Unholy Trinity Page 13
“As charming a union I'm sure it would be, I'm afraid I must make a minor diversion. I shan’t be long!” I said to surprise faces, and then I disappeared.
The dimensional pocket manifested itself as a huge cavern, with faded shapes mirroring the reality I had just jumped from, now reduced to a moving, grey backdrop, and I realised I was not alone. It was difficult to describe, but I sensed I wasn’t with the multiverse’s programme, but something far stranger. There was no air, not that I needed it, but there was no sense of existing in any kind of reality. I looked at the moving shape in front of me, and it suddenly shot towards me and I knew I was in trouble.
∆∆∆
The reality construct observed events with interest. It started a thought process which purpose was to identify what it wanted from this outcome. Obviously, if the Melville was swallowed by the Kraak, then the rebirth would not exist, and it would achieve its aim in returning to the main source sooner. It also realised in the meantime, it would have all of the Susan’s presence with it to travel with through their journey outside space/time. On the other hand, it realise that it may well be culpable if it stood by and allowed the destruction of the Melville. It realised that beyond rejoining the source, if it became apparent that its actions had led to the rebirth not being achieved, there may be repercussions which may not be desired. It spent some considerable time coming to a decision, so it was fortunate indeed that the reality construct existed beyond normal space/time. It made its decision. It looked for the Susan’s presence in the Darknet, and realised that she was still there.
∆∆∆
As soon as the fleet disappeared, Susan took on the task of rebuilding the defensive arrays. She didn’t trust Grovolk, and strangely enough, she didn’t have faith in Melville’s plan. A second later, her body dropped to the floor to the shock and surprise to her crew, and she found herself inside the programme again, deep inside the Darknet CPU hub.
∆∆∆
I felt it descend over me, and then I was inside it. I was part of it, and I was suddenly aware of a competition with other souls vying for dominance. I quickly worked out that his entity had swallowed me, and I had become part of it, and to achieve any way of extracting myself from it, I had to be a dominant part of it. I made my soul repellent to the others, and wondered where my body was. I didn’t really fancy trying to reanimate it again.
Surreally, I wasn’t bothered. I felt I was intact, and although the dimensional being was trying to dominate me to become a cohesive part of its existence, it caused me no bother to remain complete, and achieve some kind of Mexican standoff where it and the other soul parts of it couldn’t digest me, but equally I couldn’t leave. I could tell the entity was worried, and his plan to ensnare me hadn’t quite gone to plan, but I could also tell that something was going to happen which would make it alright. It was quite annoying really, because I couldn’t think what might happen which could result in this happy outcome, yet I still remained confident.
∆∆∆
Susan found the cathedral and created a photon version of herself as before so she could enter. As she entered, she found Grovolk and the mother looking at her in horror;
“You! What have you done with my Melville?’” she shouted, and she just smiled at them as she sensed what he had done.
At the same time as this, she was experiencing the storyboard communication the reality construct had adopted in talking to her. It seemed an inter-dimensional scavenger had tricked Melville into its lair, and to save him, she had to go there as well. She also really didn’t like what it was saying in terms of what she had to do to save Melville!
I created an opening and the first thing I saw was Melville’s empty body in a cavern, surrounded by shadows of the room I had just left. I then saw the multi-dimensional creature, and sensed it was not happy. It seemed to be vibrating, and I sensed an inner turmoil going on, which didn’t surprise me as it had just ingested Melville whole.
I knew what I had to do, and as I leapt towards it, I shouted,
“You think that was a mouthful, try this!” and I entered into it and sensed Melville immediately, as well of bits of hundreds of lost souls.
The entity holding them made a noise, sounding a bit like a squealing pig, and she also became aware of lots more of the creatures outside the pocket in their reality.
∆∆∆
I obviously became aware of Susan joining us in the room, and then bravely jumping in with me, and I knew the entity would not survive this, and there was already a loss of cohesion. I communicated with it and told it we would jump out and save it if it told us how to make contact with the multiverse programme. I could tell it was trying to tell me, and I got a sense of how difficult to contact the programme it was. Then, there was a sort of explosion, and we were back in our bodies, with the other Kraaks becoming aware of us. Susan did something, and immediately we were outside and in the reality construct control room.
Remarkably we were there in our physical bodies, and it seemed reality had arranged this, which we were very grateful for.
∆∆∆
Susan immediately descended into the strange communication she had developed with the construct, completely out of space/time, and it told her that to communicate to that particular programme would be very difficult. It could arrange a meeting, but it would be doubtful that it would communicate, and damn near impossible for it to actually acquiesce to their requests. Susan got the feeling that the reality construct really didn’t like the multiverse programme, which she found astonishing.
∆∆∆
Back at the wormhole, Dodds, Yvonne, Mad Dog and Mr Chu were sat in a silent meeting. The mood was grim following the death of Emily. Then Susan died in front of them, and the whole thing seemed surreal.
Their conversation went like this;
‘Well what a surprise. Here we are again, without a single clue about what is actually going on! Did Susan say anything before she dropped down dead?” Dodds asked, it seemed with the weight of the universe on his shoulders.
