so close I do not see how they will ever expand their circle unless they have a child. They seem to be more than happy to stay as they are for the time being.
The girls teased him about the double of Annabelle kissing me, saying he is lucky I did not make love to her as she had the appearance of a little Annabelle of nine and was extremely sexy. He answered in all earnestness that he would not have minded, as long as it was not his actual Annabelle. Then he got a strange look on his face and asked Cherine what would happen if she did and got pregnant by me. Would the double be able to have my child? That theoretical possibility has raised a whole new can of worms and there have been some very heated discussions about the issue. At least we agree on one thing: anybody uses his doppelganger to commit a crime, is fully guilty, not the doppelganger. I consider this an important rule.
On a more personal note. I still keep on expecting my girls to want another man, after all, surely they must be getting bored with my style of loving. Yet, when it was suggested that they could use their doubles to make love to other men without being unfaithful to me, they were angry, claiming that neither were they interested, nor did they think that by doing so they would not be unfaithful. It has been some time since a new gift has stirred such strong controversy. I am very careful to stay out of most such discussions and refuse to let them draw me in.
None of the doubles has been attacked yet. As the days draw out into weeks it is creating a false sense of security. Only a few of us are not growing complacent and are vigilant, expecting the worst.
At least we have had the time for taking Perikli to the void. He was fascinated, danced without fear and shared motes with all. He was pleased to be invited to our World and spent some time both talking with Adam and Josephine. She seems to like him a lot and her sometimes bubbly personality seems to have charmed him. I wonder how that could develop with her a soul without a body? Perhaps in a next life for both of them? He also spent time with Ordinx and Solomon. He is only the second amongst us to have accepted green motes for communicating with them and is thinking of doing as I did, meeting with Solomon in the centre of his people, upon that non-existent shore, where Katerina recently had her amazing experiences.
We all now carry a Sparkler within us. It seems to be residing somewhere within the chest and gives off a feeling of a warm tingling buzz. With time though, I am tending to forget it is there. They do not enjoy being in our doubles and have to exchange more often, staying for only a short period of a day or two. It seems the absence of a soul disturbs them. Those within us seem to last about three weeks.
If I give the impression that I spend my time walking around anxiously waiting for an attack, I apologise. That is unfortunately not the way my mind works. I spend time creating new works for Alki; the company being fairly small he has kept it, so that Keith and I may continue to have a work permit and stay in Greece.
1174
I also have found my time in discussions with Charlie and Wing very rewarding. Charlie has the knack of simplifying philosophies and making them relevant to ordinary people who have not given such matters much thought. When I told him I was glad I had not been brought up under such teachings for they would have coloured my attitude to Cherine and the growth of our gifts, he was not offended; I think he understood and was willing to agree that it was probably for the best. It was also good I talked with them, for I was able to calm them about the financial aspects as they both thought they are out of work now.
As we have achieved a modicum of calm (έχουμε επιτύχει ένα ελάχιστο της ηρεμίας), so have our days and nights become filled with beauty. Having the three Wendies and Lua together, their singing and dancing has brought a sense of magic back into our lives. Solomon and Ordinx will abandon any discussion at the first sounds of their singing, even if they are just practising the harmonisation of their voices. It caused some embarrassment in the beginning, for the girls were aware that whatever these two heard they were taking back to their people. Now they just ignore them and since the talents are also growing in Candy and the other Wendy, there are very few rough patches anymore.
This is a very strange way to be conducting a war and people like Socrati and Jonathan cannot understand it. They keep expecting me to do something, attack and annihilate the enemy probably. I do not mind their attitude, it just seems weird to have those two seeing eye to eye.
Perikli has become very popular, not only with all the Cherinians but especially with my girls. He has spent time with Dommi teaching her to cook, and she is now getting the knack of it. I have asked the other girls to learn also, they must not expect Dommi to be their servant and we have to share the drudgery of keeping a home. Of course they wanted to know what I would be doing, but after the teasing they all began to pitch in. It seems Bernie is showing a talent for making pastries and cakes. She made some chocolate fudge when she heard I like it, but refuse to eat the commercial ones (I got the recipe for her from the internet). In Greece many businesses, especially in the retail trade, take a siesta during the afternoon and we’d have Alki and Elia with us, not concentrating on their doppelgangers. Sometimes Perikli was also able to take off some time and we chatted about various things.
“Robert, my gift, do I pass it on to everyone?”
