Children of the Source (27 page)

    I went back to Kodus and Marta and reported what had happened.
  But I wasn’t sure this was the end of my problem with the mysterious scientist-priest of the Thera.  Although the frenetic reinforcement would be gone, the essence memories could still remain and be used as a focus.  Not all scientist-priests of The Thera had out-of-the-body capabilities.  Nor did they have my wide-ranging abilities to be many places at once or to manipulate in multiple environments and times.  But they would have a basic understanding of the Entity and its many selves, and the essence memories that placed It in contact with these selves.  I thanked my hosts, excused myself, and headed back to my physical body.   

15

    Mid morning found me plotting Judith, Laith, and Greg’s progress on the map.
  Severin came into the map room and watched silently.  “This Earth system works very well,” he said.

     “It does,” I agreed.
  “It will rub your nose in any idea you want.”

     “Technology doesn’t change the basic roles or the ingredients of our lives.
  Just gives it a different face,” he said, running a lean finger on the map to where my brother and his group stayed.  “They are being set up by this single-minded man.  Do you want us to interfere?  To bring them out safely?  We can do it.  You have only to say the word.”

    “Thank you,” I said.
  Sometimes I don’t have to get images to see the future, but can sense it with feelings.  A very delicate experience.  It can lead me on paths I never expected.  So I focused on Jesse, the heavy crude prisoner, and the one who stalked them.  But there was another energy that didn’t yet have a face.  I sifted the feelings for each and the whole.  Physical time had nothing to do with it.   In short order I knew to let the future flow in its own direction.  “No. We’ll let things take their natural course, my friend.  I need to keep an eye on Burt and his patrol.  They are key in this.”

    “How well do you know Burt Clark?”

    “He is one of us.  He isn’t awake to that fact yet, but he has the empathy which makes him responsive and malleable.  We have to keep a Thera mischief maker at bay.  I’ve already had to have them chased off.  Friends on the Other side are keeping watch.  Useful, friends.”

    Severin smiled.
  “Yes.  So you think short-circuiting Evain with the new Tellus will help?”

    “I am hopeful.
  What do you think?”

    The graying man looked away for a long minute.
  “I believe it will help.  I do think that Evain’s energy signature has created a life of its own and will take time to dim.  So, no, not enough to make a substantial difference.  You need to discover the identity before you get surprised.”

    “I agree,” I said.
  “You have any ideas as to The Thera’s identity?”

    “I am not a Thera, but I’ve had time to observe each one in our group.
  They can shield themselves rather perfectly.  Kirfin, Astera, Dabir are three.”  He saw me start.  “Dabir is Thera, but has elected not to change his body as most Thera do.  He’s going through the natural aging process.  Kirfin keeps to herself.  She is friendly, but a loner.”

    “Do you know her history, especially dealing with Adora and the eugenics wars?”  I began to pace the twenty by twenty foot room.

    “Her Entity had a life during the wars, but it appears to have been a periphery one.  Not connected with either faction.”

    “Everyone knew someone effected by the war in some way, Severin.
  It was not a neutral time.  What was the life?”   We drew up stools to the map table and sat.  I poured tea from a teapot steaming mugs giving off the gentle aroma of oranges.  The ceramic honey pot sat between us.

     “She worked in an animal shelter as a caretaker.”  Severin  took a heaping spoon of honey and melted it into his tea.

     “Did the eugenics ever visit her facility?  They often raided such places.”

    “They did and saved a cat from a disease,” Severin said.

    “That’s the direction I want to aim them here.  Sending them into areas that will help rather than hurt.  We don’t need a race of supermen and women with no ethical direction.  So what did she do?”

    “Interesting.
  She didn’t join their cause.  Their arrogance with their eugenics enhanced bodies turned her away from them.”

    “Dabir?”
  I added honey to my tea.  A sweet tooth.

    “I don’t know of a life on Adora”  Severin warmed his hands on his mug..
  “He came to the Four Planet Federation later.  Always been interested in the intellectual and spiritual side of things.” 

