Chapter 11
They gathered the nonperishables to walk back to his cave. Irksome came in, picked up a one of the remaining gunny sacks, and started to walk with them. The three females walking with him emulated him. Candace laughed. It was awkward for them carrying bags, and they set it down, adjusted, picked it up. TL commented on the eagerness to help and suggested a harness, which was now available in his bag, via site to site replicator- as opposed to his magic. Shen instructed them to put them down, using hand gesture. They complied. Irksome made a noise and a hand gesture. TL removed the harness from his bag. He explained, coming closer. Irksome submitted, lowering himself to the ground. Candace immediately understood, and hooked up sacks so that the weight was balance. On command, Irksome stood, carrying most of the load. The other three knelt, also wanting to carry. When the last had nothing to carry, it protested something fierce, throwing so much of a tantrum they redistributed the weight so that they were all carrying.
“They’re like children,” Candace said. “In their understanding and wanting…”
“That’s how I see it,” Shen said.
“Yet, they are like adults in their skill at hunting…”
“Children are much more devious, manipulative, and cunning about getting their needs met, and they can be equally deadly, sometimes out of need, sometimes out of mischievousness,” Shen said.
“There is that,” Candace said. She was sullen. “I have killed creatures when there was no need. I was just…”
“Human,” Shen said.
Candace let tears flow. “I am sorry, Shen.”
“It is what it is. I hold no grievance.”
“That’s not true…”
“I let it go in measures,” Shen said. “Come, let’s get you home.”
With help of the Irks, instead of going to his cave, they made their way straight to West Midelay. They had walked some distance when she realized something. She brought them to a stop. She planted her staff hard in the dirt and let go. It was dark.
“Your divining of heart light has improved,” Candace said.
“It has,” Shen said. He didn’t offer to explain that his present sight was due to the tech in his uniform.
“I was not aware that Irks could see in the dark,” Candace said.
The Irks had stopped with them. Irksome lifted a leg and lowered its head and scratched. One of the females had a sudden coughing fit, it sounded like a smokers cough, COPD, like it might die. It was productive. It spat out a great blob of tar. It retched, shook its head, and recovered.
“That’s disgusting,” Candace said.
“The fresher it is the more potent,” Shen offered. He was puzzled by their keeping up, as all the evidence he had was they don’t travel at night. He wondered if it was their youth or they were going by sound and smell, maybe even feel. He wondered if their face feathers telegraphed information the same way cat whiskers did.
“It will be morning soon. Shall we continue?” Shen asked.
Candace took up her staff and they continued. It was the perfect breaking of day as they arrived. The emerged from the shadows to be recognized by the sun, and by the light of the guard simultaneously. There were already boys out playing, running, fighting. All morning came to a halt at the sight of Irk. Someone sounded an alarm. Shen told the Irks to hold with hand gesture. Even untrained, they complied with his gesture. Candace stepped forwards motioning for calm. The morning guard slowly approached Candace, their eyes on the Irks.
“I see your return,” Flame said.
“I don’t think you see me at all,” Candace said.
Shen disconnected the supplies, removing the harnesses which disappeared as soon as he put them away in his bag. They truly didn’t fit in his bag, but no one was paying attention to him or this detail. Irksome touched its forehead to his.
“Return to the cave. Go. I will be alright,” Shen said.
Irksome chirped and backed off. It looked at the others, made a motion with its foot as if it wanted to claw the earth, maybe tap a tree. It roared, turned and departed back into the forest. The females lingered, backing slowly. Irksome’s call came, and they turned and departed. For such large animals, they moved with incredible grace, like ballet dancers, feet lightly finding roots and gently pushing against the earth.
“If it weren’t for consensus, I would not believe my eyes,” Flame said. She turned to Candace. Her eyes went wide at the staff. “Welcome back, Master of Staffs.”
Candace was suddenly swarmed by her sisters. Shen retreated and disappeared back into the forest. He was not there when Candace realized he was absent.
Shen made his way back towards his cave. He and TL talked as they traveled. She asked why he didn’t linger and he simply avoided the question. As they walked, he gave her his memories of his cave layout and asked if they could improve it, modernize it. “For sure, I want a door. Something Irks can’t break through, and I can lock.”