“You fear it may be misused?”
“It would be tempting to use it when one wants to get their own way. I often did so in my early years.”
“I would not worry Perikli, there are far more dangerous gifts among us and none have been misused. It is very difficult to do so, even by the small kids, when empathy is such a strong part of our makeup.”
He opened his mind to me and helped me open that door within my brain. It seems that his gift does not work as well as it should with my kind of personality. I do not think I will use it. I decided I trust Perikli, so I sat him down to make an offer.
“I have a favour I wish to ask of you Perikli. Your position has taught you how to lead while inspiring others and creating a sense of being a team. You have the gift of being a born leader. Would you agree to taking over as leader of the Cherinians. You think things through carefully and would be a good and stabilising influence on all of us.”
He turned and called out. “Cherine, kori, you win the bet. He has just asked me! I cannot believe this, he hardly knows me and asks me to take over. Roberto mou, are you truly crazy, or is it just that being the leader sits so heavily on you that you need to get rid of it at all costs?”
“Cherine, how could you take such a bet - what did you win?”
“A baked Alaska! If you did not ask him within two weeks I would have to buy him a coffee from my pocket money.”
“I think you cheated him.”
“You might have taken three weeks. It was a fair bet.”
“Perikli, to answer your question. I think you would agree that it is important to know your own strengths and weaknesses, without allowing the ego to get in the way. I know that I am not a born leader. Circumstances thrust it upon me. You are a leader. How could you willingly stay under a man who does not lead!”
1175
“You said the ego should not get in the way. You did not include modesty and poor opinion of yourself. Roberto, I admit, you are a very strange leader, I would not have considered you in the Police Academy as good officer material. But you are not in the police force. You are leader of a people who are devoted to you. If that does not show you are a good leader then what would?”
My hope wilted. “I think I have infected them all with my craziness.”
“If they are all crazy then what better than to have the craziest of them all as their leader?”
That won him a strong wave of love from all of them, so I let the conversation die. It did remind me however that he and Michaeli have never experienced our golden circle of love. That evening we got together and Cherine sent it soaring until we let it go to touch the lives of all those within reach. Savva smiled afterwards and told us he is grateful we reduced his workload for the next ten days. Our two new members sat stunned for a long time and could not stop talking about it for days. It may have been coincidence, but the next attack came that same night.
We did not recognise it as an attack in the beginning. I woke up in the early hours, long before dawn, with a feeling of unease. I sensed that all my girls felt it even though they were asleep. Most of them were having nightmares, so I decided it was the result of the tension we had been under. It is usually once a crisis has passed that the shakes hit us, I thought this was a similar reaction.
The whole household was moody and quiet that morning. Gradually this developed from unease to anxiety and turned into fear. It was a strange fear that was without reason, such as people experience when they are suffering the early symptoms of a nervous breakdown. Every increase in the fear seemed to find a reason within my mind and Themi did not make any comments to make me think otherwise.
We all had a terrible night and soon after midnight we were all up again. Some of the girls, especially those who had experienced terrible things in their lives, were beginning to moan and cry. The same feelings were hitting me and so they seemed natural. By morning we were all looking at each other in a panic. The first moves were being made by some of us to try and leave the house, to get away from whatever this impending doom was. The protector did not understand what was happening, but had the sense to not allow anyone to leave.
Henry turned to me, his eyes dark with black circles. “This feels as it did when I was locked up in the asylum.”
It took about ten minutes for his words to percolate through my brain which was sodden (μουσκεμένο) with unreasoning fear. I called to the protector asking it whether we are under attack. It did not recognise this as an attack, but said the feeling seemed to be general in the entire area. A couple of people had already committed suicide.
The only ones not affected were our two aliens. I was disturbed and decided to see if I would feel the same way in the void. Soon as I was out of my body, in the void, I felt relief and the fear was gone. My two friends had followed me.
*What is happening Robert?*
*We are under attack I think. The protector does not recognise it as such, but I have to find a way to stop it.*
Solomon told me, *You cannot do it from here, you do not have a strong enough energy force to penetrate through to your world. It will have to be from your own world.*
Ordinx asked, *Would it perhaps help if you jumped out of the area you live in and worked your way back in?*
*I am going to try something else. If it does not work I’ll try your suggestion. Would you both please do me a favour and return to my home. If this continues they will start trying to commit suicide, as have two neighbours already. You are not affected, so please help to stop them, strengthen yourselves and use physical restraint if you have to.*
I called the protector to help and slipped back into being the void. I tried using the power of the void to make a general examination of what was happening, but could not reach the surface of our planet. After a couple of attempts I took a break and thought it out. I decided that if the Sparklers can get there, then so can I. I concentrated my energy into a shaft and shot down like a spear.