    “Then we come to Astera.”
  I tasted my tea.  

    “She did come to your aid when Ryan attacked you.
  Her Entity had no life on Adora, or the wars on Earth.  She shows up in the first generation born during the establishment of the Four Planet Federation.  Then two successive lives after that with the Federation.”

    “That pretty much eliminates her,”
  I said.  “We’re back where we started.  I was hoping for some clues.”  I was frustrated.  There seemed no place to go.  Like with Jesse and his group I had to  follow the path without interference.  It was dangerous since I had no real protection except my shielding, intuition, and wits.  And  timing outside of my control.  Back to square one.  Severin excused himself to go to a meeting.

     I focused on the map and my family.
  Jesse and his family weren’t moving.  His injuries needed a great deal of healing.  We’d knitted his tissues back together, but his energies needed to be strengthened.  They would meet up tomorrow.  I sent a part of myself to Burt Clark and his patrol.  They marched parallel to Jesse and hopefully would bump into the Castaway the next day.  My friends reported no interference from the Thera.

    I left the map room and went out to find Abe, Meg and Victoria.
  General Carson, Brian Muldower, and Colonel Randolph stepped out of their Chopper for a meeting with our Council and the aliens.  The meeting didn’t require my presence.  I paid my respects and left them to go over to the children.  They were with a group of about twenty-five people being introduced to some games by the aliens under the awnings at the picnic tables by the Arms Shack.  Using the term alien was becoming relative as my memories of that culture and my position within it were pretty much awakened.  There were gaps in the memory tapestry, but these were filling in.  The aliens knew and accepted me as one of their own.  I spoke the language, knew the culture, technology, and was recognized as head of The Thera, and a member of the Council of the Four Planet Federation.  There was also the balancing act of being a member of the human race, a United States citizen, and member of the Cheshire community.  Along with all of that, I needed to keep good relations with General Carson, and Brian Muldower among others.   A lot on my plate.

    I sat down at the end of a picnic table and watched people playing the games.
  An excellent milieu of family and friends on several levels.  I felt very relaxed, almost sleepy.  Being a scientist-priest I should have known.  I had perfect control over my body and energy, but I forgot that energy comes in many forms and may be projected in many forms.  A sense of safety pervaded the space around me.  Then I saw a small spider walking across the table toward me.  I had almost missed the connection when it cried out to me. 

    Simultaneously I put up a protection, swept the poisoned sleeping energies away, and sent out portions of myself to trace my attacker.
   Then I put an energy shield around the spider. I stood.  Kirfin faced me twenty feet away.  The people at the tables backed away and watched us aware something very unusual was happening.  We faced each other.  “Why?” I asked.

    “Remember as Kodus when you tortured Nelon to death?”
  Her voice soft and deadly, caressed the atmosphere.  The people could feel our energies, left the tables, and backed farther away.  But mesmerized, they couldn’t leave.

    “Not Kodus’ finest moment,” I said.

    “He was my brother in that life.”  Again the deadly voice probing. 

    I moved my hands, adjusting the shielding.
  “Severin said your Entity had no life then.”

    “That was kept from him.
  Not hard to do.  A good man, but easy to deceive.”  Her voice continued to probe.  “Your children Abe, Meg, and Victoria are lovely.”

    “You can’t touch them,” I said, and waved my hands, instructing one of my selves to shield them.

    “Clever.  But you’re one man, and cannot multitask with our language.”

    “You have no idea what you are dealing with, Kirfin.
  Stop the probing and give this up.”

    She sent her first blast of sound at me.  It crumbled on my shield.
  Immediately she sent a blast at Abe.  It crumbled, too.  Without warning she sent a blast at Victoria, but I caught it in transit and destroyed it.  The blasts shuddered in the air and trembled the earth.   The people moved further back, frightened , but fascinated.

     We spoke in the alien language and the Sound Language.
  One of the soldiers aimed his K-12 rifle at Kirfin.  “This does not concern you, soldier.  Put up your weapon,” Kirfin said in accent less English.  When he hesitated, she sent a blast of sound which I intercepted, breaking its power. 

