by Richard Lord
Harmony asks, “What are you doing. Stop.”
“Nope. You have to guess what color the sky is!” Destiny teases.
Harmony giggles more, but tries to pull Destiny’s hand away. Destiny pushes her hand hard on her face as they tumble back into Illumna. Harmony, still giggling a bit says, “It’s not fair. If I could see it you would know if your eyes were covered.”
Destiny responds, “I haven’t looked yet.”
Harmony points out, “But Illumna has so you already know!”
“I do now. Illumna wasn’t even thinking about the color until you said that!” Destiny lets go of Harmony.
“Cheat!” Harmony says as she looks up.
Destiny turns to see too. Then she wonders to both of them, “Have you noticed that every place we go there is a breathable atmosphere?”
Illumna responds, “I’ve assumed that whatever motivates Harmony would not take us someplace where the two of you can’t survive the conditions.”
Destiny thinks back, “Okay, I’ll buy that point. It has been temperate everywhere too.”
Illumna notes, “So far we are moving beings from one place to the next. If the conditions were not the same in both places the creatures would not survive.”
Harmony says, “So the clouds were yellow in the last place because of the high sulfur content in the air which is what made them suitable for the time on Earth we took them to.” She nods in pride at her reasoning.
Destiny steps back into Illumna and pulls at Harmony’s arm. Harmony looks at her and tries to shrug her off as she stares at the sky.
Destiny days, “You did notice it’s completely black. There aren’t even stars.”
“But it’s beautiful.” Harmony looks up higher as Destiny lets go of her.
“Harmony, there’s nothing here. I mean nothing. I don’t see any creatures, there is no light and the terrain is completely flat.” Destiny considers pulling Harmony back in.
“There is much here.” Harmony states. She strips down and begins dancing in the dark.
Destiny thinks to Illumna, “I told you that girl is insane.”
Illumna considers the possibility, but holds onto her faith in Harmony.
They wait for hours for anything to happen. Destiny falls asleep, but awakes as Harmony opens the hatch, stopes back in, still nude, lays her head back and goes to sleep.
“I’m telling you, Illumna, that girl ain’t right.” Persistence thinks and then goes back to her own slumber. As she is falling asleep she makes herself laugh and thinks to Illumna, “I guess if I had those knockers I’d want to show them off too, but there isn’t anything out there to show them off to.”
Illumna thinks back to Destiny as Destiny is falling asleep. “I’m not sure what she was showing off or to what. I don’t think that was her point. She feels. She wanted to feel as much as possible with her whole body. You heard her thoughts.”
Destiny turns in the pilot’s chair. “Yup. They were crazy. They usually are. There’s nothing here.”
Destiny awakes to Harmony pushing at her to wake up. “What?” She responds trying to control her irritation.
“I know where we are!” Harmony announces and begins bouncing up and down in excitement.
“Okay. Do you pull any muscles swinging those?” Destiny point to Harmony’s chest.
Harmony looks down and then at Destiny with an odd look and says, “No. Why?”
Illumna cuts in. “It’s a subtle hint for you to robe yourself, Harmony.”
“Oh, okay. But let me tell you two where we are!” Harmony turns around to find her suit but her feet are still bouncing.
Destiny becomes even more annoyed. “I got it, I already heard your thought. Can you stop bouncing your butt in my face, please?”
“You’re in a bad mood.” Harmony states the obvious.
Destiny ignores the comment and says, “So what you are trying to say is that we are on an atom?” Destiny hears the follow up in Harmony’s mind and then adds. “Wait, what is the first atom?”
Illumna cuts in again, “No one knows if there was an original atom. Her point is that we are pretty far back in time. It should be impossible. Not to mention that the concept that we are smaller than an atom is practically impossible.”
Destiny sits up. “Actually it’s not. In fact, it makes sense. We can traverse time and space. Right now we might be experiencing a quantum reality. That would make us quarks, or something made of bosons and leptons.”
