Chapter 15
In the pile of treasure on the floor was an old styled lantern, the kind you would imagine would hold a Jinn. There were other versions of Jinn vehicles as well, including a glass bottle reminiscent of ‘I dream of Jeannie.’ The dragon slept. The seven slaves slept, snuggled against the dragon and against each other as if they were a pile of kittens. The present moment had the quality of a dream that could not be shook. Heather found herself making a wish to an unseen Jinn: “I wish I were elsewhere.” It was her voice, but it wasn’t her thought. She found it odd holding a thought that was hers and not hers.
The Jinn, Karma, was nice; she asked “Please be more specific.” Meanness or spite could have taken Heather anywhere. When you consider most places in the Universe are not hospitable to humans, it is generally advisable to have lawyer present when dealing with Jinn.
“Not here,” Heather said, passive aggressively as if any place could be better than here. She didn’t like her response. It was abrupt, rude, and definitely ‘not her.’ She heard herself asking herself, ‘What’s wrong with me. I am a nicer person than this.’
“Oh, I like that place,” Karma said.
The response was confusing, but Heather didn’t have time to sort it. The shield bubble burst in a brilliant flare and Heather found herself standing on grass near a fountain. It felt like the square of college campus. It was populated by the right age of humans to be considered a college, and they were reasonably dressed for a school. It resulted in her remembering her own college experience and how much she loved the smell of Fall. She loved Fall clothing. She wondered if Fall was called ‘Fall’ because the Earth was falling away from the sun in the eclipse. No, when the US was having winter the Earth was closer to the sun. Maybe it was falling towards the sun? Maybe it was because the leaves were falling. There were leaves on the ground and she wanted to run through them and kick them up.
“Don’t be a child,” she told herself.
She expected to hear Karma tell her it was okay. Karma was silent. Heather called out to her. No answer. She was still wearing the nurse’s outfit. She still held her medic bag slung over her shoulder. She wasn’t holding the Torch. She didn’t even think about the Torch. She simply began to walk, as if she knew where she was going. She walked as if she had been here before, with no thought about how she had come here or the other place. She was again reminded of the ‘dream like’ feel of her experience, where she knew something was off and yet- wasn’t questioning reality. She had lots of reasons to question her reality. ‘There are no Dragons, no Karma, no Mars.’ Well, there is a Mars, but not like the Mars she had been to. This place at least was more ‘real.’ Bears and humans walking in tandem. Talking bears. Heather stopped, even stepped off the sidewalk to give way. The bear was walking, as bears do, on all four. It was walking with a human. It was talking with the human.
The bear paused. “Take a picture already. It will last longer.”
“Don’t mind him,” the woman said. The woman was young, gorgeous- like the envy of all model gorgeous, and easily 6 foot tall. Her eyes were two different colors. It was hard to look away from her eyes, mostly because of embarrassment- eyes not on eyes went to bosom, hips, and legs in lingering measures of appreciation and wanting. Just thinking about how perfect she was made Heather blush. The woman had a glow about her that was not consistent with the light from the sun. She didn’t have a shadow. Heather wanted to chase the no shadow, but kept her eyes locked with the woman’s eyes. They were penetrating, but kindly- as if she knew and chose to extend compassion. “He gets grumpy when he’s hungry.”
“If you say I have a bear of an appetite, I am going to become unbearable,” the bear said.
“Come on, you,” the woman said, hugging the bear. “We’ll get a bite at Sparky’s.”
“I need more than a bite,” the bear said.
The couple continued on. The woman had wings folded against her back that touched the back of her calves as she walked. Heather stood there in the grass for a moment, watching them. Her own hunger and thirst drew her out of her trance and she proceeded after the couple, not quickly. She didn’t want to catch up with them as much as she was hopeful this Sparky’s place had human food. There was the secondary hope of being able to gaze on the woman longer. ‘Sparky’s’ sounded as if it was named after a dog. The place was on the square and clearly the spot to hang out if you were student. Its emblem was a circle with a single, non-branching lightning bolt. It was coffee plus. There was seating inside and out. There was place for a band to play, or for improvisational drama. There were moveable blocks that adults could play with, positioning them for fun or to set up a campsite to hold their meal. There were ‘kids,’ twenty something, doing just that and posing for friends and selfies. There was Jon, sitting with a group of people, actually smiling and laughing.
