“They aren’t actually behind me at the moment my dear. Remember, in addition to space there’s also time that we must contend with.”
“Yeah, well they’re in front of you too –wait they’re gone already! What the heck were they? Geez that place is as nuts as ours is. Is there a full moon or something?”
“Or two or three...”
“Oh yeah that’s right.You guys have three moons and three suns. Remind me to pack the sunblock.”
“Not to worry Miss Emma. We shall provide you with an umbrella.”
Emma was still wired to see more local color. “So where are those Allanze you promised me anyway?”
“Oh yes the Allanze. I should first like to point out that the Allanze may remind one of a video endeavor on earth, wherein there are those that feel compelled to demonstrate the uncanny machinations of a rambunctious cat. Have you seen many of those?”
“Ha, I try not to. They’re lame.”
Srenyi knew that trying to explain the intimacies of gravitational force and space time warps would be counter-productive at the moment.
“Okay, allow me to engage your fancy by transmitting a closer look of an Allanze woman of about ninety-five earth years. Since her life expectancy is about four hundred, she’s still very much in her prime.”
“Wow this is going to be killer! Will she be able to see me too?”
“I’ll let you decide that Miss Emma.”
Within a few minutes that seemed like eternity to her eager eyes, the Allanze woman appeared in front of Emma, and she gasped in disbelief.
The Allanze woman’s giant eyes seemed to look right through Emma, though suddenly they circled around in her head while her thick blue tongue darted out and tasted the air. She suddenly stopped and leaned forward with her hands around her knees. The Cheshire grin that suddenly played on her thick, rainbow colored lips, disappeared just as quickly. When her mouth opened it revealed sharp rows of blindingly white teeth that looked like they could be deadly. It wasn’t until she stood up that her twelve-foot high frame became apparent to Emma.
“Whoa! Does she play basketball or something?”
“I’m afraid that would require too much teamwork as it were. You see, the Allanze envision themselves as becoming not only more exciting to the orange lights, but inexplicably more pleasing to countless beings residing on an array of exoplanets many light years away. And that is always invariably an individual endeavor.”
The blue woman’s impossibly thick cords of silken hair went past her waist, and often blended into the turquoise reeds when she received the faraway visions that flowed into her brain like soft winds. She had fluorescent eyes that were far bigger and rounder than humans, and they opened even wider when a perfect row of holograms finally appeared before her with their approving grins. The giant Allanze woman snarled and momentarily locked eyes with the image of Emma that was being projected by Srenyi’s yote.
“Whoa check her out now!” exclaimed Emma. The woman was all at once everything gorgeous and frightening that Emma had ever seen. As she quickly spun around, her alluring eyes were a myriad of rapidly changing colors. They seemed to intensify knowing her every move was being observed, though they never seemed to focus.
“She’s like a crazy mash-up of a cat, a demon, and a supermodel!”
“Indeed Emma, you might say she’s a beautiful monster. Now allow me to transmit some additional displays of her natural behavior.”
Srenyi tactfully walked around her. “I mustn’t get too close. Therefore, allow me to position myself from a safe observable distance. Okay this should do over here.”
The Allanze woman seemed to claw and hiss at Srenyi until he instinctively managed to direct her daft focus to a hill. She had quickly caught the attention of a group of orange lights that were just beginning to flicker in the growing darkness. As the random orange glows burned brighter and brighter, the Allanze woman stood tall and straight and began a ritualistic gait, moving to and fro with eyes that grew wider and wider as they drank in the orange lights. They seemed to be willed by her from the mysterious unknown like reverse laser beams.
Over and over the incredible twelve foot woman shrieked. Emma observed the spectacle with fresh panic. “She’s purring like some kind of giant cat in heat. And where the heck are those orange lights coming from? They’re insane!”
“Srenyi, Srenyi are you still there? Can that mega-freak see me?”