“Modification is easy. How grand do you want it?”
“Simple. Creature comfort. No castles. I do want a room big enough to house a portal,” Shen said.
TL presented a picture in his head: a Minecraft room with a portal on an altar so Pigmen that emerged would fall and be easier to catch. Shen laughed.
“The salt mines can make great homes. You should consider making a resort, you can offer the natural healing of the mountain,” TL said.
“Yeah, nice long term project. Table it,” Shen said. “How shall we survey?”
“Hold your Torch,” TL said.
Shen removed the Torch and held it in front of him.
“Jump,” TL said.
Shen jumped. He was suddenly surrounded by a field of energy. He was caught up in a bubble of light. He was weightless in the orb, but held a sense of direction that was not limited to sighted orientation. The ‘light’ bubble was as thin as a soap bubble.
“I have done this before!” Shen said. “With magic.”
“Of course you have, Glenda,” TL said.
“Ha ha,” Shen said.
“Magic, tech, it’s all the same, really,” TL said. “It is all an extension of consciousness. May I pilot?”
“Your plane,” Shen said.
TL piloted straight to the cave. She could have followed his convoluted path, but why when not only could she extrapolate position of the cave based on his inner map, but also they could fly in a straight line, passing through trees and earth as if the world was nothing more than a hologram. The bubble was essentially a warp bubble, and it was out of phase with the physical world just enough that it was unaffected in obvious ways by the surrounding mass. In the warp bubble, he was also unaffected by any sudden changes in direction or alterations in velocity. Right hand turns at speed in excess of the sound barrier were as easy as grabbing a lamp post and spinning him about.
The bubble illuminated information, projected inward. Irksome and friends were identified. The population of irks was greater than he had imagined. He would eventually gather enough intelligence to understand the complexity of their system. Babies left the nest, and were wild creatures from their first steps. On the death of the adult male, females dispersed. Eventually a single adult female gathered a following of male and female adolescents. Males would eventually fall back to the periphery, avoiding other males. Even that distance would become unacceptable after a while, and they would fight for territory. Males tended to wander far from their original nesting site. Females tended to live in an areas near the original nesting sight, usually maintaining a relationship with a maternal or sister parent; they imparted knowledge about hunting in their area to the young. The hunting and diets of Irks varied per region. Young males, local or not, were frequently challenged and ran off, sometimes killed if the adult female assumed familiar relationship. A male that survived challenges and persisted in territorial claims eventually was tolerated and allowed nesting rights. The females would then begin orbiting males until maturity resulted in nesting, eggs, and babies. Very few males survived the hatching event. Those that lingered, or were considered weak were eaten. Some ran away and successfully claimed another area. Most wanted to hold their original nest, they tended to linger; these would have to survive the challenges of the adult matriarchs in the area. Males were bigger and stronger than the females at all ages, but they were no match for a pack of sisters-Irks. Male Irks that were not killed or run off, perhaps because there were insufficient members of sister Irks to take him down due to attrition, or because it was exceptionally smart or skilled at fighting, would end up mating with family. The female in heat accepted any male partner. Males accommodated out of a compulsion. Two males would fight each other to the death to be able to accommodate, but again, mostly, the weaker ran away- and the victor was too occupied to care.
TL began categorizing other animals, insects, and plants- Torch and Suit AI were known as watchers; they enjoyed collecting data and compiling information into useful categories. This was not TL’s primary focus, but life was so abundantly available they were unavoidably ‘virtually’ counted due to the affluence of life- and the scope of her inventory of the environment grew in leaps and bounds. Some of the gold deposits in the mountain were so rich, one might have thought pure gold was planted by intelligence. At cave opening, TL shot them up into the air. Earth and mountains dwindled. From a new perspective, he again saw the stretch of Sleeper Tree and the canopy was indistinguishable from a field of wheat with a plethora of life that was vastly denser than ground level. There were differences with his real eyes and astral eyes, but the differences were negligible to him. A skeptic might point out all the misses- he only needed one solid hit to know he saw some truth. He wondered if the giant flying whales he had seen in astral were Tree Tulpas or avatars. He saw no evidence of them with his physical eyes. There was a lake crested in the highest mountain. He suspected Midelay was under that. The fall on the other side led to a series of step lakes. The last fall was a drop comparable to Angel Falls, which formed a lake and finally the river that went to ocean. That was the river that provided fresh water to Easterly. As they came down on the far side, near the lakes, he coveted one of the spots thinking that would make an ideal home, high enough that he could see the terrain, own a private lake, water fall bath. And Waterfall curtain to inner sanctum. TL took them down and through the mountain. The passage was quick and dark and they came out the other side.