Heather marched right up to the table. “Jon!” she said. “I am so glad you’re here.”
Jon blushed, nearly sucked in his lower lip, but was aware he was being scrutinized and let his internal flash of uncertainty go. Meanwhile, his friends were clearly amused by his reactions and were ready to give him hell, by the looks of their faces. They were enjoying the impasse- they were measuring him, anticipating a response that didn’t come. The old man, the Asian looking mystic in jeans and a t-shirt with a sports jacket broke the silence.
“Everywhere we go,” Lester said. Jon looked to him for an explanation; he didn’t have to wait long. “Can we not have one meal out without being mobbed by ‘J’ groupies?”
“Ahh, Lester,” Loxy said. “One person isn’t a mob.”
“Yeah. Maybe she’s a new love interest,” Fersia said. She was the one dressed like a cat, tight leotards with a skirt that sported the stars and galaxies. “Did you fuck her?”
“No!” Jon said.
“Would you?” Keera asked. She was Japanese, clearly in her twenties, but wearing a plaid skirt that screamed uniform.
“That’s not a fair question,” Jon said.
“It’s a very fair question, Jon,” Loxy said. “Your avoidance of the answer would seem to indicate a yes.”
“Yes, with caveats. Context is important,” Jon said.
“Like, being stuck in the elevator with Britney spears context?” Alish said. She was all shades of green, but not from envy. Her hair was light green, almost blond, naturally curly. Her arms and legs were dark green, as if she had a tan, but her face was a softer green. She pushed hair out of her eyes. Her summer dress was transparent enough a person could see the contours of her body, and breast with flowery nipples.
“I think it was ‘stuck in a lift with Britney and Britney came on to him,’” Keera said, clarifying the parameters of the context.
“Which is reasonable,” Fersia said. “If you’re stuck in a lift with Britney coming on to you, you just got to do that.”
“But honest honey,” Loxy said, mimicking Jon. “She looked like Britney.”
“Why is it always about sex?” Jon asked.
“Amen,” Lester said.
“Because it is,” Loxy said. “Now, are you going to introduce us to your friend?”
“I don’t know her,” Jon said.
“Oh!” Heather said.
“Did you fuck a random again and not even learn her name?” Fersia asked.
“I would never…” Jon began- paused due to the intensity of the stares. “Not lately. That I am aware of. Pretty confident on this one.”
“Well, I would,” Fersia said. She sang: “‘Stray cat strut, I am lady cat… Never met a human I wouldn’t sit in their lap.’ No, wait. I need to work the rhythm out on that one.”
“We did not sleep together,” Heather said.
“Oh, thank god,” Jon said.
“What?” Heather said. She began to cry.
“Oh, Jon, what’s wrong with you?” Loxy said, getting up to hug the stranger.
Keera stole a chair from the table where a woman and bear were sitting. The bear didn’t need the chair to access the table. It was sitting on the ground and eating whole hamburgers one at a time. The platter was piled with hamburgers the way Wimpy from Popeye would have a plate of hamburgers. It was a variety of hamburgers, one of which was a donut sliced in half for the bread, grilled, cheese on both sides of the patty. Keera thank them and the bear waved her off with a paw. Heather was seated and being catered to by the ladies. Lester got up to leave.
“Sit,” Loxy said. “She came to us as a group, we will sort this as a group.”
“She came to sort this with Jon, not us,” Lester said.
“Sit,” Loxy said.
Lester seemed to be considering the fall out of walking away and sat back down. “I don’t like getting caught up in Jon drama.”
“It does always seem to be about Jon,” Fersia said. “Not that I am complaining. I love Jon. I love sleeping on his feet. I love how he scratches behind my ear. I love his snoring. It reminds me of Papa cat purring.” Jon frowned her. She beamed a smiled at him. “Papa had some volume on that purr.”
“This is not me drama,” Jon said.
“You have more drama than episode of Siren,” Lester said.
Keera laughed. Loxy seemed amused. Jon seemed mortally wounded.
“Not me,” Jon said.
“He does like to meddle,” Fersia said.
“I do not,” Jon protested.
“You meddle more than a mystery van full of teenagers,” Keera said.
