by G W Langdon
“I’ll do my best, but Reuzk’s playing a tight game with the pirate ship.” She brushed the specks of dust off the chair before sitting down. “I can have a vassal come in once a week to tidy your room, but I suspect you’ve got a personal routine and might resent an outside re-ordering of your world.”
“It’s a little too late for that, don’t you think?”
Queen Lillia tapped a spiceRoll on the case and pushed it into the long holder. A stone pendant on a gold chain rested on her chest above the modest, high-cut front of the finely sewn dress. “Was Sarra pretty?” she asked, placing the case onto the table.
“Sarra was a rough and tumble kind of woman,” he said, hiding Queen Lillia’s sketch in the middle of the stack. “On special occasions when she put her hair up and wore a dress, she was the most beautiful woman in the district. Few in London were fairer.”
“Could she run fast, jump, throw?”
“She could run faster than any woman I know and her throwing arm was like a slingshot. Ten skips across the pond—more than me if I couldn’t find the right stone.”
She lit the Roll and took a deep draw that burned into the red and black dragon print. “Men?” she asked.
“They used to chase after her, but when we became a couple… ”
“No, no,” she said through a haze of smoke. “Could she outrun men?”
“What has this to do with…?”
“Indulge me.”
“We used to race through the forests for fun and she’d keep up with hardly a puff.” He dropped the final scatter of papers on their end and ruffled the sides into a neat pile.
“Can she fight?”
“She could bruise your arm with a good punch.” He chuckled briefly and dropped the pile beside a sketch of the Bentley church. “Her brother, Willie wouldn’t dare make fun of her unless he had a few yards head start. I need to know if I’m the only one.”
“I understand only too well the pain of being separated from your one true love. None of us belong here. Would you say she was… crafty, resilient… grounded?”
“She had to be. Her father was killed in a botched robbery when she was only six and I can only ever remember her mother being in frail health of one kind or another. Sarra kept the cottage clean and supported her mother with sewing work around the village. Willie did the food and firewood.”
She drew a long inhale. “From what you’ve just told me and knowing Reuzk, he would consider her an asset to exploit. If Sarra survived the crash then she’s very probably alive. I will see what I can do,” she said. “But I can’t make any promises.”
“Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”
“It’s me who’s thankful. You care most for the matters of the heart, despite the amount of time you’ve spent on the portal having your head filled with science, and suffering Ba’illi’s tutelage,” she added with a sly wink.
He filled a glass of ice cubes beneath the Tyronal waterfall and pointed to the kitchen even though she always refused the offer of a drink. “Who decides what I can and can’t see?”
She politely half-smiled and declined. “Society on Heyre is centered upon a system of Colors. Red to Green, Blue through to Violet—like the rainbow. The Federation calls this system, the Continuum.”
He peered at the gardeners far below in their orange uniforms trimming hedges and mowing the lawns. “Orange must be near the bottom.”
“It’s all they require to be useful.”
“Ba’illi—Green?”
“In the middle.”
He tipped the unfinished water and ice cubes over the roots of a miniature tree. “Makes sense.”
She tilted her head to one side and smiled. “The interesting part comes when you combine the Colors. Mix the Red of farming with the Yellow of genetics and you get the Blue of genetic editing that makes it possible to create entirely new plants and animals.”
“Ah, the dragons.”
“Of all shapes and sizes in the beginning for benign purposes during ‘hard sell’ and then not so. Ask Ba’illi about the Columni Pink. The most beautiful dragon you could imagine—with a hint of danger in her big, bright eyes. They should’ve seen their folly would end badly. It’s an interesting tale in its own right.
“The best way to view the Continuum is as a range of the energy where the highest frequencies carry the most energy and can therefore hold the most information. Colors are a way of codifying the reality beyond our senses.”
“A little like around here,” he said, looking over the fields.
“I’m no expert, but fundamental laws supposedly underpin the complexity you see; simpler and simpler until at the very bottom it’s all the same. Ba’illi’ calls it ‘the theory of everything.’ Whatever that means,” she said, with a smirk.
“How small does it go?” Tom asked.
“I’ll get Ba’illi to take the flags off Quantum for you, but such a realm isn’t for the faint-hearted. It’s the theory of the very, very small. He delights in its paradoxes. Perhaps the quantum world is for him an erotic escape, or a defense that science isn’t entirely predictable and ultimately boring.”
“How small?”
“If an atom were the size of our solar system, then the vibrating strings at the heart of the quantum realm would be those trees in the gardens.”
He gasped and half-choked.
“The quantum realm won’t make sense to someone like you.”
“Like me,” he said, heading back to the kitchen for a gulp of Spirel.
“You crave certainty. You need to be in control and have things orderly.” She pointed to the four piles of paper neatly arranged on the table.
“What Color is someone like me?” he called out, putting the bottle back. “Where do I fit in?”
“With some coaxing, you’ll get to Green. Ba’illi tells me you’re quite the determined student. However, Blue is the pivotal Color. Anyone who has these capabilities is far superior to a Green. The body self-repairs quicker, the cells live longer, reaction times are faster, and the senses are magnified. From your point of view, a Blue would be capable of physically extraordinary feats.”