A few seconds later Srenyi’s voice was again heard through the tablet. “Miss Emma, I don’t know that she cares to see anything beyond herself. “
CHAPTER 7
THE SATURN TURNPIKE
The time between the first and second transmission had taken fourteen days. But the third communication came the very next night as Emma’s intuitive sense told her it would. It was 8:14 pm and an orange-infused blue color remained on the horizon when the now familiar snow appeared on her tablet.
“Hey you, can’t get enough of the earth girl now?”
Srenyi thought for a second before responding, “They once considered constructing a worm hole to your vicinity you know. It was actually going to be called The Saturn Turnpike, because there’s far more interest around Centaurus A in admiring the rings of Saturn up close than of some of the unfortunate festivities known to happen on Earth.”
“That actually makes sense. But can others from different planets travel in the same worm holes, like are there stops along the way?”
“Miss Emma, there are so many things I’d like to tell you – wondrous things about planets and beings where earthly ideas on physics and carbon-based beings just don’t apply- and I pray that one day that I will get to tell you. But for now I’ll just say it’s not at all like riding the D Train my darling.”
“All aboard! Next stop Andromeda!” Emma laughed.
Srenyi, like all Quittu, rarely sat down. He was pacing back and forth, scratching his head as he lifted his small round derby, and pondering what he’d say next. His words came through in accented English and the movement of his lips didn’t match the words, like actors in old karate movies.
Srenyi’s inflection sounded to Emma like a cartoon character. “We make these hats ourselves you know.”
“I love your hat! I think I’ll try to make my own like that and sell them on Etsy!”
Srenyi did some quick word association. “Etsy, Bitsy spider!”
“You’re close! You’ve been working on your English!”
“My dear, I must admit that until recently, I had never even heard of English, or any other language on earth for that matter. In fact, my initial search within the multiplicity of languages in the galactic database yielded no results. There are over 10 million active languages contained within, and that’s just within five quatranes of Milky Way City.”
Emma had a look of impressed consternation. “So you learned English in a week?!”
“Not exactly, but let’s just say that I know what you say before you say it – a few thousand years before in fact.”
“Whoa! You mean sort of like ESP?”
Srenyi began to dance for a minute. He placed his small hands on the hips of his one foot frame then suddenly turned around and started to do a strange twerk. “Extra, extra Miss Emma, read all about it!”
As Emma laughed out loud, she became amazed at the wondrous patterns on Srenyi’s fur. They were like nothing she had ever seen before. She marveled at the tableaux of fractal-like patterns as he danced. “Wow, you’re a great little dancer, though I’m stuck on those killer patterns in your fur.”
Srenyi looked perplexed but obliged as he seemed to channel Scarlet O’Hara. “What these old things?” “Well… yes!” said Emma. “Do all of the Quittu have them?”
“There’s where it gets a bit subjective Emma. They’re shaped by everything in ones’ experiences to their DNA history – even the part of our DNA we share with non-carbon life forms. Though, they say the more magnanimous one is, the more intricate the patterns become.”
“Well Mr. Magnanimous, yours are quite beautiful. They’d astonish all earthly connoisseurs of serious style!”
“Why thank you. That is so very kind. But Miss Emma, did you know that you have them too?”
Emma looked confused. “I do?”
“Yes, but yours are on the inside.”
“Aww, that’s really sweet.”
“They illuminate from your soul.” He meant this.
“Wow thanks! You need to give some romance tips to Josh Finn…”
Srenyi seemed not to hear Emma, and his expression quickly turned dour as his near-permanent smile receded from his face. “Oh dear here goes…so you mentioned earth...”
Now it was Emma’s face that grew concerned. “Umm yeah, I guess I did. Why, what’s up with good ole’ earth?”
“What’s up, what’s up, what’s up…oh okay that what’s up. You mean why had I mentioned that you had mentioned earth?”
“Srenyi you have something to tell me about earth and I can tell it’s not that pink unicorns are coming back just in time for a Teletubbies reunion tour.”
“Coming back Emma?”
“Srenyi just hit me with it!”