“With the sexual appetite of a teenager,” Lester said. He through a Jon imitation: “‘Not me, not here, not there;’ whatever Doctor Seuss want to be,” Lester said.
“It could be Jon drama and still not be you,” Alish said. “We’re still sorting out the fragmented universe of you.”
“Oh, subconscious drama?” Fersia asked.
“That’s the worst kind,” Keera said.
“It’s the only kind,” Lester said.
“Maybe it’s a parallel you, Jon,” Fersia said.
“He is pretty splintered,” Keera said.
“Yeah, way more than nine lives. It’s not fair, actually,” Fersia pouted.
“Even assuming parallel processing here, how can I be accountable for something some other Jon may or may not be responsible for?” Jon asked.
“OMG, Jon, that’s like 101 stuff. We’re responsible for everyone because we’re all connected all the time,” Loxy said. She looked at Heather. “Stop crying already. Thank you. What would you like to drink?”
“A latte, please. Are you Loxy?” Heather asked.
“Did you sleep with her?” Jon asked.
Lester chuckled. Loxy’s eyes went straight to him, and he shifted immediately back into serious. He ate a tater tot. Loxy pulled her chair closer to Heather.
“Tell us all about it,” Loxy said.
Heather unpacked her life from the moment she met Jon to the moment she arrived here. She gave it fast, in a fashion that resembled pressured speech. Pressured speech could be evidence for mental health syndrome, or someone who was used to an American Doctor only giving you two minutes of office time to unpack your life and problems. A person wanting to use that time well could definitely sound manic, or angry. They listened to her. Lester was going to ask her questions, but Heather spoke over him and so he just focused on tater tots, ketchup, and the story. She finished with a huge sigh. She became aware of her environment and realized everyone was staring at Jon. Jon was staring her, entranced. He became aware they were staring back at him.
“What?” Jon asked.
“Why didn’t you sleep with her?” Loxy asked.
“I don’t know,” Jon said. “Maybe, it wasn’t me?”
“Maybe that Jon is so hopelessly devoted to you, he can’t be with anyone else,” Fersia said to Loxy.
Lester scoffed. “As if that Universe exists.”
Jon glared at Lester.
“Eat me,” Lester said.
“As if that Universe exists,” Jon said.
Loxy touched Jon’s arm. “Jon. I love the idea that there is a Universe where it’s just you and me all the time, but you and I live in multiple worlds where we need to be responsive to other people’s needs.”
“Did you ever consider, maybe not sleeping with someone is being responsive to someone’s needs?” Lester asked.
“Why are you talking to me as if I am the offending Jon,” Jon asked.
Loxy closed her eyes. “Jon. 101! We’re all connected all the time, and what you do and decide affects the entire multiplicity,” Loxy said. She stopped herself. She smiled. “Wow. I am irritated with you. Why am I irritated with you?”
“Because there is Jon so focused on being with you that he is ignoring the people in his life?” Keera asked. “Heather’s Jon is so obsessed with the idea of Loxy, he is actually pushing the possibility of Loxy away, and not allowing others into his life. Self-induced loneliness. And so, to get back to Loxy- we need to get Heather’s Jon to lighten up and be with others so he accomplishes his life’s mission which will enable him to return to you.”
Loxy smiled at Keera. “That’s quite insightful.”
“It’s complete hogwash,” Lester said. “It can’t always be about Jon.”
“It depends on the context and perspective of the observer interface,” Alish offered.
“You’re telling me that the entirety of this miserable, woman’s life was so that Jon could have a response to other?” Lester asked. “Oh, look, there’s a homeless person! Jon, what the fuck is wrong with you?! You can’t reduce all of us to subconscious mechanizations of a Jon so that he can figure himself out. I exist. You exist. Life is sometimes shit. That’s it.”
A latte arrived. The waitress was in an old school, German barmaid’s outfit. She touched Jon on the shoulder as she went to check on the bear, gave him an eye full of her cleavage, and suggested a level of intimacy that went beyond being a mere patron of Sparky’s. Heather found herself jealous and relieved not to be connected to Jon.
“Where am I?” Heather asked, distracting herself from her conflicting emotions.
“Safe Haven University, the official Safe Haven world campus, not one of the satellite branches,” Loxy said.