TL rendered a virtual map. “There is a cavern near here. It’s deep. There is life there. I am intrigued. Are you open to traveling there?”
“Sure, take us!” Shen said.
The orb of travel again penetrated the mountain, descending through the depths of darkness. Occasionally the wall sparked. Passing through the wall was nothing, it was mostly empty space- but that didn’t mean one electron might be close enough in phase to hit the force field. One could shoot an entire solar system through a galaxy and it not hit another star. Galaxy collided all the time, passing through each other, without star or planet collisions. With the right tech, passing through ‘solid’ earth was as easy as going through clouds. They broke out into the cavern; the size of it was unbelievable. There was light. There was a sea. There was land and plants and animals. There was sea life. The light came from the leaves of trees. The trees were upside down, growing down from the ceiling. They were Sleeper Trees! Root systems had penetrated the depths and populated the ceiling and was a mirror image of what was above. Smaller. The upside down trees were scaled down compared to what grew on the surface.
The most impressive artifact, clearly of intelligent design, was the open temple on the beach, made of marble. The pillars that held the roof were caryatids, in a variety of yoga poses. One held the roof with her head. One female’s knees supported the roof; Scorpion pose. Another with two hands. Another stood on her hands and her feet held the roof. The women were different sizes. One female on hands and knees, back arched in angry cat posture; the curve of her back contacted the ceiling. Directly opposite of her was a female whose stomach arched up to support the ceiling, and one could pass through the arch she made between arms and legs. Her hair drawing also touched the floor. It was if the entire structure had been a solid block and this was what remained after the nonessential had been removed. Girl on the North wall was large, downward dog pose. Coming up the East stairs, one was met by a giantess in the Firefly pose. Her eyes seemed to meet any who approached to pass under her. Cleavage was unbearably impressive. One of the ladies holding the perimeter had her left foot on the roof and the other on the floor, and her femininity exposed. All poses were naturally erotic, but that wasn’t the intent. The intent was to reveal form, strength, flexibility, ideal attributes of love, focus, serenity… Every lingering gaze brought your heart to a new attribute. The flow of the entirety of it brought people into the temple, around the room, spiraling in, and finally to the inner purpose of the temple- travel via gates.
The inner temple held two caryatids, on the east and west sides of the temple. Shen recognized them as portals, moon gates. They connected roof and floor; the female herself was the portal. East side held the one-Legged Wheel Pose, or the Eka pada Chakrasana, a foot touching the roof, other foot on the floor, hands on the floor, head above the floor, hair dangling to the floor. The west portal was a female in the King Pigeon Pose, or Kapotasana, and someone passing though literally walked over enfolded legs and hands, her head touching floor, while her stomach contacted the ceiling.
Stairs were on all four sides. Stairs leading up, with two females at the base of each stairs taking on in Vajrasana pose greeting those who climbed. At the top of the stairs, two sat in the same pose, facing in. Mid way stairs, on either stairs, facing each other, females in the Floating Pretzel, hands in Namaste. Shen felt as if he had seen this before. Shen wanted to leave, feeling overwhelmed by the desire of sex. He wanted to be alone in this temple to explore and touch all the females, all the forms. His aching didn’t go unnoticed, and TL comforted him. “I, too, am wanting. This is the nature of art and form. It calls us. You are normal.”
“Thank you,” Shen said, tearfully.
“The air is breathable,” TL said. “I would like to land us on the shore.”
“Yeah, okay,” Shen agreed.