Harmony, dressed now, says, “So is that good?”
“No it means that none of this is really happening, Harmony. What have you done?” Destiny becomes even more annoyed considering the ramifications.
Harmony takes offense at her tone and responds, “I don’t know! You said go. I wasn’t thinking of anything and now we are here.”
Destiny ignores her defensive tone and thinks for a moment. “So you can go anywhere in space? Including up and down in the macro and the micro?”
Harmony looks at Destiny and responds, “I never did before. But Illumna and you said to study the stars. I did and I understood the concept.” Harmony thinks to Illumna because she is tired of dealing with Destiny. “Can I get some support here? Did I do something wrong?”
Illumna answers, “No. Destiny is not attacking you. She is trying to figure something out and making a very complicated plan. Also, you know by now that if you try to think directly to me Destiny is going to hear it anyway.”
Harmony looks down at Destiny, “I don’t think I will ever understand you.” She opens the hatch and jumps back outside to go for a walk.
While drawing several diagrams and matching them with some of the star charts she made. She becomes annoyed that she can’t match up some basic facts without Harmony to explain what she saw in her mind when she chose the destination. She becomes annoyed and says, “When you are done relieving yourself, in all of the way you’re about to, I need you to look at something.”
Harmony thinks back to her, “Does anyone have any privacy around you?” She considers the circumstances but she too has become annoyed, “These are things you do, so whatever.” She walks away.
Illumna says, “There are several things that don’t work in your current theory.”
“I know. That’s what I am trying to work out. If my working theory were accurate it leaves too much open that would destroy the universe.” Destiny replies while drawing lines and writing out calculations.
“Do you really think we are so small right now that we are sitting on an atom, Destiny?” Illumna’s thoughts are skeptical.
“I find it hard to believe, but I’m not going to dismiss the theory off hand.” Destiny thinks to Illumna, “If I show you these equations you would probably do better at them.”
“I could try. That was really Solstice’s thing. Or Renfield’s, although I think more Solstice. She was even smarter than he is, but it’s hard to tell. He tries to hide that side of him.” Illumna’s thoughts are filled with a tinge of grief and sorrow.
“I get it, but right now, I have you.” Destiny doesn’t wish to address more grief and sorrow, at the moment.
“Ok the part you just wrote, you put a lesser than in there. It should be an epsilon.” Illumna can see the paper through Destiny’s thoughts.
“But that would mean…” Destiny trails off as she rewrites the entire equation below the first but this time using an epsilon symbol where above she used a lesser than symbol.” Destiny stares at it wondering how that could be. Then suddenly she sees what Illumna is getting at. Her hand moves furiously as she works out the rest of it in her head, while constantly glancing at her star charts. Then she thinks to Illumna. “This doesn’t work out. Biologically we could not exist at such a small level and”, gesturing her thumb back the way Harmony walked, “we are clearly biological.” She stops for a moment and then considers Illumna’s reality.
“I was wondering when you were going to consider that.” Illumna, catching the eureka moment, pushes
Destiny to reconsider their reality.
Destiny ponders, looks at her math again and then says, “No. It’s just not possible. What you do is move your consciousness into inanimate objects, but they have to have a power source of some kind or your consciousness couldn’t stay in them. It may redefine what a body is, but it’s still a body for that very reason.”
Illumna considers Destiny’s observation. “Point taken.” She realizes Destiny is correct. A body without a power source is deceased. She can hear Destiny become frustrated at the theory. She can tell that Destiny is about to give up on the problem, but is surprised by what Destiny says back.
“We’re projecting this reality in space. The same way we believe in our reality in what we call the real world. All of the math is a convenient explanation, but the fact is it’s a machination of our making.” Destiny pauses, “Just like there is only one thing and that thing is nothing, but our perceptions cause us to feel we are individual when actually we are like facets on a jewel. We are all the jewel.”
“I think you just got what Renfield taught your mother.” Illumna’s thoughts go to how Solstice learned to go into machines.
