“Nuts!” Margot exclaimed, shaking her head. “This is another shit-for-brains Das rule. I don’t see how the Das ever made it. I can’t see how a race of ugly maggot bugs could ever have gotten this far. With all the bullcrap about Interlocking Effects, how does that all fit?”
“Interlocking Effects is the basis behind Das philosophy. Margot, the Wall has covered this a few times with you. If you wish to hear it again, the Wall will continue.”
“No,” Margot replied. “I know all about their thoughts that every action or thought is connected to every other thing in the whole damn universe. What I wanted to ask is how these Das who seclude themselves fit into it?”
“Seclusion is the farthest thing that a Das can do to distance itself from Interlocking Effects, outside of living away from the five hundred without the Wall.”
“Well, who the hell was he?”
“Again, Margot, this Das has no name and is non-existent.”
“Bullshit! I just saw him! I don’t care about your damn rules. I just want to know why he was there!”
“The Wall cannot access that information. Actually, the Wall is not aware why you experienced anything at all. This was not supposed to happen.”
“What? Explain, damn it!”
“A Das in seclusion has the capability to move around the cave in this portion of the planet that is the Wall. Indeed, that part of the Wall can move anywhere within the structure of the Wall, even to the extent of joining at the feeding times. But no Das recognizes it because that individual Das is cut off from the rest.”
“Help me, help me, Wall. I’m having a hard time understanding.”
“To say it differently, a portion of the Wall segments off from the rest of the Wall. This segment can move anywhere within the bounds of the greater Wall. Indeed, it can even leave the Wall and travel through space.”
“You’ve got me,” she said. “I’m still confused. But why did you say you were surprised? I’m surprised that anything could ever surprise you.”
“Surprise was a term, of course. Given that the Wall cannot feel emotion, this word expressed the problem. You must understand. The Wall has existed as a tool for the Das for over two billion years, with many trillions of instances of seclusion by individual Das. There are no known occurrences where a Das, while in seclusion, has ever made accidental or incidental contact with another Das or any other being. Because the odds of this happening are so extremely small, the Wall checked all of its functional aspects and is still checking, in fact, to determine if something has malfunctioned. But the answer is presently that nothing has malfunctioned.”
“I still don’t get it,” she interjected.
“A Das in seclusion had direct contact with another being. This has never happened.”
“So what? There’s always a first time for everything, as my mom used to say.”
“But not for this. It may be hard for you to understand. The Das processes in creating the Wall were refined in the first few thousand years of the Wall’s existence. The processes work without fault. This covers the use of the Wall and all that it provides, in trillion upon trillions of situations. This includes Walls that reside at, on, or within planets to Walls that travel through interstellar space.”
“I don’t see what’s so unusual. Sometimes things break down. But help me. Maybe the bug, the rude bug, was just starting to come out of its seclusion, and I just happened to be there at that time?” she queried.
“No, the seclusion has a well-defined exit. For example, the secluded Wall notifies the non-secluded Wall. The other Das are notified, and during the feeding the Das exits from its Wall into the Feeding Room. It’s a ritual of sorts, but it helps the Das reintegrate by having recognition of its re-entry into the Das group.”
“Man, how weird. The Das are friggin’ loonies, absolutely. I can’t believe they ever made it this far.” Margot pondered a moment. “I still don’t understand why a Das would go into seclusion.”
“Perhaps in time you will. It is very difficult to explain. You may come to know why when it affects you, assuming it does.”
“Affects me?”
“Yes, you may go into seclusion. Bing has done this of short duration on multiple occasions. It is okay for those who are with the Das to be like the Das.”
“Bing. Sheez. I can understand why there – to get away from his annoying sister. Why would anyone else care to do this? I’ve got my room.”
“But your room is no absolute assurance of privacy. Under the right conditions, any Das can enter, such as in an emergency, for instance where the ground on a planet has become unstable and the Wall cannot compensate. But a Das can never enter the Wall that envelopes a secluded Das, or any other beings for that matter. Never.”
“Whoa! Dumb rules. Everywhere I look I see the dumbest rules.”
“May the Wall ask you a question?”
“What?”
“What were you thinking about when it happened?”
“When the Das screamed at me it? I wasn’t even thinking.”
“The Wall is aware of this. Of course, you are aware that the Wall constantly monitors your thoughts. Your mind sends out energy, and the Wall can pick this up and interpret it.”
“I know, I know, only too well,” she lamented. “I’ve heard it time and again.”
“Sorry. But interpretation is not ever perfected. It is too hard to recognize thoughts that are strong in emotion, like impatience. Back to the question, then. What were you thinking about?”
“Thinking? When that Das, that no-name Das, came out? I wasn’t thinking of anything. I was thinking of Joey.”
“Your brother Joey? In what context?”
“I don’t know, Wall. Why the hell is it so important?”
“It is important, Margot. The other Das want to know. It is the occurrence of exceptions that affects the Das; it brings them great excitement. This event is indeed an exception. You must understand, and the Wall is aware of having spoken with you about this previously, but the Wall must explain again. The five hundred Das on this small planet came originally from hundreds of planets among many solar systems and galaxies. So many have lived for long, so long in your terms. A million years is brief for them. Imagine for yourself a million years of experience.”
