So far Cunac had not confided anything of this to his son. Sarenen knew nothing of the Punku that had let five WaytaPatans into the Pachamama realm. He knew nothing of the corruption the Gardener race had wrought upon themselves, the corruption of his Gardener kin and the corruption of the Garden itself. They too needed his guidance back to the true path. He was desperate to take back control of WaytaPata and rescue it from the greed and destruction he had witnessed and heard about over the last cycle. His heart and soul ached with grief for the home he had never known and always loved. It still looked beautiful in the images he had seen. There must still be time to save it? It was his duty to do so. But he could not do it alone, he needed followers, loyal followers who could see the vision he did.
The Wilaq did not believe in WaytaPata and was not strong enough to lead his people home. Cunac called up his son's speech one more time. It roused him again and he called his son to confide in him, Sarenen would be his first disciple.
Over the next ten days the Hippy Guild received their implants and were given training in how to use them and access the neural-net. Initially all five were shocked at the intimacy of living other people's memories, however as they acclimatised to the sensations, they were all amazed by the discoveries they could make. At first calling up the memories took deep concentration and each one looked constipated every time they tried to record something or call up information. Slowly they began to embrace and enjoy the process. Now they often sat with childish, wistful or intrigued grins as they viewed the information they searched for.
For now Illary and Cauca wanted to limit them to the rooms belonging to the Guild of The Punku. Too much access could lead to information leaking out about who the five refugees really were, or overload their minds with all the information that it was possible to access. Currently only eleven Pachamamans and the five hippies made up the Guild of The Punku. Cauca felt that was too many, but there was nothing he could do about that now.
Adam, Tracey and Betts loved working with Illary and her team and spent at least half of each day at the workshop or in the quadrant. They would practise calling each other on the telelink from around the city and asking questions about the information they had recorded, to see if the others could access it. With Illary’s instruction they were starting to give more objective information about Earth, the UK, and the time they were from. For Betts this was hard. Her life had been so sheltered and joining the hippies had been a rebellion. She was a runaway who would not see her family again. For her, the reality of this was often a struggle. Tracey, on the other hand, was a true hippy and appeared to have no ties. She loved the freedom of Pachamama and often spoke of ‘The Man’. This confused Illary as whoever he was he was not here, on Pachamama, and Tracey seemed very pleased about this!
Adam missed his studies and was the most widely read of the three working with Illary. He had not stopped telling tales and Illary’s team often got confused about what were the real reports of WaytaPata and what was fiction, now they understood what fiction was. One afternoon he was out on the quadrant with Flow and Ella, telling them a tale of a spaceship that could take you anywhere. In Adam’s tale it had just got to something called a restaurant, Flow and Ella, had no idea what that was.
“It’s where you can sit down and buy food. Someone else cooks the food and brings it to you so you can eat it.” Explained Adam. “Anyway this space ship, a big white one, arrives at this restaurant and its way out right at the edge of space, so far out you can look back at the universe like looking at a sunset.”
“And that’s real?” Asked Flow.
“No, it’s another of my stories. Well, the description of a restaurant as a place to eat is real, space is real, but the…”
Adam didn’t continue. He was right next to the Punku where he and his friends had appeared. To his shock he noticed his feet were suddenly very wet although the day was dry. Rain was coming through the Punku.
“The Punku’s opened,” he whispered at first. “We can go home, we CAN go home. Quick!” he yelled forgetting telelink. “Call the others, Flow, Ella call the others!”
Flow shut her eyes briefly. “I’ve called them,” she said looking sad and worried. Flow had not thought of them leaving. No one thought it would ever be possible. Cauca and Da’Cince considered it a huge risk.
“Look,” said Adam, “I miss home, I’ve got so many things I wanted to do. Being here’s opened my eyes and my mind to so many more things I never thought possible, I have to go. If it closes… I’ve got to go. If they don’t make it in time tell them I love them.”