“The fact that she didn’t arrive on the Bliss Campus is interesting,” Keera said. “That could mean something.”
“Or, in the multiplicity of things, she did arrive, and we’re just sorting from this perspective,” Alish offered.
“Jon, is she on Bliss?” Loxy asked.
“No,” Jon said. His answer was quick and precise. It was a trick of Jon and Loxy conversational style, and the response was considered highly accurate; the longer it took the response, the lower the validity. “You’re of course welcome.”
Loxy nodded. “When you master traveling, you can go there. You made it here, you’re welcome to come back here.”
“Is she a candidate for being a student?” Fersia said.
“A student of what?” Heather said.
“Magic, my dear. It’s all magic all the time,” Lester said.
“I don’t want to do magic. I want to be a Jedi, like Jon,” Heather said.
“Why would you put the bar so low?” Lester asked. “Don’t answer that. Sorry. Your bar, set it where you like. If you want to do anything, you must first understand consciousness. A serious study of conscious leads you to magic. It’s unavoidable. You would not be here if this wasn’t your next step.”
“There are other schools,” Fersia said. “But you only come here by referral.”
“Oh, Jon, I love you,” Loxy said, hugging him.
“We don’t know that I referred her,” Jon said.
“Did you read any of Jon books?” Loxy asked her.
“I don’t think so. You write books?” Heather asked.
“Not well,” Lester said.
“That’s the truth,” Lester said.
“Maybe it was one of her alternative selfs that read a book, and this is the imagined vehicle that gets her the training she needs,” Keera offered.
“Convoluted,” Alish mused. “Highly probable.”
“Occam’s razor invalidated convoluted,” Lester said.
“Maybe she wrote a fan letter and writing Jon got her enmeshed,” Fersia offered.
“More likely, she’d have to send him naked pictures,” Lester said.
Jon stole one of Lester’s tater tots and ate it.
“Why do humans get more than nine lives?” Fersia asked.
“You’re human cat hybrid, you have more than nine,” Loxy assured her.
“Really?” Fersia asked excitedly.
Keera petted her.
“So, what do I have to do to enroll? Go see the dean?” Heather asked.
“Let’s go for a walk. You and me,” Loxy said.
As they got up to leave, the heard the bear sigh in satiation. “I ate enough I could hibernate.”
निर्मित
The Admiral invited a select few back to the library after dinner. Daughter Jekel wasn’t included, and so she lingered at the table with Kriss and the others. Jon went with the Admiral’s group. Becker was surprised to be included. Abebe and his aide, Doctor Jekel, were invited. Jillian led the way. The Admiral lingered to say good night to his guests and then joined the party in the library. The arches closed like eye lids, with thick doors rising from the floor and lowering from the ceiling.
“Oh, nothing clandestine about this set up,” Jon mused out loud.
“You’re becoming rather popular,” Berger said.
“This set up won’t stop psychic spies,” Becker said.
“It will not. Those who really want to know will know,” Jillian said. “The Jekel affair will be sufficient subterfuge to distract the lesser agents.”
“We’re talking about my daughter,” Jekel said.
“She’s a free agent,” Admiral said.
“Shouldn’t she be here?” Becker asked.
“No,” Jillian said. “We want her choice to be pure.”
“What choice? What’s going on?” Jekel said.
“We don’t know,” the Berger said.
“What the hell are we doing then?” Jekel said.
“We’re mapping the unknown,” Berger said. “We don’t know everything.” He called up an image of their destination solar system. The star had a total of twelve planets, even on the ecliptic plane they were so perfectly flat and aligned with the star’s equator, it seemed artificially tuned. An additional artifact that added to that sense of artificiality was that each planet held a different rotation, compared to the last. The inner most planet was tidally locked. The third planet was a hot Jupiter class planet, losing its atmosphere as it orbited, which also highlighted a fourth of its orbit. In this gaseous tail, blooms of plankton followed. Eos pointed to a curiosity about the planet- it rained diamonds. Looking at the star system from the north south axis revealed a planet fitting the class of a Super-Jupiter. It had a hundred moons and an expansive ring system. Twelve of the moons could pass as class M planets, holding human friendly environments. It became clear as the focus of the perspective zoomed in that they did indeed harbor life.