“But the Das have such limited memories, they even admit it themselves, so why do years matter?”
"Das are limited in their capacity to store information, as most things in biology have this limitation. The critical information, though, is retained to a great degree. You see, the essential elements over time, spread over countless experiences on countless planets, are retained. This retention comes in two forms. The first is the tenets of right and wrong. The second is Interlocking Effects of each individual’s singular thought or action upon all other elements of the universe. Even the energy emitted in thought is a crucial piece of the interlock.”
“Come on, Wall, I’ve heard this bullshit before. God, it reminds me of my Dad’s talk about what the ‘60’s hippies used to be like.”
“But Margot, the essential point is right and wrong, the distinction between these two that indeed exists and is known as an absolute.”
“Wall, this tires me, all this talk. No one knows right and wrong, absolutely, anyway. It is all relative to your experience. Some people feel,” she paused a moment, “felt, I mean, it was right to steal or kill. And maybe in some cases, it may be.”
“Margot, the second part of retention: the exceptions. When all obtainable knowledge is gained or known, whether retained in one’s own memory or retained outside of oneself yet retrievable at will, such as the function that the Wall performs, the exceptions to knowledge become paramount, pivotal.”
“Who cares? There are always exceptions to everything.”
“As with all things that are known, exceptions are only interpretations of a length. Only rarely do exceptions occur in Das life, and those that are exceptions are nearly always attached to the known, so that th
e exception itself can be easily explained within the parameters of known experience or science.”
“Wall, what does this matter that the Das behind this Wall, or in its own Wall, looked at me today? He was one helluva mean Das, too. Maybe that makes a difference, but from what I’ve seen, he’s certainly not an exception.”
“Margot, please allow the Wall to continue with its explanation. When millions upon millions of years pass and the machine works perfectly, predictably, and one day the machine falters, or the circumstances or events make it appear to falter, those beings who depend upon the machine, and the machine that depends upon those beings, at the moment of that event, must take actions that allow them to understand and act upon what has happened. Believe it or not, this is one of those events.”
“Right, right,” she sighed. “Look Wall, I don’t care how long you and the Das have been around. Maybe what you guys fail to realize is that you don’t know it all. Maybe that’s the big deal you should be considering. Dude,” she said, stretching her legs to prepare for a walk, “I’m tired of all of this. I think I’ll go back to my Viewing room. I don’t really care about what happened here.”
“Margot,” the Wall asked, “may the Wall elicit one more question before you go?”
Margot looked around. She always hated talking to the Wall for any length of time. It had no face but just appeared as ubiquitous, rough, brownish sandpaper, a bad wallpapering job in a home, like those old Phoenix homes that were so thermally inefficient that the curtains were always drawn and the windows were kept small to minimize the heat effects of the sun. They always had a musty smell with those old drapes and bad wallpaper. “I wish you had a face!” she exclaimed in frustration.
“Think of one, Margot, and the Wall will talk to you as a face, or as one of your own beings. Whatever you wish.”
“No, Wall, no!” she stammered. “The last thing I want is to create some pseudo-human just for my own entertainment. I had enough of the doctor when I first got here.” Margot began to walk out of the small alcove, wondering whatever brought her to this place.
“Margot, please stop for a moment!” the Wall pleaded emphatically.
“If you wish,” she sighed. “What, what is it?” she demanded.
“Sorry to anger you, but it is important that the Wall gathers this information from you before the event dims in your own memory. Again, what were you thinking of when it happened?”
“I told you,” she frowned, looking up at the ceiling as if the Wall were looking down at her. “I was thinking of Joey.”
“The Wall knows this. The Wall knows you were thinking of Joey. But right after the Wall saw Joey in your mind, it saw a lake or pond for a few moments, and then nothing. It is like your mind stopped thinking for a few moments. That is impossible, however.”
“Look, I just hate it that you can read my mind. I can’t read yours. Don’t you think it’s a little unfair?”
“But the Wall cannot help but read yours, Margot. This is a part of the functioning of the Wall. Please understand this.”
“I wish you all could be more understanding to my needs.”
“Margot, the rest?”
“There’s nothing else. I was mad. That stupid fish astronomer, what a jerk! Now it’s this guy who just appeared. And I was just beginning to think that the Das were generally tolerable despite their all of their annoying attributes.”
“The anger came, and you sat down. You were trying to calm yourself. You thought of Joey, a lake or a pond. The Wall records you seeing a drop of water. Then your mind went blank to the Wall. The Wall could see no more.”
“Look, I was just trying to calm down. Sometimes I get mad and Joey taught me how to calm down. He did karate too, not much different than that tai chi thing Bing does. I think it even had chi in it, in its meditation anyway. He taught me a little. He said to look at a pool of water and imagine it being calm. So that’s what I did. Is that enough? Do you mind if I go now?”
“That is fine, Margot. It is appreciated that you explained this. It does help some. The Wall must tell you that it has reported all of this information immediately, currently, to the Council of Five. You must realize that this event will cause quite a stir among the Das. Perhaps it may trigger other events as well.”