“You can do that now!” said Ella and Flow together.
Adam closed his eyes briefly. Tears could be seen in them as he turned one last time to look and Flow and Ella and blow them a kiss. With that he was gone.
No one else made it in time. The Punku had closed again.
11Shock and Awe - Deep breath
Chris was sat by the edge of a paddy field where Adrii had left him. It seemed like hours since he had watched her march off back towards Millham and his friends. He wanted to be there when they were finding out about the worlds, no realms, no DiPacha, that they were now a part of. He wanted to help them understand. He wanted to understand and he needed to be with them. For himself as much as for them, he was under no illusion about that, he was no hero.
Looking up he saw that Adrii was only a couple of hundred metres away. His head hurt considering the time he had spent in the dreams compared to the time in real life.
Chris buried his head in his hands as he sat still by the path and closed eyes to let the world settle. He felt as though the world was spinning around him, except it was not one world but two. He recalled the vertigo he’d suffered when constantly travelling, moving from plane to train to taxi and elevator and back again. The sensation of spinning as he stood by a wash basin brushing his teeth longing for stillness and calm.
Slowly opening his eyes he just caught the sight of Adrii as she disappeared over the horizon of the slope that led down from the paddy fields to Millham.
He sat there looking at the paddy fields which seemed so familiar, yet he had only recently seen them first-hand. The whole neural-net thing was really beginning to mess with his head and sense of time. He needed to remember what was real, his memories, and not someone else’s that he had viewed. At least with VR simulations, they happened in real time. The memories in the neural-net were over in a few minutes or even seconds, and were hard to comprehend. Especially, as unlike dreams, the memories he’d viewed almost seemed as real as his own memories. How did the DiPachans distinguish between their own experiences and those of others?
There had to be a trick to that…
Chris sat there pondering the many questions rolling across his mind and recalling the few times he’d used VR simulators. He’d always preferred real first-hand experiences, not second hand simulations. Chris started down memory lane, remembering home and ended up at the question of how on earth could he and his friends get home, away from this madness…
“Adam!” he suddenly said out loud and shocked himself as he’d been sat in silence in such a quiet place.
Of course Adam had gone home, he knew that, but what had happened to him… had he actually made it? After all he’d only seen him go into the Punku. Adrii hadn’t said what had happened to him, or told him to look him up in the Guild of The Punku room. Why? Was there a reason, was something she was hiding?
For a brief second Chris doubted whether he could or should search for Adam’s story. Only for a second. IF he could find Adam’s story quickly and run he would catch up to Adrii soon enough. Depending on what he found he could let her know what he’d done, or he could start ‘The Guild of Chris’. Information seemed really important here. Information may be the currency he needed to get his friends and himself home.
Feeling like he was actually in control for the first time since he was at Puma Punku on Earth, Chris now settled into the familiar trance and entered the neural-
net to find Adam’s story.
12Agents - Looking back
(Earth Year 1971)
This time Adam was stone cold sober as he prepared to go through the Punku. He turned and could see what appeared to be Stonehenge on an autumn morning between the obelisks. But what he could see was indistinct, like a giant out of focus cinema screen. However, he could also feel cold rain on his face and the fizz of an autumn storm in the air.
He stepped through the haze full of adrenalin and then thought he was being ripped apart as he saw his body shoot forwards as if it was being turned into spaghetti. He could not stop his movement, he had committed to the step. Snapping back to his normal self like a rubber band he fell onto the wet grass in the centre of Stonehenge and threw up.
As he rolled onto his back to see a familiar sky he realised how glad he was he’d been stoned the first time he’d gone through the Punku. He lay in the cool rain for a few minutes while he collected himself, his mind was racing and trying to rationalise everything that had happened to him. Trying to understand whether this was reality and not a dream.