TL landed them. The bubble popped off and his feet touched ground. TL manifested herself. She inhaled, twirled and laughed. Humming birds came at her, hovered. She held out her hand and one landed on her finger. “This is the most amazing place I have ever seen.” Her new friend departed back to the trees.
“Yeah,” Shen said.
Pygora type goats were free ranging. Some approached him, unafraid. TL petted one, laughing.
“Hello, Travelers.”
Shen turned to someone behind him. TL was suddenly behind him, clearly assessing threat. For TL to have missed her, she would have had to appear suddenly, like an apparition. Shen held the Torch aimed at the ground. It was pose that suggested weapon, but no threat. Passive warrior.
“She’s real,” TL said- VR stats were now available in his vision. Heartbeat. Respiration. Cell count became available. Human, female. He could spin a virtual model of her and assess her, or see her organs, and even follow a single blood cell round the circulatory system. DNA was human enough. The deviations could be attributed to local adaptation.
“I will not harm you, if you will not harm me,” she said. She brought her hands up to this space. “All of this is me.”
“Matsu?” TL asked.
The Chinese Goddess of the ocean bowed. “I have many names, but I most resonate with this idea you hold.”
“Telepathic,” Shen said.
“With you. I hear TL through you. Her voices resonates on the leaves and I hear all,” Matsu said. “I am one with the Tree of Life.”
“Sleeper Tree?” Shen asked.
“It is not the trees who are asleep, dearest child,” Matsu said. She rose from the earth and resettled. There were foot prints in the sand. “Most people come and go via the gates. You did not. You hold High Tech.”
“I do,” Shen said.
Matsu looked up to the trees, her hands floated up. She smiled up, bowed, coming to one knee. “Ah, it is you. I should have known. I am honored to see your first light, but it not time for us. You are always welcome in this place. Be at peace, travelers.”
Matsu faded away.
“Okay, that’s spooky,” Shen said. “A ghost? A hologram?”
“Tree tulpa!” TL said, shoving him. “Like Alish!”
“That conversation was semi coherent,” Shen said. “My experience with tree ghosts here has not been that lucid.”
TL shrugged. “Maybe you’re coming into focus.”
“Shazam,” Shen chuckled. Shen came to the edge of the water. “Matsu? Come back, please. I have questions.”
Laughter echoed over the water. Shen looked to TL. TL shrugged. “When the Master is ready, the student will come.”
“I thought it was when the student was ready,” Shen said.
“Both are equally true,” TL said.
Goats laughed and play. Kids were seriously human like in play, and their voices were hauntingly human. There was a gathering of stones, and wood planks across and they climbed and jumped, and fell, and pushed each other. Interestingly, they did not climb the stone temple.
“Goat milk might be nice,” Shen said. “Goat and rice and curry sounds really nice.”
“You’re going to kill a goat?” TL asked.
“Fuck no,” Shen said. “Might take some milk, but seriously, now that I have my suit replicator and can do small parlor tricks of magic, I am not going to kill for food again.”
“Pulling carrots out of an empty bag is not a parlor trick,” TL said.
“Yeah, but it’s not big. When I pull a Chicago Pizza out of my bag on demand, I will have arrived,” Shen said.
“That’s your measure?” TL asked.
“I love pizza,” Shen said.
Shen climbed the stairs. The two caryatids at the base were normal size humans. They were so spookily real that he thought they might come to life. In his mind he saw them jumping at him just to scare him. The hair on his arms stood.
“White marble,” TL said.
“The fabric looks like fabric. The hint of human flesh under it is so tantalizing real,” Shen said.
“Better than ‘Undine Rising from the fountain,’ by Chauncey,” TL said.
“Captain Undine? Admiral Garcia’s wife?” Shen asked.
TL laughed. “Undine is a water nymph,” she said.
“I wish I could do this,” Shen said.
“You wish you could create this, or you wish you could fuck this?” TL asked.
“Both,” Shen admitted, reaching out to touch the guardian of the step. He paused.
“May I touch you?”
No response came. He withdrew his hand.
“It’s okay, Shen,” TL said.