“I think I know what we need to do, but we need Harmony for direction.” Destiny points out.
“Well, at least you’re admitting we need Harmony now.” Illumna quips, “So what do you think we are meant to do?”
“We aren’t here to find a creature to take some place else in space. We are here to take this somewhere in the universe. Harmony has her way of knowing the wheres. Once she understands the concept, she’ll simply click us tandem click us there. The instant she thinks it, I perceive it, so it will work if we just let her relax enough to…damn! That explains the dancing! Maybe she’s not crazy after all.” Destiny stares at the charts with no real focus on anything in particular and then says, “Nah, she’s crazy. But we need her.”
CHAPTER 18
“Nothing became something and now everything is trying to figure out why they exist while the ultimate answer is they don’t. The truth is they are still nothing that is trying to understand itself. The huge numbers of iterations since the universe was born illustrates how complex the solution to the mystery is.” – from the Book of Brian
“You never intended to take me when you meet him again.” Tomorrow remarks to Adam.
Adam sits back taking in the sun. He raises his canteen lazily and narrows his eyes. He takes a slow sip of the cool water.
“Dear, you have other responsibilities. I don’t mind your help, in fact I appreciate it, while we fight ourselves to where he is, but, no, I was never going to take you with me.” Adam ponders why she even asked. He was aware she knew the whole time.
“How many lovers have you had, Adam?” Tomorrow asks.
Adam sits up and turns to his wife, “That’s an age old question that couples ask of each other. In all of the many iterations of the many lives I’ve led, I’ve never seen a circumstance where it was answered to either party’s satisfaction.”
Tomorrow scrunches her face. “And yet, isn’t it to your satisfaction you’re the only one I’ve ever been with?”
Adam turns to her to kiss her as he pushes her body back with his own. “Did it ever occur to you that it was obvious, even though the first time you had given me a speech about how into bios men were, down there in that horrid place?”
“I didn’t say I ever gave in to them! And I suppose that there were obvious signs.” Tomorrow doesn’t blush. She is comfortable with her husband.
Adam looks down at her and smiles, “Ah ha!” Adam announces, “We have nipplage!”
She smacks him lightly, “Will you stop using that word? It’s not a word, I even tried to look it up!” Tomorrow pulls the back of his head down to her breasts. She kisses his neck and shoulders and then reaches down to his excitement.
“It’s a word if I say it’s a word.” He grabs at her buttocks to pull her even closer to him. “I think I’ve earned the right to add to the lexicon considering I’ve been around for all of the creations and iterations of said.” Adam pulls off the leather she has casually wrapped around her waist.
Tomorrow looks deep into Adam’s eyes and says, “I’m coming with you.”
Adam, quite aware of what she was referring to, but ignoring her true meaning replies, “I certainly hope so.”
Tomorrow leaps out from under Adam and looks at him perplexed, “What’s wrong?”
“I’m tired.” Adam’s voice goes down as he stares at the ground where she was laying.
“You have forever, Adam.” Tomorrow thinks about who her husband is.
“That’s why I’m tired.” Adam looks into her eyes.
Tomorrow looks away and then back at him, “You’ve hears something. I could hear it in your mind, but you tried to block it so it’s not clear. Tell me!”
“I can’t do what they do together, so there is nothing I can do to stop them.” Adam replies.
“Destiny. You were thinking about Destiny. Out granddaughter?” Tomorrow hears the echoes of the thought Adam had.
“I hate that term, it makes me sound old.” Adam grins.
“You are pretty damned old Adam. Just tell me!” Tomorrow demands while pointing her finger at him, sure in her accusation.
“Destiny is listening to Harmony. They were making things right, but now they’ve made a mistake and…”
“I can do what they do if we find a third. There third is Illumna, our daughter.” Tomorrow reaches out and grabs Adam before he can react.
Adam looks up, “Why would we be here?”