“Oh dear, okay here goes. At this very moment on a giant planetary transportation hub located a planet one hundred times the size of your Jupiter there is a conference occurring. In fact it’s been going on for over 1,000 years. “
“Wow that’s a long conference! I thought Shively’s double classes were long. Okay, so this is officially making me nervous.”
Emma you’re quite perspicacious so you’ve obviously heard of the Big Bang, but how about the Big Crunch?”
“Yes, in fact I have, and it sounds painful. It reminds me of when the Roberts sisters from Pearcy crunched me between them during the last minute of our playoff game. As if crushing us eleven to zip weren’t good enough. I just laid there seeing stars, or looking up at stars…I forget.”
Srenyi tapped his oversized foot loudly on the ground causing a giant-faced bird to scurry out of what looked like massive metal trees in the background.
“Yes, yes. Well I’m afraid what they are discussing will occur a few billion years before the Big Crunch, so I suppose there’s an element of good news and bad news at work here…though it’s all rather distressing and…okay Miss Emma, the fact is the end of earth is on track to occur a few billion years ahead of schedule.”
Emma’s eyes glazed over and she was silent for at least thirty seconds. “Okay, this reminds me of when my parents sat me down to tell me that Zippy our peekaboo had assumed room temperature. I think I need to sit down.”
Srenyi seemed to somehow understand her sense of loss. “Stay with me Emma and in return I’ll try to keep this simple. I don’t portend to have incontrovertible expertise in this dark matter but…”
“No pun intended right Srenyi? Geez I can’t believe I’m joking right now.”
“Yes, Emma, dark matters indeed. But what I am indeed certain of is that massive galactic clusters outside of your observable universe are hurdling towards your solar system at over two million miles per hour at this very second. They are unthinkably huge accumulations of matter and energy on a scale not imaginable to the human mind.”
“Are we going to get slammed by these giant clusters? Are you going to do something to stop it?!”
“Earth, yes. Slammed. But you? Directly, no.”
Emma seemed to have an instantaneous slight feeling of hope.
“Wait I get it. I’m so super cool that they’re sending down a special space rocket just for me right?”
Srenyi turned his back for a minute and leaned side to side. He took a quick look at the gold trio of moons beginning to appear behind him, before spinning back around. “It’s because the clusters won’t destroy your solar system for precisely 2,700 more earth years, or to quantify it slightly differently, in about one million days.”
“This is all so horrible. Why was I the lucky earthling to find out this little tidbit? Lucky me! I mean I can’t even win two damn bucks on a lottery scratch off in the supermarket vending machine thing that mom says I’m not supposed to play. Well I’m definitely playing tomorrow, that’s for sure. ”
“Emma, thus far members of the conference had no intention of informing anyone on earth about this matter. It’s just not a place thought of highly enough. Unfortunately, some around the galaxy perceive the viewing of human interaction as pure entertainment, as if they were gazing into some awful menagerie. And if I may be bold, sadly your planet is considered a trouble spot whose inevitable reports on perennial blood thirsty quests for power were turned off by the vast majority of carbon-based life forms around the galaxy centuries ago. They did so in the same way you might turn off the news when you’re already having a distressing day. In fact, the unfortunate circumstances that have befallen earth no longer even make the Centaurus A Update.”
Emma always found bad news to be far too heartbreaking to watch. “Srenyi I totally get it. But I can assure you that not everyone on earth is like the catalog of craziness you see on the news. There are plenty of people down here who are nice and rescue dogs and volunteer and shave their heads for kids with cancer and…”
“Yes, yes, my dear. I’m already keenly aware that you’re among the enlightened! Furthermore, if I could somehow create a solution for earth I surely would. We have some advanced technology here on X7gTH5, however, the rules of physics are completely different than that of earth. I only have the capability of relaying the warning…I’m afraid that any hope for continuity must come from humans themselves. But speaking of what, or I dare say who it would take to begin to save earth…”
“Uh oh this isn’t going anywhere good I can tell…”
Srenyi tapped his tiny fingers on his chin then continued. “Emma, Emma, Emma.” She didn’t like when anyone said her name three times, not even Srenyi. Something disturbing always followed it.
