They were all suspended within a dazzlingly pure, infinitely soft, sky-blue light. It was both light and material simultaneously. It stretched from the horizon to the last recess of the mind. It did all this without so much as a gust of effort. Yet despite this power it didn't hurt the eyes. It simply stretched on forever. It was also delightfully cool. Cool to the innermost core of the body but with not a touch of cold. The coolness seemed to dispose of every last worry. The five of them gently lilted in space as if held by an invisible force.
It was as though the environment had been tuned to a new frequency. Visible currents revealed themselves. Rivers of pulsing yellow emerged from out of the space surrounding them. From afar a shimmering object could be seen. At first it looked like a miniature Earth but it was an incredible distance away and moving hypnotically fast.
As it approached it could be seen that it was also revolving. The currents were emerging from it. These streams of sunshine looked like a pulsating root system. The streams seemed to be sensing, enquiring, and sucking up nourishment. At first Danny had thought that the approaching entity was a spaceship. Then as it rapidly drew close he could see that it was too huge for that. It was more asteroid or moon than ship.
Finally it became clear that it was a tree-like shape. It was gently spinning as it moved forward, soundlessly, toward them. Then Danny had second thoughts. It can't be a tree; it’s a ship. No, it’s simply too big. What tree, or ship, is the size of a small planet? Ben realised first. It was both.
It drew near. They could hear the space around them reverberate into new shapes as the enormous entity disturbed the energy field in which they were suspended. It went from a speed beyond comprehension to stationary in little more than an instant. It was now spinning slowly about its axis as though it had never moved at all.
The space-tree was a golden brown colour with fluorescent glowing deep green leaves. The leaves moved as though there was a gentle breeze. The whole thing had a light-blue aura, just visible against the deeper blue of the surrounding space. Within the intricately patterned leaves veins of fast-pulsing silver shot darted. The whole edifice glowed like the Earth seen from space.
After some time, like a fierce arm emerging from the sea, a yellow bolt burst forth from one of the upper branches of the space-tree. It made its way down to the group in a long slow arc. Another stream of energy was making its way simultaneously in an arc from below. The streams of energy were like rays of solid sunshine. The second arc had emerged from one of the great tree's roots. The roots could be seen in their entirety. This gave the tree the appearance of a neural network - more brain than tree. The roots reached out and then around on themselves in great swathes around a central shorter vertical root. The upper branches reached outwards gracefully in the mushroom shape of an aged oak, or perhaps a venerable ash tree.
As the arc closed in from above the five persons held in the Akashi jet-stream were silent. Their minds were united in awe of the sheer beauty around them. It was a beauty that defied the senses. The upper arc resolved itself into the shape of a bird. As it approached the energy transfigured into a golden bird with a wingspan the length and breadth of three men. It flew in a perfectly drawn curve without a single beat of its wings. The lower arc hardened into a golden branch, upon which the great bird alighted. It had a beak like an eagle and a head smooth with golden feathers. It radiated a powerful golden light and seemed to grow and shrink with each breath.
The creature spent some time watching them. Some minutes later it spoke in a magnificent, silky-deep voice,
‘Welcome to the Akashi realm, children of the galaxy. This is the realm of realms, the consciousness behind every other reality in this galaxy. The great tree-ship you see before you is not in any one realm but in all realities. My name is Garuda the Golden Guardian.’
Garuda waited for a few moments whilst its words were absorbed, ‘We are in all the realms here. There is, in truth, only the one, quite ordinary space. But there are many different layers within this single being my friends. Each layer has its own way of life, inhabiting entities, environments and cosmic laws and so on. Some realms are so fantastic as to be beyond all imagining. Some appear ordinary – at times.
‘The galactic tree-ship you see before you is a mind-ship. It contains a deep secret, a secret of life itself.
‘Every thought, every deed, every ripple on every wave in all the realms throughout the galaxy is contained herein. This ship, the Akashi library of which you seek is not easy to enter. It cannot be so, for within you will find the story of "mind" itself.
‘There is the final security device through which you must pass. A mind steeped in evil has barriers that it has erected to protect itself from destruction. It cannot allow itself to simply be in case it would lose itself in the chaos that is the light. Such a mind must always be thinking, scheming, controlling.’
The bird looked even more fearsome now. It continued.
‘Do not be afraid. I give you my word you will enter the Akashi library unharmed if you can just answer the simple question I pose with all honesty. Reply from the heart with the first thing that comes to mind. If you fail, you will of course be vaporised instantly.’
Quietness fell heavily upon the group. A short repose as fortune would have it.
‘Danny Sola, you are first. Please bring yourself forward, good, good. Danny, the secret for which you search, is it inside or outside one's self?’
Danny breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't so hard after all. The right answer popped into his mind.
‘It is inside, Garuda.’
‘Good that is what our Akashi records would indicate to be your first choice. Now Jodie Temple it is your turn. Are you looking for love or for meaning?’
Jodie went pale with fright. She wasn't sure what to say. Just go with your intuition, she told herself. But was she really looking for love? That was what everyone would expect her to say. But is it true? I mustn't think. I mustn't try to work it out. Jodie couldn't help but be harsh with herself. At last Jodie said, 'Love'. Garuda seemed pleased.
‘Orb of Fargone, please bring yourself forward. Good. Now Orb, do not worry, this is a simple question. You are sure to know without effort. Orb, is it life or death that frightens you most?’