1176
I still could not see anything that explained what was happening. I tried another tactic in desperation as I felt the pain in my girls. I laid a gauze of energy over the house, like a nebulous mist. I imagined that emotions have a colour and saw the misty streamers of darkness rolling in through my energy.
My first reaction was to use my energy to counteract this darkness, but I wanted to know where it was coming from. I lifted myself further from the surface and spread a wider blanket of energy, expecting to find the darkness would be coming in from afar. It was not. It was coming from the mental asylum and from hospitals; wherever there was despair and fear, it was being gathered and sent to us.
I was nearly ready to give up and just fight it locally when I sensed an energy of another form that was coming in to gather and send this to our home. At last I had a way to fight it! I allowed it to continue to do so, but spread a net of energy to capture the darkness. I contained it and let it gather for hour upon hour. At least I could feel the relief within my girls. When I felt I could not continue to hold all this heaviness of despair and darkness much longer, I gave an extremely sharp squeeze, directing to miss the hospitals and asylum, forcing all of it back up the path of that other energy or will.
It shot up it as if within a tunnel and I rose to see where it went. I followed it until I saw it enter a large mansion within the forests by Baden-Baden in Germany. I fixed the location within my mind but did not try to enter the mansion. I stayed a good distance and watched the explosion of energies that fought back until the tunnel collapsed. The power I saw was an awesome sight. I would have to gather at least ten times the energy I had from the void to equal that power. I decided it was enough for the moment and returned to the protector. It now saw how to protect us and I returned to the void. Once I was no longer the void I returned home.
There was much weeping and they all clung to each other as if something terrible had happened. I tried to help them as did Ordinx and Solomon. Once they had calmed down I made tea and coffee and passed out the cups to them.
“It was an attack on us. I traced it to where it came from. I think this time it made a big mistake. The Spider did not use another, it attacked us personally.” I explained what I had done, how I had stopped it and reversed the flow. When I told them I now knew the exact location and that it is in Germany, they began to feel an elation. I let them enjoy it for a while, they needed it after what they had been through.
“You are keeping something back from us Robert.”
“You and Dommi, you can always see through me. When I sent them back a taste of their own medicine there was a strong reaction. To fight off that darkness it used more energy than I thought exists on our world. I was very lucky I did not try to enter the mansion, I was not prepared and would have been torn apart.”
“Even as the void!!”
“Yes, I think so Solomon. I was only as strong as the part of the void that I had taken with me. I now wish to try something else. I will need to return to the void. At least I can do so now knowing you are all safe and well. Stop worrying Cherine, I have no intention of entering the mansion. What I do intend doing is gathering enough energy to shoot into that mansion to blow it apart. I will stay in the void, I will not follow the energy. I also intend cutting myself off from that spear soon as it is about to strike, so that nothing can hit back at me, if that is possible. You see, I am being careful and a fraidy-cat (φοβητσιάρης), so don’t worry, I’ll be back.”
I did not want to deplete the energy within our area as it is food for the Sparklers and keeps our Worlds going. I gathered it from a distant point, far from any solar system. I gathered it, compressing it with enormous pressures and then aiming at the mansion, released the pressure in a tight shaft and watched as it struck. It was as if a hundred lightning bolts had struck the building simultaneously and the building shattered into pieces. I waited for some reaction, but nothing happened. After the power I had seen, I knew the bastard has escaped. He obviously does not take chances and left immediately after my last attack. Well, at least now he knows I can strike back. My first job will be to find out who this ex-mansion belonged to.
I returned home to my girls and a jubilant bunch of Cherinians when I let them see in my mind the destruction I had caused. Alki immediately wanted to call contacts in Germany, but I asked him not to.
“It will be on the news. We can see the German news on the internet. They should mention who it belongs to - if he is as canny (πονηρός)as I think, it will still not give us his name, but at least it will be a direct contact, such as a firm of attorneys.”