“Is this one of our colonies?” Becker asked.
“It’s Devon,” Berger said. “Twelve moons, twelve incarnations of favored sentience. We have anthropologist studying them. There is no evidence that they understand their living situations. They’re not necessarily primitive, but they don’t stray from the ecological balance they’ve established. These cultures are old.”
“How old?” Jon asked.
“Old,” Jillian said.
“We’re there,” Transit said. “The Fallon.”
Berger was curious, as that detail had been left out of the report being shared. He looked to Jillian who was studying Transit. She saw no threat.
“Your intuition serves you,” Jillian said. “Your kind and our kind are favored among the Devon.”
Becker scoffed. “That’s useless information. They also favor the insectoids, and most of those kinds would just assume eat our kind.”
“The insectoids have seniority. Their pathway has demonstrable perseverance in terms of evolutionary stability,” Jekel said.
“Yeah, but they’re also stupid. It’s not like bees have advanced the quality of hive making. There is no innovation,” Becker said.
“Why fix what works?” Jekel asked.
“They’re not stupid,” Jon said. “They’re alien. They don’t think like us. That doesn’t denote stupidity.”
“They heard us like cattle,” Becker said.
“We step on bugs,” Jon said. “Again, that’s not about stupidity. The Devons put the Praying mantis types in charge because they’re not quick to anger. Their patience spans thousands of years. And they know how to motivate a variety of beings into working together.”
“Manipulate is a better word,” Becker said.
“All being manipulate systems,” Jon said. “It’s what we do. If a child isn’t trying to triangulate parents, there’s something wrong with them. Goal of parent is to guide that interactive exchange into healthy channels.”
“So, you’re a bug lover,” Becker said.
Jon studied Becker, wondering if his statement was a Heinlein reference and an invitation to dance. He decided against it being playful banter. “If you want to limit yourself to a binary frame of reference,” Jon said. “I am not saying I don’t experience fear. I do know, and this statistically verifiable if you want to chart it, I have been treated more kindly by aliens than my fellow humans, family of origin included. Too many humans get upset hearing aliens study humans, but not enough humans get upset that humans study humans, manipulate humans, and kill fellow humans. The day humans treat other humans better, our esteem will rise with aliens.”
“We’re off topic,” Transit said.
“No,” Berger said. “I like knowing what people think, especially when I am sending them out.”
“I think there is something not right here,” Jon said.
“What, you’re afraid of ghosts?” Becker asked.
Jon frowned. “No. It’s not an evil…” He struggled to identify what he was observing. His statement though increased the focus of the impromptu team.
“This planet isn’t orbiting the star. It’s locked at the southern pole,” Jekel said.
That explained the oddity. It seemed only Jekel and Jon were interested in this surprising fact. Jon saw an avenue to build rapport open up. At the same time, his like for Becker was diminished by his absence of interest.
“Except for maybe the rings, it’s a mirror image of the solar system,” Jekel added, now that he understood. Jekel and Jon exchanged glances, and then were back to studying. “Eos, is there an asteroid field?” An asteroid field was made apparent due to high lighting effects. There was the sun’s ‘ring,’ just as the Super Jupiter had a ring. In highlighting the asteroids, the Oort cloud became visible in the graphics. Everything was contained within the heliosphere. The sun’s boundary was also clarified. The heliosphere was a perfect sphere, whereas Sol’s had all the earmarks of traveling against a galactic wind, which gave it a more tear-drop shape. This heliosphere seemed like the perfect soap bubble, reinforced by the star’s magnetic field. It was a perfect toroid, a storm of electrons that originated and returned to the star. “Pan back,” Jon said.
“If you’re looking for a galaxy, there isn’t one,” Berger said. “This solar system is completely isolated on the Edge of Night.”
“The edge of night?” Becker said.
“The boundary of the Universe?” Jekel asked. “We found the end?”
“We have not been able to push past this point with quantum jumping,” Berger said. “Most the ships that come this far out find nothing. We have a scout ship pushing deep, but with nothing to gauge progress- we don’t know if we’re gaining ground or holding in place.”
“If the universe is expanding, you’re not holding in place,” Jon said.
“We have a window for being here,” Jekel said. “That’s why you guys are rushing.”