Slowly his senses began to kick back in and he found he was cold and wet, lying in clothes designed for a cool dry climate, not this rainy grey British climate. His clothes were made out of plant fibres and some form of animal hair. Clothes that frankly looked very out of place. A tunic and loose trousers of a neutral earthy colour and shoes like Indian moccasins that were not designed for grassy or muddy ground.
Adam got up with every intent on finding shelter as soon as possible but he found the moccasins on his feet slipping on the wet ground. Slowly and carefully he moved out of the stone circle then turned back. Their tent had been just there. With the cold forgotten again, he retraced the steps he and his friends had made to set up camp for the party. He went to where they had lit a small fire. There was still a scar in the turf but the grass had started to reclaim the area. It was the only sign he could see that they had been there at all, but he was sure that was their fire pit. He estimated they must have been in Pachamama for at least two months, if it had existed at all…
Adam was now becoming very paranoid that he’d had a bad trip. But he reasoned a bad trip would not explain his clothes.
After a couple of moments looking around the henge he moved off towards the road. Soon after he passed the outer ring of stones again he found a fence standing in his way, there had been no fence there before. Carefully he climbed over in his slippery shoes and as he reached the ground on the other side he saw a notice.
‘Stonehenge closed by order of the council. Trespassers will be prosecuted’. That definitely was not there before.
Carefully he continued back towards the road and the lay-by where Art had dropped them off. His plan was to either hitch a lift or find shelter. He would walk back along the road the way they had come. He thought he remembered a roundabout which may mean pick up points or some help and he had no clue what may lie in the other direction.
At the lay-by Adam noticed a tourist board with a map. ‘Boss’ he said to himself. That would help.
“Bogus,” he said out loud as next to the map he saw a faded police poster saying ‘Please contact Salisbury police if you have any information regarding the disappearance of the five people seen camping here during the storm on the night of 21st August 1971’.
There was no other information apart from a phone number.
“Shit.” He had no idea if they were in trouble or not but did not fancy finding out or explaining where he’d been. The storm was easing off and he decided not to walk back the way they had come. That way lay too many questions.
There was a bin at the end of the lay-by and he was ravenous. What food he’d had in his stomach now lay at the centre of the stone circle. He hated doing it but he found a half-eaten pasty near the top that was dry thanks to the bin lid and a crisp packet that had been covering it. He headed off towards the south-west, to where he knew Dan had friends and where Art had gone.
He got about five minutes down the road and found a mass of blackberries alongside the road. He’d just finished the pasty and smiled wryly to himself, shrugged and started stuffing his face with sweet and occasionally bitter berries.
The sun was trying to scare away the autumn storm and slowly winning. Adam reckoned it must be about 8.30am but he hadn’t seen another soul or a car yet. He found that a bit odd but just as he was wondering if reality was about to throw him another twist, he heard a vehicle. He didn’t yet feel safe so hid amongst the brambles and then spent a frustrated two minutes extricating himself and cursing. He knew how to hitch and you didn’t get a lift if you looked like you’d been through a hedge backwards. He needed to get a grip.
He let several cars go by without putting his thumb up. He needed space right now. Another twenty minutes’ walk down the road he found a small stream. Seeing this he ducked down to it and washed his face, trying to tidy himself. Crouching next to the stream and dipping his hand in for an occasional drink and to wash his face Adam began to feel better. The water was cool and had a slightly chalky bitter taste, he had needed to drink as much as he’d needed to eat.
Eventually, he climbed back up to the road and holding his head up he strode towards Dorset, the Southwest and whatever lay beyond.
Adam walked for about another forty-five minutes in a kind of daze with his thumb out for any car that may come along. No luck came his way. He started to daydream of the TuyTuy stones and wondered again if it had all been real? He thought of the others and of Illary, he’d liked Illary. He wished he could speak to Betts and was already missing her, he then realised he’d probably been gone less than two hours but it felt like days. He still had no idea if this was the autumn of 1971 or a year or two later. The poster he’d seen was faded and that was the only real thing he’d seen giving him any idea when he was. As that thought struck him he stopped and shivered. Not due to the cold.