    “Do as she says, corporal,”
  I said.  The soldier backed off lowering his weapon.  General Carson, Muldower started to move toward us.  “Everyone keep your distance,” I said.  “We’re using the Sound Language.  This is not a game.  Everyone move back.”   The people backed to about a hundred yards from us. 

    I turned to Kirfin.
  “I am not Kodus.  We share the same Entity, but I am new.  You know this.”

    “You are in every way Kodus returned even down to your wife, the Queen of Adora, Marta, now Judith.”
  She raised her voice, eyes ever watchful.  “Did you know, General, Mr. Muldower, that Judith used to be Queen of Adora from a Entity that ruled the planet for thousands of years?  Her knowledge and power makes all this hardly worth thinking about.”  Carson and Muldower exchanged concerned glances.

    “You were not taught to war with the Sound Language.
  Where did you learn this?”  I asked.  She sent me a thought form of a long ago past and a war I’d never fought in.  I saw one of Akenton’s warrior scientist-priests.  Beautiful, full of unequaled power, ruthless and completely sure of herself.  I saw Mator ambush and kill her.  She was forced to watch as one by one all her friends died.  Then in an act of desperation she distracted Mator enough so Akenton was able to kill him.  “So it wasn’t Akenton in the end, but it gave him the opportunity to change.  Why not you?”

    “Your great son is not here to protect you, Jamie.”

    “I don’t need his protection, Kirfin.”

    She aimed her next salvo at me, which broke on my shield.
  For fifteen minutes I wrecked each of her attacks.  The people with General Carson and Muldower felt and saw the energy.  It was tangible, shaking the air and everything around it.  Slowly I arranged five of my selves around her in a net and began to close in.  Her sound attacks were taking their toll on my energy and the shielding.  Then I found the other parts of me could each have the power of the whole.  I stood and moved toward her until twenty yards separated us.  These selves were filmy, but a good physical representation of me.  I directed Kirfin’s energy attacks so they ran in a circle.   Her face and eyes showed her confusion.  Then I siphoned her last attack of energy and sent it back into her.  She looked astonished and fainted.

    I stood a moment collecting my selves, then ran to Kirfin and quickly placed a shield around her.
   I remembered how Kodus had killed Akenton’s minion when he tried to alter his DNA to make it impossible for him to use the Sound Language.  I turned.  Kodus stood there.  “Remember when I operated on Locus and he eventually died?  I can help you avoid the mistake.  Let’s work together on our energetic lady.”  The people looked at me strangely, seeing me seemingly having a conversation with empty air, except Charles and Mary who could see what was going on.  They hung back with Carson, Muldower, Randolph and the other soldiers, giving me space.  “Thank you,” I said. 

    There is a point, the source in a person or any Being, from where all the energy and DNA
  springs.  It is from this point that the energy of the Entity creates the physical body of its personality.  Some schools of thought call these energy points Chakras.  We went to what is call the Root Chakra.  There we sent our energies probing until we located the DNA link which being altered allowed the Sound Language to operate.  Kodus pointed out the link and explained his mistake.  We altered the DNA together and projected into the future to see end result.  When we were satisfied, we put the final touches and withdrew.

    I slowly brought Kirfin to waking consciousness.
  I could see the aging process taking hold.  With the shielding dropped, she appeared to be in her sixties.  Her eyes locked with mine.  “What do you plan to do with me?”

     “It has already been done, Kirfin.
  You no longer have the Sound Language.”  She startled, fright in her eyes.  “Walk with me to look in the pond at your reflection.”   I gestured.  Kirfin stood shakily, clearly expecting some type of control placed on her.  I took her aging hand and we walked to the pond about fifty feet away.  She bent over, surveying her face with wonder.  “Now, you will have to deal with growing old, Kirfin.”

    Severin came up beside us with General Carson and Brian Muldower.
  “This is the first incident of violence with your people, Severin,”  Carson said.

    “No one was injured, Will,”
  I said.