He sat down at the table and picked up a length of knotted rope. “I could run really fast?”
She stared at him, drumming her fingers on the table. “Importantly, a Blue possesses more complex neural networks, which implies a smarter, more capable being.”
“I’m listening. Tying knots helps my focus,” he said, noticing her glare as he pulled the constrictor knot apart. “Could I ever get to Blue?”
“Possibly, but first you must attain mastery over technology and prove your willingness to make sacrifices for the greater good. A word of caution. Ba’illi might disagree, but mastery and expertise are not the same.”
He unraveled the finished knot and started again. “What sort of technologies?”
“Your training with Ba’illi is inside a Virtual Reality powered by Vera—an artificial intelligence. Gene editing, I’ve mentioned. Each technology is a marvel in its own way, but when combined they radically change the path of natural evolution. The right individuals can break free of the prison of natural selection.” Her words slowed. “The created becomes the creator.”
He looped the rope to start a bowline knot then hesitated. “I can understand the temptation to use genetic editing to change perceived weaknesses, but there’s only one true Creator.”
“You believe in a fairy God?”
“Yes… enough to keep my mother happy. There has to be something, right? A soul.”
“Isn’t ‘soul’ just another way of wishing for immortality?” She blew a long trail of smoke towards the window. “Blue bestows capabilities and insights beyond any archaic belief system. The world becomes clear with no room for superstitions or silly customs.”
He finished the bowline and gave the rope a firm yank. “I guess that’s why they call it faith.”
“I only mention this because in the future when you confront the true power of technology
you will be asking yourself exactly these kinds of questions. Doubts and dilemmas are a natural part of the landscape for an explorer of the Truth. You are entitled to your beliefs,” she acquiesced, “but be warned. The inevitable changes that come should you ever become a Blue will dash many of your cherished beliefs.”
He looked around for something else to occupy his racing mind then slumped back. “What about the other Colors?”
“They are beyond your need to know other than that Indigo gives holders access to systems which span across Heyre. Very little in the real and virtual worlds happens without the awareness of these beings.”
“So how many Blues are there?”
“Blues—light to dark, maybe ten thousand. However, the majority of the forty million sentient beings on Heyre are Reds, like you. Greens—a million, or so. Indigo would be the likes of the highest Senators and top military advisors.”
“Reuzk?”
“Oh, he’s special, for some reason. Without question, as the military commander, he would be Violet. President Lauzen, definitely. Violets are exempt from the general population,” she reflected. “Too many temptations.”
He eyed the blue ash in the saucer and wondered what Color the queen was underneath her quiet self. She had Violet eyes. Could she also be that advanced? After all, she spoke of Reuzk as an equal rather than with any sense of awe, or respect. Whatever Color she might be, if everything else was a guide around here, then she was much more than a lonely queen who lived in a fairy castle. “Is there anything beyond Violet?”
“Notoriously unstable,” she said. “All UltraViolet projects have ended in failure. There are rumors, but no proof. The strain of a life lived at its physical and mental limits inevitably leads to a catastrophic breakdown. There are no known beings with these capabilities.”
“How do you know there aren’t any?”
“I don’t… but if they existed, they could conceal themselves from any detection system. They would be invisible and free to do as they pleased without fear of consequences.”
“I bet the Federation has tried.”
“And no doubt Decay.” She stubbed the finished Roll into the saucer with an extra twist and stared at him across the table. “You are very curious, but your imagination is ahead of you. Speaking from a purely abstract position, any entity UltraViolet, or beyond would have to be completely non-physical and probably outside Time. Your God, if He existed, would possess such power, and by definition have a perfect understanding of the universe.”
“I think I’ll stick with aiming for Blue.”
She glanced upstairs to the balcony and the narrow stairway to the meditation hutch.
“You don’t think I could reach Blue?” he said.
“Of course, the technology is there, and I don’t doubt your determination, but there’s another, more vital Continuum you should aspire for first. Learning this will make life easier for you in the long run.”
“I don’t understand. One moment it’s all Colors and the next it’s something else.”
“The psychoSphere is a ‘Continuum’ of Consciousness. It shares the truth of the Federation’s system for the ‘physical’ world that there is far more to the world than we can see, but the psychoSphere is concerned with the mind, which is mostly invisible.”
“Of course it is.” He tapped his skull. “It’s inside here.”
“I meant the subconscious. If you don’t believe me then ask Choen to explain how the subconscious mind makes us behave the way we do.”
“I can make up my own mind. It’s called free will?”
“I have yet to see free will. Ask Ba’illi about the psychoSphere and entertain his mirth. It annoys me that he professes to be a polyWise, yet he is arrogant and blind to this realm of knowledge.”
“The psychoSphere sounds like quantum nonsense.”
“It is the frequency range of mental energies. Maybe you should spend less time staring into the portal’s lightScreen because, believe me, the most interesting and powerful frequencies are below the threshold of everyday thinking.”
“Choen says less thinking leads to greater awareness and a peaceful mind. However, that’s not something I can do. I love to think.”