“I think I’m actually getting used to crazy news. Just call me the crazy news network. Okay, hit me.”
“Remember I mentioned the clusters?”
“All I can see in my head are clusters right now, Srenyi.”
“Well they are being funneled by gravitational forces from other universes…oh Miss Emma there are just some elements of astrophysics that are incomprehensible to the human mind.
“Try me.”
“Fair enough Miss Emma. The astrophysics involved is only accomplished through bizarre warps in space-time.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I’m dead Emma. And I have been for over ten thousand years.”
Emma shrank back into the weathered beanbag chair that she had dragged up onto the field, and her face turned a ghostly shade of pale. She shook her head and looked towards an open window where there could be heard the sound of children laughing as they were readied for bed.
“Okay let me get this straight. Even though we’re having an effing conversation, you’re actually dead, the world’s ending soon from a giant cluster, and Josh didn’t even look twice at me despite bumping into me this week in the hall. Okay, I’m officially sick to my stomach and need to go jump off the nearest bridge. Goodnight.”
“Miss Emma, the same warps in space time that explain our ability to have a conversation also offer the only hope that your people have to save themselves.”
“Srenyi, what do you mean by ‘my people’?! You’re a great guy or should I say Quittu? But I think you’ve got the wrong girl. Was NASA closed for Elvis’s birthday or something? Shouldn’t you speak with a professional?”
Srenyi was quiet for a long moment.
“I’m sorry Srenyi,” Emma said sadly. “Will we be able to talk again even though you’re…”
“A few times more perhaps, yes. I’d very much like that.”
Emma paced the field for many hours throughout the long night, occasionally glancing up into space. She finally went back into her purple house through the backdoor a few minutes before sunrise, ju
st as her mother walked down the stairs.
“Good morning sunshine. What has you greeting the world so early this morning?”
“You know what they say mom, the early bird gets the clusters…”
CHAPTER 8
THE DANDELIONS
Countless dandelions dotted the landscape in the southern lowlands. They were all seemingly different in color and shape, yet a catalog-like pattern prevailed throughout the fields. The Allanze could routinely be seen lying down next to a small single dandelion all day—sometimes for three straight days or more. They could address the dandelion in many different ways. Sometimes they’d call to it after a brief jaunt across a meadow or manipulate its minute leaves into a mysterious pattern.
The resulting elixir from the scent of petals could cast a spell that conjured up visions of having finally found ever-elusive happiness. Inexplicably, the Allanze would without warning begin a pursuit for another suitor, and invariably they would once again believe that the next connection would be forever.
One afternoon Karooch and Srenyi were hiding behind a giant metallic tree with typical disbelief. They were observing a particular Allanze in the field smitten with a dandelion. “Quiet Karooch, he may sense us here,” warned Srenyi.
Eynak, an Allanze of the most high, was presently prone on the grass and completely absorbed with a particularly cobalt blue dandelion. He often became violent and grotesque after becoming temporally taken up with a perfect specimen.
This time Srenyi and Karooch accidentally caught Eynak’s attention. “Quittu! Leave or you die!”
For centuries the Allanze would attack the Quittu, or any life form that they felt threatened their potential elixir from the multi-colored dandelions. The Allanze considered humans and other Milky Way races to be potential competition, especially in the event that they ever managed to find their way closer to X7gTH5. Srenyi also wasn’t aware that Eynak knew that he had made contact with an idealistic human on earth. Though, as swiftly as that type of information was transmitted from the orange lights, it may as well have been shouted by Srenyi from the rooftops. Eynak flew into in a rage and had Srenyi clearly in his sights. He wasted no time in trying to eradicate this perceived young troublemaker once and for all.
The Million Day Forecast Page 3