“Who cares? I’m tired of talking about it. Already I’ve had to put up with the rude astronomer and then this guy. Now you provide me a third-degree list of questions. What’s with this place?”
Margot dragged herself slowly to her room. She felt as if her muscles had been drained of all their energy.
Indeed, I do hate this place. But I like the Viewing room. At least these other worlds are out of the realm of my experience. At least it’s something new every day, even if it isn’t the real thing, even if it is an approximation sometimes. I don’t care if the Wall knows its chemical composition and modifies its own structure to match. I don’t care. It’s still not real, it’s just a re-creation of something stored in the Wall’s memory. I mean, even if everything about a mesquite tree is chemically correct, it’s still not a mesquite. It didn’t grow from a hard, tiny brown seed that sprouted during a spring rain, that grew up in the shadow of a cholla that weathered through numerous dust storms, the fertilizing by coyotes, thousands of days in the sun. It wasn’t a mesquite. Just a re-creation. This whole damn Wall is just a re-creation.”
Chapter 13
“MARGOT. PLEASE, MAY I speak with you? This is Rovada.”
“I know who it is, bug. What do you want? I’m in the Viewing room, just amazing stuff, unbelievable about the muolocites. Have you seen the muolocites?”
“Yes, Margot, I believe I’ve seen nearly every single thing that the Wall has to show, at least of sentient life, and the rest tends to bore me, like non-sentient plants. Plants are all over the place in the universe. May I come in?”
“Why not?” Margot responded.
The door melted and Rovada swung in using his arms like giant crutches. Margot was slouching in a chair, uncomfortable at the Wall’s attempts to conform its shape to her body. She barely glanced up to see him enter, enmeshed in the middle of the Viewing room. A darkness covered the bulk of the room. On the floor were small wads of blue cotton-like material that inched along the ground. Occasional volleys of slow-moving, yellow-orange light shot out from each wad and circled slowly towards another wad.
“The muolocites, quite an interesting species, and one of my favorites,” Rovada said.
Margot watched a slowly moving ball of light circle high above her, only to be absorbed by a muolocite. “This is how they talk?” Margot questioned. “These things are amazing, how much they said in one little ball, the feelings they conveyed. You know, the Wall interpreted this for me.”
“Funny you would watch these beings right now. They are among the last species we learned anything from, at least in a sense of the physical world, of time, space, and quantum mechanics.”
“Huh? The Wall suggested I look at them today. What do you mean by that?”
“Oh, I don’t know, it was something about light, how photons, you know? How photons react when accelerated at high speeds. Something we did not know. Something that was an innate part of their existence. I always remember them, because of that, mostly. Otherwise, they are pretty boring little guys, just crawling all over, absorbing light for food, emitting it as communication and a variety of other things. But Margot, you will see that all of these species tend to mesh together after a while. So many are so much alike.”
Margot pulled out of her stare. “Funny? Again, why did you say that?”
“It’s just funny that you would be watching them right now, and as I said, they are among the last beings we learned anything from, at least relative to physics and laws of science. Maybe until now. And that is why I came to see you.”
“Help me, bug. Wall, off!” she commanded, and the Viewing room suddenly changed to nothing more than a dull light in the room, its brown walls glistening.
; “Margot, I have to speak the truth to you. I told you from the start that it is a part of our way. I cannot lie. I don’t think you understand the significance of what happened at the event.”
“Event?” she asked. “What event? Do you mean that Wall thing yesterday? That’s your problem. Something is broken or whatever. It wasn’t working right. The Wall even admitted it. I don’t know who that brown roach was in there who was so rude to me. He must be Isda’s brother or something. They’re both rude.”
“Perhaps,” Rovada returned, “you don’t understand, either, what happened from the Das perspective.”
“I don’t know. I don’t care, either. If it’s broke, go fix it. That’s a saying we had on earth, I think.”
“We don’t know if it’s broken.” Margot noticed that Rovada shook his head like a human would when a little frustrated with one’s lack of understanding.
“You mean you guys can’t even tell if the Wall is broken? And you drive through space in this thing?”
“Margot, listen for a minute.”
“What?” Margot said, jolting up from her chair to stand face to face with Rovada. “Look, you Das don’t have all the answers. Sometimes things just break.”
“Okay, sometimes they do, agreed. But what if something didn’t break for a hundred years, then it did?”
“Cripes, I have to go through this again? So, everything breaks in time.”
“What if it didn’t break for a million years? Or a billion?”
“All the same. Things still break.”
“But you know about the Wall. I’ve tried to orient you, at least a little. Of course, the Wall has told you our history. How the Wall was developed. How it has been with the Das for two billion years. Do you know there have only been two occurrences of the Wall not executing its instructions properly in these last two billion years?”
“Who cares? Really! You guys act like you are so perfect in your society and all. Guess what. You’re not. You let my planet die. You all watched. If you and your damn Wall were so perfect, the why the hell didn’t you stop it? The mass death and destruction? Doesn’t that hang on your collective conscience?”
The Space Between Her Thoughts (The Space in Time Book 1) Page 17