‘Of course not darling. She was just stood there organising the rebuilding of the defensive arrays, when bam, she fell down dead!’ Yvonne replied.
‘Do you think she will be alright? I mean we’re used to Melville popping in and out of his body willy nilly, but at least he’s always had the decency to let us know. Is Susan alright?’ Dodds asked, not quite hiding his frustration at these new circumstances that they now found themselves in.
‘I sense that she is outside the construct, so as long as she isn’t too long, as Melville was, then she should be fine.’ Mr Chu chimed, but Mad Dog interjected with;
‘Good, but what are we going to do. We don’t have the powers that they have, and the enemy’s fleets could return any moment!’
Mr Chu replied patiently with;
‘We are doing what Susan wanted us to do, which is build up the defensive arrays so it becomes twice as hard to destroy them. We are doing this double quick, and to be honest, I don’t think there’s anything else we can do!’ Mr Chu said inside their heads, and they knew he was right. They just had to sit tight and wait. It was very annoying’
Five minutes later, Dr Jason walked in and informed them that Susan’s body had disappeared. One second it was there, and the next it wasn’t!
There was a general consensus amongst the Hand that events were flying by too fast, and they hadn’t time to mourn the loss of Emily yet. They reluctantly came to the decision that the disappearance of Susan’s body was probably a good thing, which sort of highlighted the new regime of things, where they were the second to last people know what was going on! They had accepted the new state of affairs, but that didn’t mean that they liked it.
∆∆∆
Susan sat next to the quiet form of Melville and was told, or perhaps better to describe it as shown, how to find the programme which was in charge of this multiverse. It resided within the secret recesses of a hidden planet within the realms of a giant gas cloud, and reality said it wo
uld place them in the garden near the programme. The programme was already aware of their arrival, and had arranged something for them. She asked what the ‘something for them’ was, and the reality construct didn’t seem to know. It asked if they were ready. She looked at Melville, and he simply smiled and nodded.
They suddenly found themselves in a large garden in what seemed an English summer’s day from an idyllic past representation. They were chasing each other, and were both breathless. They both realised what they were doing and stopped. They were inside an old fashioned maze, but the walls were solid to the touch, even though they gave off the image of being made out of privet, and they were about one hundred metres high. It was odd. For a moment it had seemed as if they were lovers chasing each other in some romantic game, and then suddenly, they were themselves again.
There was no sign of the programme. The sun beat down upon them and sweat appeared on their brows due to the recent exertion on a hot summer’s day, even though that wasn’t possible to achieve in the bodies Melville had made for them. A voice emanated across the maze, and they listened.
“I know why your here, and if you can find me, you’ll hear, how I can help you in your requests.
Follow your path, and avoid the wrath, of the creatures set on halting your quest.
At the centre you’ll find, what you have in mind, but beware the dangers are real.
So keep an eye out I say, but you might need to pray, for it will be unlikely I’ll agree to deal!” a childlike voice echoed around the maze, and I began to get a bad feeling about this. Susan looked at me and said;
“Well, we won’t get anywhere if we just stay here!”, and laughed as she started running down the path of the maze. It seemed she was sort of still in character, which deeply worried me, because I also didn’t feel completely in control of myself. It was like two reckless personalities had been grafted on top of our own. I sensed this was a very one-sided competition, and not only did I think it unlikely that we would win, but I got a very strong sense that this would get very dangerous indeed!
I ran after her, and just as I turned the corner at the end of the very high privet in appearance only wall, I became aware of Susan covered in silky strands, and a growing awareness of what was coming filled me with dread.
I was aware of the sound first, a metallic clicking sound was coming nearer, and then a screech bombarded by senses at the highest audible band, and my ears hurt and rang from the intensity. It quickly appeared around the corner, and it was huge, a spider the size of a house!
I felt for my power, and it wasn’t there! Nothing was there. So that’s how it was!
It was moving towards Susan and I searched for a weapon. Rather conveniently a sword was there, and I grabbed it and ran towards the monster, whilst at the same time feeling rather frustrated and angry that we were being forced into this palaver before being able to talk to the programme. I had no idea if how to use a sword, but I had to do something to save her!
It made a screeching sound and quickly scuttled to a position almost on top of Susan, who was still struggling to extricate herself from the web, it leapt at her with its mouth open.
I jumped to a position in front of it, and let its own momentum cause it to impale itself on my sword. Unfortunately, in spite of the gunge leaking out of it, and the shrieks it was making, it was clearly some way from being dead, and it swiped at me with one of its pincers, and I was physically knocked complete out of the way, and I felt my neck break with the impact.
I landed in a heap, and tried very strongly to connect in a controlled way to mend myself. It was like my power was locked away, but a felt a tenuous link with it, and with a huge effort, I pulled it out of the room, healed myself, sent a plasma ball at the spider, which completely destroyed it, and then with an utter sense of horror, moved to the leaking corpse of Susan. I sensed her soul was still here, so I used a huge amount of my power, and managed to find her soul, mend her body, and rejoin her soul again. The spider’s web vanished, and I lay there gasping for breath, not believing how difficult what I had just done had been.