“Primarily, yes. This space will become inaccessible to us,” Berger said.
“How long do we have?” Jon asked.
“Maybe a month,” Berger said.
Jekel seemed to be doing math. “I think your math is off.”
“This space is receding from Earth at faster than light speed and accelerating exponentially…” Jon said, trying to understand the math.
“Nothing moves faster than light,” Becker said- quoting old school physics.
“Technically,” Jekel said. “Nothing travels faster than light through space/time. However, space/time can do whatever the fuck it wants. Space/time can move faster than light…”
“How the fuck did we find this place?” Transit asked.
“I found it,” Jillian said. “I guided the ship’s jump.”
“Serendipitously,” Jekel said.
“So, we won the lottery?” Becker asked.
“That’s yet to be determined,” Jillian said.
“We suspect this to be a weigh station, a portal to other universes, other timelines,” Berger said.
“We do not suspect,” Jillian said. “We have detected at least seven other soul types expressing interest in mergers and parallel development, located at this space/time juncture. This is definitely a focal point for a collaboration.”
“Whoa, hold on,” Becker said. “So there are ghosts?”
Jon didn’t wait to see if anyone entertained Becker’s questions. “Soul types? There is only one soul. What do you mean types?”
“You assume one soul. We assume. The Law of One is predicated on this. But do you really suppose there is only one soul type? Souls come in flavors. Souls have preferences for vehicle types. Souls can express unique individuality and unique group identification. Most human souls do not want reincarnate into spider bodies, or gray bodies. A few humans might be happy becoming a dolphin or whale for a season, maybe a horse or a dog, but our soul types prefer human type perspective and interaction patterns. Soul to soul compatibility is a soul choice, not a limitation of soul. Flavor is more about preference. We all exist on a spectrum, and we move through the spectrums the way a photon graduates through the gradient by taking on energy, or loosing energy. Cooperation is required to achieve change in energy states.”
Jon found a correlate in his brain, something he had read long ago suddenly found a place to fit in. A description by Doctor Michael Newton, in his book ‘Journey of Souls.’ The book was about the lives between lives, which would only make sense if you accepted a reincarnation framework. The artifact was a question about alien life, and the ‘soul’ being interviewed was resistant to even consider questions about ‘the others’ the same way a person with an phobia of spiders would be resistant to even thinking about one, much less holding one. His eyes lingered on Jillian’s eyes even while he ‘tranced’ out; she was appraising him. He flushed, as if she was seeing him naked. He also felt a tinge of jealousy- that her ‘vision’ came easier than his, and most of his understanding came through his readings as opposed to direct experiences. His personal experiences were more akin to fantasies, so fantastical he could rarely place them into a context that even remotely reflected the consensus reality he lived in. With one exception; the dream walkers of the Australian aborigines seemed to understand him, and were generally amused by his stories, as if he was were a comedian. This frustrated him, but garnered more laughs from the dream walkers. Not malicious laughs, but rolling on the floor laughter, and then a pat on the back as they walked away doubled over in pain by the joke only they understood.
“If this going to be spiritual battle, you don’t need me. If you got aliens, I can shoot them. I can’t do anything with the metaphysical crap,” Becker said.
“You will likely have hostiles to subdue,” Berger assured him.
“Oh, come on,” Jon said. “We’re in a spaceship that just traveled to the ends of the Universe, just to go to war? That’s like stupid. That’s as stupid as Thanos having a fucking magic glove that can do anything in space/time and his only solution set is to kill off half of the universe’s population. If it’s a lack of resources, just make more stuff. There’s enough fucking dark energy you could meet the energy demands of any imaginable size society…”
Jon felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Eos smiling at him. He flushed and realized everyone was looking at him.
“I am sorry I raised my voice,” Jon said.
“You’re very passionate about peaceful coexistence. We would like to coexist peacefully,” Berger said. “We hope we will all agree to this.”
“Clearly this place has been here for a while,” Jon said. “If this space was a trap-threat, well, it was tripped a long time ago.”
“Fifteen billion years ago…” Jekel said. He had been in trance the whole while, and Jon’s comment got him searching a new thread. It looked like a trance, but in truth Jekel was just absorbed in information gathering through his tech- he was present enough that he was following along with the external world and Jon’s statement caused him to utter a fact