1177
We needed to go wild, celebrate. I ordered by phone enough cold drinks, booze, delicacies and other things we were running short of, to stock a night club. In a snotty (σνομπ) and unfriendly tone they said it was too late as they were closing and would deliver the next morning. I told them curtly that if the order is not at my home within half an hour, the order is cancelled and they should consider that I and the Georgiades and Spiropoulos families are no longer their customers. I was using the gift of Michali and saw he realised it, but he only smiled. The van arrived in about forty five minutes, but they did first call to apologise and explain they were dealing with it as fast as they could.
Now it was time to think of the pain of others. “Through no fault of theirs, our neighbours were hurt by this bastard. Maria, find out about the suicides, are the bodies still at the hospital?”
“It would be better if Savva did that. His station would know.”
He did so. He was told the bodies are still there and the post-mortems are to be done the next day. I changed myself to look like one of his men and we drove over to the hospital. We were taken to see the bodies. While Savva asked some questions, my healer checked whether it could repair the damage. The problem was the brain. The healer began it’s dance through time and repaired them. Soon as we were ready Solomon sent us the souls they had been holding and they both groaned.
This caused a tremendous upset, with Savva adding to it all by shouting and performing at how could two bodies come back to life, that somebody had not done their job properly. The one had taken poison so there was no problem, but the one who had slit his wrists they had to quickly operate, stitching the wound and veins closed. Once I was certain they would be well we left.
When we got back, Savva was in a religious delirium. I had brought back to life two people dead since morning. Since this subject is his weakness I ignored his ranting. Socrati came over to me and put his hands on my shoulders.
“Μπράβο! Είσαι παλληκάρι (Bravo, you are a warrior).” And he kissed my cheeks.
Perikli and Michaeli came together to me. I tried to forestall them by claiming I wanted to get the party going. They ignored me. “I have seen a lot and also not believed a lot about you. The part about coming back from the dead, I decided to take with a pinch of salt. Roberto, you not only did the impossible, performed a miracle, you also showed that you have the heart of a Greek. You cared enough to make good the damage and save these two lives. I am very proud that you have accepted me as a Cherinian. I swear I will never let you down.”
“Oh come on Perikli, you know that it is also an honour for us that two men like you joined us at such a difficult time. Come help me get this party going.”
“Perikli and Michaeli, I am his official representative. You may kiss me on the cheek while I accept and thank you on his behalf for honouring our Robert, my sweet but impossible father.” With all gravity they kissed my Sam and I saw she had done the right thing, so I kissed her cheek too. Her eyes danced as she smiled at me.
“Robert, calling this person the spider is a little melodramatic, reminds me of old lurid science fiction and detective magazines, sort of pre second world war.”
“I’m aware of it, I feel a bit corny doing it Jonathan, but they all call him the Master - which does suggest to me that they have a very rigid organisation. I refuse to do that, it gives us the wrong message subconsciously. If you want to call him something else, I’d be quite happy to go along with it.”
“Daddy, Robert used to call the ‘I’ of our World Arsehole. Now he calls it Adam, can we call the spider Arsehole now?”
“Em-e, I do not think that helped, your father would not appreciate my sense of humour.”
“Actually Robert, I was thinking it is apt and gives the right message to our subconscious.”
I smiled at him, touched that he had tried to make light of my using a description he would usually not approve of. “Thanks, but no thanks Jonathan. Two reasons. I think it gives the wrong message, it implies he is a bit of a joke, someone we do not have to take seriously. I do not want to underestimate him - at least Spider has undertones of something threatening. The second reason is personal. What pleasure is there in saying we won a war against an Arsehole?”
1178
That led to jokes about his next attack being farts and before I knew it the party had taken off. Normally I like a glass or two, not to get drunk, but to loosen up and get into the spirit of things. I did not for two reasons. The trips to the void with the actions I had taken had drained me; I also had a nagging sense of unease. If I was the old guy, I would be furious and hit back as soon as possible. It would be good in a sense if he does, action taken in anger is certain to leave an opening for me to learn more about him. I warned the protector; anything out of the ordinary I want to know, even if it is just a sudden change in the temperature of a breeze.
I saw that although they were drinking and had a plate of mezedes to themselves, Alki and Elia were discussing business. They had already liquidated at a loss many of their assets, and cash sitting in the bank was the fastest way to becoming poor, at least that was how they thought of it. The problem was that investing defeated the object of liquidating.