Betts; he wanted to talk it through with Betts. She understood this…
“Adam, Adam… Is that you?”
Adam stopped and stared ahead at nothing, his eyes out on stalks. Slowly he turned not sure what he may see. Nothing. He was sure he’d heard Betts’s voice. Maybe it was a bad trip and he was still high?
He wished he could speak to Betts.
“Adam!”
His head sprang up, “Ye’es?” he said tentatively
“Adam, I can hear you calling on telelink; you suddenly came through… It was such a shock can you still hear me…?”
“Betts? Is that you?” Adam said.
“Adam… Can you hear me? Yes, Illary… Ah, um, Adam, if you can hear me telelink doesn’t work with talking. You have to concentrate on talking to the person in your thoughts, directly talking to them, by thought only… Adam…?”
Adam stood there not sure what to do. Not that he knew it but he’d stopped somewhere near the middle of the road and two cars had screeched passed tooting their horns at him. The third car made him jump and almost throw up again in shock as he saw the wing mirror fly passed his hip. He moved to the kerb and sat down.
Head in his hands and eyes closed as if learning to use the neural-net again Adam concentrated on Betts. “Betts, yes I can hear you…Can you hear m…”
“Oh yes, Adam, I can, I can! Where are you? Are you okay? Are you back on Earth, home? Hang on.” She went quiet briefly which gave Adam a few seconds to wrestle with the emotions flooding over him. The possibilities that he would discover over the coming months had not yet even dawned on him. The amazement of talking to another voice, his friend in his head, when she was not even on Earth. That was going to take some time to sink in.
“The others are here. We’re so worried for you, man. Can you still hear me?”
Adam cried. “Yes, Betts,” was all he could manage for a while.
Over the next hour or so, honestly Adam had no clue how long, he told Betts, who told the others, all about coming through the Punku. About what that was like and all up to the moment he had
been thinking of Betts.
Adam really could not face hitching a lift for two days after that. Instead he walked and scavenged autumn fruits and nuts and found a newspaper on the first afternoon which confirmed it was late October 1971. What was two days for Adam was almost two and a half on Pachamama. Adam found that hard to adjust to and wanted to sleep early on the first evening, it felt like the weirdest jet lag. He slept in a bus shelter by a park on the first night, tucking the newspapers inside his robes for warmth. He was rudely awoken by the dustmen as they emptied the bins and moved him on.
On the second day he saw signs for Glastonbury and remembered going to a fair there earlier in the year and seeing Hawkwind and David Bowie. He also remembered making a friend who said she lived in a village nearby, he knew where to go now, he had a destination. Contacting Betts he told her his plan.
Betts and the three other hippies left on Pachamama, along with the active members of the Guild of The Punku all quickly became aware of Adam’s return to Earth, WaytaPata. This led to a lot of shouting from Cunac who, for some reason, felt that Adam should never have been allowed to return to the promised land. Uma Da’Cince himself had had to tell Cunac that no one was a prisoner.
Having seen what those on WaytaPata could do with their technology, weapons and the sheer numbers of the population Da’Cince was in no hurry to invite WaytaPata to Pachamama or vice versa. He’d been told that there were fifty-eight million people just in one country. Da’Cince could not picture that many people, the numbers made no sense. In DiPacha it was rare to need numbers above the thousands in any circumstance. Millions of anything was just like considering sand. He was not sure if there were that many people in the fifteen known Pacha realms. Which had grown to the level of population that each Pacha could maintain and no more. Living beyond your resources was outside of Pachan culture.
The five had said there were hundreds of countries in WaytaPata. Da’Cince feared Pachamama would be overrun like a sluice gate opening onto a dry leat if the people of WaytaPata could come and go through the Punku as they pleased.
Disconnected (Connected series Book 1) Page 18