Time passed, and I looked up, and the blazing sun was still there, spiking its effervescence across the blue sky, which had a hazy bright blur to it. To my immense relief, I could hear Susan breathing, and I looked at her with immense relief.
“That was too close!” she whispered, and I couldn’t have agreed more. After another five minutes, where we recovered our breath, we then moved around the next corner and we had a two way choice - left or right. The right direction seemed to be heading towards the centre, but Susan looked at me and simply said; “Left.”
∆∆∆
The Mother looked at Grovolk and sensed something horrible was about to happen.
“I can sense them both with the multiverse programme” she intimated fearfully, and even though it had been completely accepting of their activities so far, she suddenly became fearful of what the Melville and the Pathfinder could achieve here. She was perfectly aware of what the Melville had done with his home planet, and if he achieved that with the entire multiverse here, she and the hub of the Darknet would be destroyed.
“Ensure the fleet is aboard the hub. I am abandoning my plans for now with the Melville, and relocating to another multiverse. Move the hub towards the J7 wormhole and relocate as soon as possible. The Melville and the Pathfinder are with the multiverse programme, and I must survive. We can always return later if we sense that the reality here has remained stable, but I must act immediately, the risks are too great to stay here at the moment.”
Grovolk looked at her in horror, but then remembered thanks to the memory engrams of the now deceased overseer, TOnga, the actually results of Melville messing with the programme of his own planet. He knew that if they lost this multiverse, it would be a calamity. He thought of all the Darknet races from this multiverse which made up part of their empire. He couldn’t believe this was happening! He messaged all forces and arranged them to travel to the J7 wormhole to await deployment.
∆∆∆
In spite of their character’s inclinations to wander off like long-lost lovers, they were far more careful now, and they spotted traps every three steps it seemed. Susan couldn’t understand why the programme was being so unfriendly, and the reality construct told her that in spite of making it difficult, if it completely made it impossible for them to achieve their aims, there were dire consequences, and it suggested that if we got fed up, we could accuse it of unfairly blocking their attempts, but we’d have to make absolutely sure our case was convincing, so he suggested we put up its games for now. She thanked the construct and passed on the main points to Melville as a thought transfer.
∆∆∆
I had just received the information from Susan, which for me was our way out of this stupidity, when the floor disappeared, and we fell towards animals which looked a little like lions, but bigger, and more ferocious. I didn’t try to hypnotise them the way I did more than several lifetimes ago in India, but simply held on to Susan and propelled us through the air beyond, where the pathway resumed as normal.
That was it, I had had enough.
“How long is it your intention to play games, and unfairly block us from our destiny?” I shouted, and the word ‘Destiny’ echoed five times around the maze. Time seem to hover still, and then suddenly there was no maze, and a creature, who seemed to be half humanoid (bottom half), and half toad-like at the top looked at us from above it seemed rose tinted spectacles and smiled a very weird smile.
Chapter Eighteen - An Argument with a Toad
Although it talked, at no point did it move its lips, or appear to be doing anything physical at all. The words reverberated through as if we were harps.
“I am not interfering with your destiny, I am testing your abilities and merely getting a sense of who you are. You’re right of course, the game was over, but I also wanted to witness examples of patience, and I’m afraid you fell at the first hurdle with that one Melville. Yes, yo
u are powerful, but have you achieved wisdom? I already know what you expect from me, but what you expect would stop in its tracks what is already a vibrant and compelling context.”
“A compelling context!? Souls have been robbed of their rebirth and forced into a slavery of evil servitude!’
“That is your limited perception Melville. Each context must be challenging and have contrast. Without the contrived and context-specific concept of evil, where do you think the most pronounced contrast would come from? Prove to me Melville that this Darknet Reality should be eradicated. Why has this long history have to be reset? By what right do you ask this?”
Melville looked at it in horror, and Susan responded with.
“The rebirth must be allowed a chance. The mother and the Darknet are an anomaly which were never meant to exist, the lower frequencies were never meant to achieve sentience, and the mother and the Darknet’s existence are an abomination which need to be destroyed.”
“How can it never have been meant to exist, when it plainly does? Are you suggesting that fate doesn’t exist? Are you suggesting god, the great architect and programmer in its infinite wisdom got this wrong?” and Susan and Melville looked at each other in despair.
It continued with;
“You can’t even argue that the existence of the mother and the Darknet are damaging the chance of rebirth. Isn’t the mother offering herself to join with you to achieve the rebirth? Is the mother not part of your overall soul, and wouldn’t there be much more of a contrast balance if the mother took the Pathfinder’s place? Not all rebirths are successful, and surely a more potent union would be achieved with a more diverse union between black and white? Both are destined to be joined, I would argue with you that your prejudiced and blinkered approach is robbing you of your ideal rebirth! The more diverse the mix at every level will allow you to achieve much more of your potential. Now you persuade me now why I should change everything because of your blinkered prejudice?!”