I noticed Keith was watching them from a distance, but was hesitant about intruding. I went to him and asked that he join us, and returned to sit with the old guys. We just listened for a while, but I sensed Keith was bursting to tell us what is on his mind.
“Alki, why don’t you ask Keith to tell us what he is thinking of?” He did not pick up the clue, but out of politeness he did so.
“I am not a businessman and cannot judge what is a good investment as you would, but Alki I have an idea I would like to pass by you. It has been driving me crazy. I don’t know yet whether it is possible, but something inside me says it is.”
“Alki, do not forget he is a Cherinian. If his intuition is bugging him, we should consider it seriously.”
“Speak then.”
“Ever since Robert was attacked by the energy net, I have been toying with an idea. What if it were possible to use the principle and create it artificially! We could replace the chips in computers with the En-Net and where it is expected chips will reach twenty, maybe thirty thousand MHrtz, ours would probably run at a hundred times that speed. It might also be possible to include within it the hard drive, storing in one such En-Net millions of exabytes, if not more…uh, sorry, each exabyte is eighteen million terabytes. Response time would be as close to zero as it is possible to get.”
“Robert!? Is it possible?”
I was so spaced out by what Keith told us that I uncharacteristically answered, “How the fuck should I know! Jesus Alki, if it is, poof, with one blow we revolutionise computing and take over the total market of chips and hard drives. Keith, the key to this is how do we create such an artificial En-Net - by the way, at least you chose a good name for it.”
“I was wondering if you could ask Solomon. He might have a suggestion.”
Solomon and Ordinx were called over and as much as I was interested I left them to do the rounds, see to my guests. Wendy brought, through her computer, her CD collection of music and she seemed to have anything and everything anyone could think of. My little girl has been very busy downloading music.
“Napster?”
“Mostly other ways.”
I put up my hands. “I don’t want to know. Girlie, grab whatever you want from Napster and other such sites now, I think the record companies will take them to court one day and stop them.”
“That would be silly, there are dozens of ways to get any music you want on the web.”
“They will love. Even if only as an example. They are afraid and don’t know how to handle the upsurge of piracy on the net and will want to terrify the normal user by crucifying some of them as an example.”
They played some Russian music and Socrati put his arm across my shoulder and down on our haunches we danced, kicking out a leg. I kept toppling over and within minutes my muscles were aching. He seemed to be able to carry on forever.
1179
As long as the music was loud, fast and had a good beat, the kids were happy and kept the floor full of their shaking bodies. I would have liked something to dance closely to my Dommi, but waited for our turn to come.
I found myself having completed the round back at Alki and the discussion. He gestured for me to come over. “Keith has shown Solomon his first designs and Solomon changed them. Robert, it seems it may be possible after all.”
“Robert, we could change computing completely. Now that I have a clearer idea of how the energy net is formed we are talking of speeds tens of times faster than I thought. As for the information we could hold in it, let’s just say that a major service provider on the internet, with millions of emails coming and going, they would only need one machine - hell, we could store the entire internet on one machine!
At the price we could charge, every home and office could afford one. No more sound cards, graphic cards or modems. The computer could be a flat screen and a keyboard. You could even forget the keyboard and screen, creating virtual screens, if people adapt to the possibility of them giving instructions and dictation vocally and by gestures. The entire computer could fit within your wedding band. Every site would have technologically what they have not even dreamt of within two years. This is revolutionary.”
I grinned. “I think you are going to piss off the Spider!”
Alki smiled grimly. “He should have thought of this years ago. Robert, Elia and I are going to invest in the research needed, mostly on behalf of the Cherinians and your family. Later on, the money we have will not be anywhere close to enough. We will have to bring in some of the big boys.”
I’m not a businessman, but I cannot avoid reading many articles about hardware manufacturers and some of the games the big corporations get up to, taking over their smaller competitors, so I took a risk of appearing stupid and suggested. “You could do that, or confront those who are going to lose their markets, and offer to let them tool up and do the production for you. That way you keep total control over your products without sacrificing any shares to other investors.” I was amazed when they agreed with me.
The excitement should have been contagious, but my intuition was starting to ring bells. I could no longer fight it. I warned the protector again and told my healer it must have all the healers ready to act instantly. By now my girls had stopped dancing and were around me. The adults picked it up from them and the party came to a halt.
“I’m sorry, it may be nothing, perhaps just my imagination, but I feel something is about to happen. Please close all doors and windows, everybody please stay in this part of the house.”