“Go. Sacrifice yourself to Solstice!” Tomorrow yells at her husband.
“Why would I do that? Do you really think Solstice would kill me?” Adam looks at his wife inquisitively.
Tomorrow stares at the man she loves more than anything in the world, “Find out. I won’t bring Illumna this time.”
Adam looks shocked, “But that has been successful thousands of times, Sara, why would we change that now? We need, I need Solstice to stand down. For so many reasons.”
Tomorrow kicks her husband, “You don’t need a singularity!” Let’s change this!”
Adam shakes his head. “Sara, I already did. I killed Brady in his office before I ever got here. That is the when we are in now. Do you understand?”
Tomorrow holds her hands to her face as she yells out, “You murdered my father?”
Adam looks at his wife and then steps towards her “Yes. He murdered you, dear.”
Tomorrow’s mind reels for a few seconds but she reclaims her space in time and remembers. Then she punches Adam hard in the jaw and leaps on top of him. Pummeling the man she loves she regrets that she is naked and without a weapon. She pounds on him for what seems like hours. Her fists bloody from the assault she stands back and yells at him, “He was my father!”
Adam slowly raises his face to her as he wipes blood from his face and feels the cuts and the lip that is severely cut by her hands. He mumbles back, “I love you, too.”
Tomorrow kicks him hard in the face. Adam doesn’t put up any resistance to her onslaught. Tomorrow, crying, turns to walk away and then lunges her left leg into Adam’s face. She follows through with a heel to his orbital socket. She leaps. As she lands her right leg comes up as the knuckles of her right foot connect hard with his chin. Then she leans down to hug the love of her life. “I understand, but he was my father. I know he killed me. I understand. I love you. I understand.”
“I’m sorry, Sara.” Adam flops on the ground assessing the damage to himself.
“I’m sorry Adam. I love you.” Tomorrow reaches to him to cradle him in her arms. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Adam reaches up and pulls her to him to give her a kiss, even though his lips is beginning to swell and he can barely speak.
“So what do we do about our daughter, granddaughter and Harmony?” Tomorrow moves back in to kiss Adam again.
Adam mumbles, “Well, here’s the plan…”
CHAPTER 19
“Life was never easy. In fact, it used to be worse. It is ridiculous to hear people talk about the ‘good old days’.” – from the Book of Rebecca
“Harmony!” Destiny yells. “Why is my grandfather here?” Destiny points over Harmony’s shoulder.
Harmony turns and wonders how the three of them are able to be where they are at.
Illumna thinks out “Hi Dad. I’ve missed you Solstice!” Her mind goes to Solstice’s.
Renfield ignores the conversation knowing they are catching each other up on what is going on, but he things strongly to Illumna alone, “Don’t tell her!”
Illumna thinks back, “So why are you here? Mom, used her tandem trick? So she did learn it from Amelia.”
“Good thing, I suppose. Amelia’s dead. What do the three of you think will happen if you follow through with your plan?” Renfield cuts straight to the chase with his daughter. The emotional drain of traveling with his now deceased daughter only to intercept his other deceased daughter doesn’t have him in the best of moods.
Destiny thinks her response first, “That is up to Harmony.”
Adam nods and moves towards her, “Okay, Destiny. Of all the wise things you’ve said to me, that is the least wise of all.”
Destiny tries to click but realize she can’t. Adam grabs her wrist and yells, “Sara, do it now!”
They briefly vanish and appear in the same place. Nothing has changed. Adam looks at Tomorrow and then to Solstice. Both of them shrug in response.
Illumna thinks out to her father, “Dad, that is Destiny.” Then in a side note to her father she thinks, “And I think she wants Harmony. She heard your thoughts as you were thinning them and she is pretty determined.”
Adam nods, “She’s like her mother.”
“Where is Joy?” Illumna asks.
“Illumna, Joy has a mind of her own. The last time we saw her she was just waiting for your father to return from an expedition.” Adam looks at Destiny and lowers an eyebrow.