Orb felt ashamed, and a little angry. Her innermost soul was being exposed to all and sundry. However, such exposure was a lot better than vaporisation. She knew the honest answer. Orb didn't like being around people at the best of times and now she was being asked to reveal herself to these half strangers. Orb resigned herself and said, 'Life,’ very quietly with a little sigh. Garuda permitted her to take her place next to Danny and Jodie.
‘Golden Frog of the Ancient Interstellar Mindfrogs. Come forward.’ The calm tone was now absent from Garuda’s communication.
‘If I were to offer you power beyond your wildest dreams or the mere faintest possibility of the love of just one other soul, what would you have?’
‘The love,’ said Golden Frog without hesitation or thought. He'd have preferred the others to think of him as having a slightly evil side rather than simply a lonely old mind-entity. The truth was out there.
‘Bendhu, Earth human. Make yourself known.’
‘It is I, Garuda’ replied Ben.
‘Whose fault is it?’
What kind of question is that? Ben thought in anger. Everyone else gets a proper question. Saved the weirdo riddle just for me. Ben replied via a private telepathy (not an easy thing to do in the Akashi realm).
‘That is correct. But out-loud please,’ said the great bird, ‘The security device requires a witness.’
'My fault!' Ben replied grumpily. He then took his place with the others.
‘Excellent, excellent! You have all entered through the final security device. Now you must present me with the key.’
Danny nudged Jodie and she bobbed forward within the Akashi current that was still holding them.
‘She is but one half of the key,’ said Garuda.
Jodie understood intuitively and immediately turned around to face Danny. A golden sun-like energy swirled forth from inside Jodie’s body and fused together with Danny's equally flowing energy. Yellow streams pulsed all around them and connected them together at centres along the midline of their bodies. From above the eyes, the throat, the centre of the chest, the solar plexus, the feet and rising from their tops of their heads, it swirled together in a symphony of movement.
‘Energy is wonderful,’ stated the bird shifting slightly on her golden claws.
Jodie and Danny felt their bodies explode to nothingness as the energy rose and swirled. What there was of their selves was everything and everywhere, scattered out across the universe. Every pulse of movement was an indefinable chorus of being. Then suddenly they were aware of their previous bodies. Their bodies were calling to them like a mother drawing back a wandering child. Fusing toward their previous bodily form was pure exhilaration.
They were now in their own auras watching themselves. The energy of their bodies was rising in vibration, taking on a new and different incarnation. The scattered field that was Danny and Jodie suddenly drew itself back together again. They felt a surge of physicality. It was the same form but a totally different feeling. Their bodies were made of a material light. They both looked at their beings of light substance in wonder and fascination. They played with movements of their hands and arms. Wherever they moved their limbs, an after-glow was left in the space previous.
After a short while, Danny reached out and touched Orb. Her body immediately rose in vibration till she was similarly embodied. Jodie touched Golden Frog and then Ben. They too entered this new state of being.
Jodie noticed a heavy glowing feeling in her abdomen. She looked at herself and saw a golden key floating within her abdomen. The key had 5 teeth and ended with an orb inscribed with a curving wave-form. Jodie reached into her energy-body. She grasped the key bringing it forth with a loud gasp. As the key left Jodie's energy-body it grew in size until it became big enough for five sets of hands to grasp.
Garuda motioned to them to hold onto the key, ‘You can follow me now,’ she said.
The five entities flew behind the key, behind the great golden bird, out through the soft blue light of the Akashi realm. The bird approached the ancient cosmological tree. The blue and yellow streams of energy that bound her to the ship shortened like telescopic umbilical cords.
Just as they were approaching the tree a huge fanged snake with black and white diamond patterned skin reared itself. Its body curled endlessly around the great tree-ship’s roots. It bared its fangs, each one the height of a man, glistening with a silver sheen, dripping with poison. Garuda screeched violently at the creature and the snake retreated back into the tree’s roots.
‘That is Technis, he can do you no harm whilst you are with me.’ Garuda stated serenely.
Nearing the landing knoll of the tree Garuda stretched her wings backwards to slow herself and as she did this multi-coloured light sparked from the edges of her feathers.
All five alighted on the knoll. They paused briefly before entering the wood-lipped portal. They were now at the very heart of the Akashi realm. Jodie held the key with both hands. She watched as the key diminished in size until it dissolved into her own flesh, leaving nothing but a slight purple mark in the centre of her right palm.
Danny thought briefly about why there were here. What was the real goal of this journey he wondered? He tended to question everything. He enjoyed the process of doubting, turning things over in his mind, finding new angles. He was a natural born scientist in a sense – always inquisitive, always childlike, wanting to discover new things.
Thinking Stone the ancient Sapient tree had assured him that Danny and his friends could retrieve the Ruro, the powerful unique substance that gave its bearers super-charged psychic powers. Danny had a sense that perhaps even Thinking Stone wasn't telling him the whole truth. Maybe his journey to the Akashi realm and to the great tree-ship was about something more than just the ruro.
They were now in a large cavern within one of the main branches of the great tree. The branch itself must have had a girth a mile thick. It was dark but the light from the blue-white Akashi realm seeped deep within. The golden bird returned to the edge of the cavern. Following, they all stood at the edge of the hollow, watching, as the great tree tumbled through the endless blue of the space below.
After some time had passed the great bird turned to the others, bowed, and flew out into the tree's surrounding space without so much as a departing word.
‘How’s the key?’ enquired Golden Frog. His mind projected the sound onto the environment. ‘That was quite a pregnancy. Impressive.’
Jodie felt embarrassed, she looked at the purple mark on her right hand – all that was now left of the key.
‘Your lights were really something too Jodie,’ added Orb.
The group waited quietly.