Alki fretted, “It sounds like we should have built this house with two metre thick walls.”
“It would not have helped. I only want you all in here to narrow the area the protector has to protect. Girls, the shield we used to lock Cherine in, try all together, I want one that can surround this house.”
The sudden silence was unnerving. I looked at my watch, still long before midnight. This was going to be a long night. A buzzing started and I ordered the protector to shore up the walls, I felt it coming. We were going to be hit by an earthquake. Even as I got them to lie down, it hit us.
I sent to the Protector, *Protect the ground under us also. They could be trying to cause an opening under us to swallow us within the Earth.*
“Everybody get ready to jump. We all go as a group to London, the apartment of Claire and Elia, on my signal. If you have not been there before, find it in the minds of my family.”
By now the walls were moving, swaying wildly as the floor shook under us. As bodies were being tossed about, they began to scream. I needed to go to the void, Cherine nodded and I knew she would take over. I lay down and left.
When I returned as energy from the void I saw the whole of Athens had been hit. Though the rest of the houses had stopped moving, the earthquake over our house was still in progress. I tore into the streams of energy and sent myself back up to where they came from.
1180
Soon as I was a small distance away from the house I saw that it broke up into about forty streams. I called for more energy from the void and split up into each stream, moving at almost the speed of light I arrived at my targets and my energy with Sparklers streamed into their brains.
Even as they burnt out the parts of their brains their powers resided in, I tasted of them, searching for the Spider. He was not one of them! I quickly returned to watch over the house.
*Solomon. They are placing one gigantic energy net over the house. Get more Sparklers to join us. I want every brain generating this energy to be blocked, destroy the centre in their brains where their powers are. I’m going after the big boy.* I had seen that the centre of their energy was one stream far more powerful, I went after that one.
As I arrived, an energy net was thrown over me. It quickly shrank so as to hold me. If I had come as the soul of Robert I would have been trapped, as I did not carry a Sparkler with me. There was no way it could hold the entire void that was within me and I could have easily escaped it, but I sensed this was not their Master. She was high up, but she reported to another. I stopped all movement, trying to give the impression I was trapped.
Sparklers came up the line and I ordered them to leave. I waited.
As the void I did not see her human form as I would have with my eyes. The body itself was difficult to see as it was distorted by the heat it gave off, plus I could see the aura, the energy form. I saw her look in the direction I was and I saw the flares as she became triumphant.
*You dared attack the Master and now you will be made to pay. Our victory will be the sweeter for having used your own powers to destroy the rest of your group.* I was ready to make a flippant answer in the hopes of enraging her, but I kept quiet.
*You have nothing to say, no pleading to be forgiven, no offers to join us so as to save yourself? They would not help you, but I would enjoy them.*
She soon tired of my lack of response and left me alone. I extended my awareness back into the void and sensed Sam with Ordinx there.
*Is everyone well?*
*Robbie, everyone is safe. Where are you, why aren’t you back yet?*
*I let them trap me in an energy net. Tell Keith I am analysing the structure, it might help him. You must not worry, they cannot hold me, I am not here as Robert, but as the void. I am hoping the spider pays me a visit, so I’ll wait. You must return home now girlie, it was naughty of you to risk coming to the void, if even Henry could catch you here, who is to say they cannot.*
*We had to know you are well. Love you dad.*
*Love you too. Tell my lion cub I am having fun. I’m driving her insane with my silence - a very unusual tactic for me.*
I pulled back the centre of my attention to the room I was supposed to be in. It was boring waiting. When she opened the door I was disappointed; six people entered, but the spider was not amongst them. They could all see or sense me, as was obvious by them looking up in my direction.
“The Master was right as you see. He did come here hoping to attack the Master. Robert, are you going to destroy his ego here or does the Master wish to speak to him?”
“It would be safer to do it here. Soon as I am done, send the soul to the Master. We have all been promised a sliver of this one. I look forward to gaining his powers.”
“Not that empathy nonsense I hope.”
They all laughed. There was no way I could pretend to let them kill the centre of my awareness, so I decided not to waste more time. *Christian, now that your friends have arrived I would like to remind you, only the immature gloat. You must be very young, don’t you watch the movies? The bad guys always gloat and they also always lose. As Nikos Kazantzakis said, ‘The weak always shout and boast. The strong stay silent and get on with their lives.’ *
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)20th June, 2019
- posted on Steemit: 20th June, 2019