“And so you should. Choen’s ways are not meant for us. However, he is right about one thing. Awareness is the key to unlocking the frequencies of higher consciousness.”
He reached for the rope, and then withdrew.
“Sometimes,” she continued, “these energies come to the surface unbidden as intense joy, or when life carries you effortlessly in the right direction. No conscious effort brings great rewards.”
“This is all very interesting in an abstract way.”
“Your first meeting with General Reuzk?”
“What about it?”
“You were surprised to see General Reuzk in that uniform.”
“I… it was just… I imagined him wearing something else.”
“Outwardly, there’s nothing to mark you out as offering anything new to our cause, yet here you are.” She tapped her pendant. “However, on the inside? You know what I’m talking about, but you’re afraid to open that door in case it lets in spectrals you cannot make rational sense of, or worse, awakens forces you cannot control.”
He hunched over the table, defeated. “I’d hoped the long stares and loud whispers, the rude pointing and stupid sniggers were behind me. They would’ve stayed forgotten except for what happened in church.”
“I suspect on Earth your specialness is more common than accepted, as it was on Tilas. People keep this realm hidden for fear of ridicule from lesser minds… or perhaps simply because it can’t be proven.”
“There must be others here like me?”
“The Colarians with Potential that might’ve slipped through Decay’s extermination purges and the few Tilasians who escaped before the Fall and ended up here, have lost their way inside the Federation’s hypnotic technologies. If the Potentials existed anymore, it would have to be in the Outer Domains, or on Gukre. However, my heart tells me Potentials are extinct in the wild. You are all we have left.”
“I want to be ordinary. I wish the visions would end and never come back.”
“Don’t say that. Never. You just don’t understand. Before, you said you wanted to know if Sarra was alive, or not.”
“I do, with all my heart.”
“Then trust your senses. Follow your feelings deeper and deeper until you know.”
“It can’t be that simple.”
She snapped the case shut. “Stop playing games with me.”
He swept the rope from the table into the window pane. “Why do you hide the truth from me? You know what happened to Sarra.”
“I do not! That answer is for you alone.” She pushed away with an air of disdain and gathered up her personal belongings. “The more you try to control the world, the more you’ll suffer. Concentrate only on yourself, with your entire being and with all your heart.”
He roughed his fingers through his hair and followed her to the door.
“Has Ba’illi not told you,” she said with an air of professionalism, “the back wall and ceiling can exhibit scenes? Get him to put up something that inspires you.”
The doors closed silently behind her.
He rubbed his tired face and rested his elbows on the bookcase. Who was he and where did he belong? The portal had shown him the true scale of the mechanical and uncaring universe, but to have his insignificance compounded by being told he was the puppet of the unconscious mind? The storms of revelation had torn loose every anchor, and nothing was ‘true’ anymore. For the first time ever, there was no place to retreat to where he could regroup to begin the fight again.
Chapter 17
Tom swiped aimlessly through a collection of images of cosmic phenomena taken by the space telescope. What would’ve been knowledge beyond his wildest dreams at home passed in front of him now as little more than abstract sparkles. In an ignorant way, he was happier
when he’d viewed the heavens through the room telescope and had not known that ‘empty space’ was actually filled with endless galaxies. A hundred billion stars in this galaxy and billions, perhaps a trillion galaxies since science’s so-called ‘Big Bang’ fourteen billion years ago that came out of an infinitely dense ‘something’ the size of a pin-head. How could the universe be so large and ancient? The question of why the sky was blue was a lifetime ago.
The portal upgrade to Green produced a torrent of new wonders, none weirder than the quantum world, as Queen Lillia had warned. The portal was an even brighter ‘window on the world,’ but it remained a biased agent of the truth. Manipulated search algorithms promoted hidden agendas and ‘awkward’ questions were met with the stalking ‘Access Denied.’ It was inconceivable an advanced society that produced interplanetary spacecraft, genetically engineered dragons, and artificial intelligences to run invisible realms didn’t also have an array of space telescopes with a resolving power a billion times greater than the single telescope he had access to.
He scattered the galaxy images away with a careless swipe and straightened his back. “Message for Queen Lillia,” he began. “Space travel cannot exceed the speed of light and as I am little older than I was before, therefore Earth must logically be located near Heyre. Where exactly is my home planet?”
He rummaged through yesterday’s paperwork to distract his rising anxiety as the request went unanswered. He corrected the mats and adjusted the candle holders on the low table then swept the toast crumbs from last night’s snack into his hand. She would tell him in her own time. But did he really want to know? There was hope in staying ignorant. He dropped the crumbs into the kitchen waste tube. The portal beeped and he ran for her answer.
“Come to the Lower Chambers. You’re authorized. Enjoy the ride.”
#
The lift opened on the 119th floor into a hallway that spanned the full width of the castle. Sunlight sparkled in the chandeliers and brightened the dark landscape on the painted high ceiling. Oversized paintings of the past kings and queens of Tilas adorned the left wall between the lesser portraits of the heroic knights in armored suits standing beside their steeds trimmed in battle chainmail. Opposing them on the right-hand wall, the emperors proudly displayed their prestige and precious possessions of power and wealth.