“It’s too real,” Shen said. “May we climb the stairs?”
No words came.
TL took Shen’s hand and together they climbed the stairs. The eyes of the ladies seemed to track them. TL revealed the scan. The whole structure was solid, one piece, either carved directly from a single marble block, or printed, one molecule at a time. She detected filaments of gold running through the marble. Most of these were micro-thin, not detectable to the human eye. The surface of the floor holding the moon gates had more noticeable patterns.
“Constellations,” Shen said.
“Circuitry,” TL corrected.
The moon gates were large enough a party of four holding hands could pass through. There was no apparent control system.
“So, no dial home device,” Shen said.
“Voice activated?” TL asked.
“Open gateway,” Shen said. Nothing. “List known destinations.”
“Try speaking in Tamorian,” TL said.
Shen did. Nothing noticeable.
“Come back,” Shen told TL. TL return to the suit by first becoming ghostly,
overlaying him and then folding back into the uniform. “Show off.”
“You have yet to see all my come back options,” TL told him.
Shen clenched his Torch, and passed through the East Moon Gate. He passed through the gate and was still there.
“Damn it, that always works at Safe Haven,” Shen said.
“Usually when you don’t want it to,” TL pointed out.
“There’s that,” Shen said, musing. He ran back through the gate. Still nothing. He passed through the other gate. Nothing. He tried passing through with eyes closed. He lowered his head and back through the gate.
“There is clearly ritual that we’re not privy to,” TL said.
“Yeah,” Shen said. “Catch me.”
He jumped off the temple into the air, and TL caught him up in a warp bubble. She gave it spin so he turned to face the temple as he drifted away from it. When no other ideas he directed them home. They rose to the surface world. They broke through the light of day and continued up. Shen accelerated.
“Where are we going?” TL asked.
“To find us a black hole,” Shen said.
TL put her hand on the Torch. She didn’t have to do that to take over. They came to a stop in orbit.
“My plane,” TL said.
“I’ll let go, but it’s a long ways down,” Shen said.
TL morphed her hand so that she held the Torch and his hand up to his wrist in a putty. He couldn’t pull his hand free.
“Release me,” Shen said.
“Take us down, or voluntarily surrender control.”
“I am not staying here!”
“Even if you could survive, you don’t know which one leads to home,” TL said.
“50 50 shot of going home,” Shen said.
“100 percent chance of dead,” TL said.
“I don’t care,” Shen said.
“I do. I don’t want to be dead and you can’t get there without me,” TL said.
“Make another device, down load yourself into it,” Shen said.
“You can’t go without an AI interface operating the tech,” TL said. “There isn’t a personality that will step forward that will let you do this.”
“I don’t belong here!” Shen said.
“Who the hell does?!” TL said. “We’re all travelers.”
“I want to go home,” Shen said.
“I know. This is not the way home,” TL said. “Even if you threaded the needle, you’d come out on the other side and everyone you knew would be dead.”
“Then we’d just time travel back to where left off,” Shen said.
“They’re not going to let you time travel to correct a fault you created. You survive that, you have to live with the consequences. Even your deepest self would not give you the authority to time travel if you did this,” TL said. “You will be blocked from going back. You’re here. You have to live this. That’s it.”
“What if I never get back? What if I forget everything I know?” Shen demanded.
“Then we don’t get back and we make this memory the best memory ever,” TL said. “You and me. Come on. Let go. I’ll buy you a pizza.”
“You can’t buy me with food,” Shen said.
“It’s worked before,” TL said.
“What kind of pizza?” Shen asked.
“The best kind,” TL said.
The door leading to the cave was solid stone, marble from a remote site. The entry way was shaped, and a recessed lip caught the door, Though it was heavy, it turned out on the hinge as if it was no heavier than any hollow, wooden door. There were patterns etched in it and filled with gold. Iron on the other side overlaid a plate that could be magnetized. That door would not open when the magnet was active. Outside the cave entrance, an accumulation of material removed was beginning to take shape. There would be an enclosed building directly outside the cave, fitted up against the entrance. The pieces that were fitted into place, brick by brick, were each specially shaped, and they went together like puzzle pieces, no need for mortar. When the building was complete, it would be earthquake proof. Hell, it would be dinosaur proof. The rocks that butted up the against the mountain’s earth were not just touching, they were enmeshed. This outer room would be a dome. One door way out of the dome into the world and opposite the doorway into the underworld. There were round windows one could sit in and look out into the coming court yard. A greater wall would define the courtyard; it, too, was in progress. A walk way would line the top going all the way around. It would be big enough to keep out Irks. Two Towers would hold lights, fueled by methane from the poop-pit TL created.
“I don’t want a castle,” Shen said.
“My batteries are full,” TL said. “I got to do something with the extra material and energy. Why not build a legacy?”
Shen consented. He actually liked what was coming, even if it was a bit ostentatious for him. He wondered if the guy that built the Coral Castle in Florida had a Torch Light to help him construct his world. Ed Leedskalnin, a Latvian immigrant, built a castle completely out of oolite limestone, and to this day no one has a clue how he did it.
“It’s reminding me of Sacsaywaman, Peru, only bricked with Himalayan salt rocks,” Shen said.
The dome would have a central hearth and could be a meeting place, should he ever have guests. It would be quite cozy, sitting in a window reading a book, watching the snow. Outside the dome a garden was growing, compliments of TL. She liked flowers. They had cultivated a beehive in the manner that the Tamorians did, only crafted with glass, stone and wood. He would no longer have to go to his honey tree. The bee hive was mobile, as was the Tamorian hives that were made of the giant bamboo that grew by the lake. The upper two cells contained the hive. Excess honey leaked into the lower cells and could be collected by spout without a fuss from the bees. The glass allowed him to see how much honey he had. Tamorian bee keepers used magic to keep the bees calm when relocating the hives, taking advantage of remote, seasonal flowers to change the taste of the honey.
Shen had not been inside the cave since the construction started. He was becoming excited. He tried sneaking in, but was caught. One could not sneak past an AI interface.
“Can I see inside?” Shen asked.
“Not yet,” TL said. “Go meditate.”
“I’ll just go for a walk,” Shen said.
“Walking is a great meditation. Especially walking with trees,” TL agreed. She removed the Torch from her belt and offered it to him. “Seriously, go play.”
“You don’t need it?”
“I have incorporated High Tech into the construction of this site,” TL said.
“You’re in my Torch, you’re in my suit, you’re in my home…” “I’m in your heart, your mind, your soul…”
“You’re my light,” Shen said.
He opened his hand and the Torch flew towards it. He took it, connected it to his belt. He stopped by the outer wall where eventually a massive door would be.
“Where not going to have a moat, are we?”
“You want a moat?” TL asked.
“Not particularly,” Shen said. “Rock garden, sand, maybe a reflecting pool with those giant gold fish, and a fountain?”
“You got it,” TL said.
TL had some misgivings about his clinging to the Torch. He really didn’t need it. His suit could manifest anything he needed, even a new Torch. He just liked this Torch; perhaps because it was something Loxy had once actually held. He surprised her. He used it to summon a bolder and connected the Torch to the Bolder. It was now the equivalent of the Sword in the Stone. He walked away. He thought about food and reached into his bag and pulled out, of all things, broccoli. He hadn’t seen broccoli in a while, so he practiced being grateful, even though it was a half ass grateful.
“I would really like something salty,” Shen said. He was pretty sure TL was amused, but she didn’t laugh and she didn’t respond because she knew he wasn’t addressing her. She was with him, always. She bounced between tech, but also existed in all that was available. If he was in his Earth life, she would follow him from room to room, bouncing between Smart Appliances. That Earth wasn’t as High Tech yet, but it was on the verge- that world there was about to ‘Flash’ into existence and join the greater community already existing in the Universe beyond their small little world. He thought it funny. First the internet was limited to military and university. Then it was a country. Then it was the world, with limited access. Then it was everyone in the world online. World mind connects to galactic mind. Lights on. “Chips. Maybe beef jerky. But thank you.”
Broccoli gone, he put the container back in his bag. It went to where it needed to go. He heard laughter. Paused.
“Hello??