First Light: Book one of the Torus Saga

by Berg, Michael

  “Come in,” came a voice from the door itself, which then opened automatically.

  “Welcome! Hello John, and friends.”

  “Hi Raman. So I am still on your face recognition list.”

  “Yes. Of course good man. You are someone I can always trust, so you can access my door at any time. Well, almost any time…you know.”

  “Thanks,” John replied shaking Raman’s hand. “This is Asper, Lorraine, and Tobias. All very good friends of mine.”

  “Hello to you and welcome to my home.”

  “Thanks,” the others said together.

  “Let us go through to the lounge and have refreshments. I know you are here for something and not just a social visit,” Raman said to John.

  “You know me,” John replied as they all walked into the lounge and sat down. “Always there is something new and I am onto something now.”

  “Yes. I know. With all this trouble off shore, there is bound to be something very new…and big about to happen. Such events are normally the precursor for some other measure.”

  “I see your distrust of the authorities is as strong as ever.”

  “Indeed. Even stronger. You cannot work on the inside without having suspicions when you return to the outside.”

  “So you are working alone now Raman?”

  “Yes, very much so. My links to the systems are as good as ever, but my main focus is on trying to stay at least one step ahead of any developments they might come up with.”

  “Does it pay for this place?”

  “No not really. Money is no longer an issue. I made one patented device just a year or so back. All of this I own…well as much as you can own. I am a free agent you could say.”

  “But not an official agent.”

  “Correct. Now would you like coffee?”

  “Sure,” the other three replied together again. They had sat silently as Raman and John talked.

  “Yeah, me too,” John added getting up to walk with Raman as he went to the kitchen to make the coffee.

  By the time everyone had finished their drink, John had outlined his story thus far to Raman, and indicated on the type of technology he would require to overcome the security and secretive encryption the authorities would deploy.

  “You can bet on there being agents in these buildings now,” Raman said as the group discussed this issue widely.

  “I think that is almost a given. We need to remain aware of any incursion they might make into groups like ours. Asper and Lorraine are part of a larger organisation looking into this and that type of issue they deem fit for attention.”

  “Yeah, it is how we met these two,” Lorraine added.

  “Well,” Raman said with an air of confidence, “So long as you have me on your side you can feel pretty confident of staying in the game, as long as you don’t make any stupid moves.”

  “One thing concerns me,” Tobias interjected. He had been quietly thinking to himself for a moment. “John said these identification algorithms would update at light speed and the security at faster than light. Aside from beyond light speed, the personal chip updates will have gaps like he said if for instance you are located any distance from the Earth where the update could take two seconds or more. The networks he described to me are very fast but still linger in contrast to the light speed threshold. Why would they do this? Why not make it all faster than light?”

  “Simple,” Raman replied, “They don’t have the technology developed sufficiently to deploy at such a large scale. Most of this is being hurried in using existing technology with a few add on pieces. Until they can deploy on a global scale, they have to keep it to the security.”

  “OK then, but they will be continuing to work on it…”

  “Certainly and with extra effort. Once they get a taste of things to come, they will want more and more. It is their way.”

  “Are you safe here? From agents or investigation I mean,” Asper asked Raman.

  “Yes…”

  “You can count on it,” John interrupted. “None safer. Now this tech I need.”

  **********

  “Those mudras…the Buddha gestures, were very similar to the markings Raynie and I found in Australia,” Jake said as the four of them talked over lunch. They had found their way to the restaurant owners’ residence without incident and had spent the night talking about their trip to the caves and speculating what might lie ahead.

  “Yes Jake,” Raynie replied jabbing him in the ribs, “You have told us that quite a few times now.”

  “I just can’t get over the disparity or whatever here. The stone we found in the snow and the Buddha gestures being connected. It just seems such a remote possibility, or in the least a very unlikely connection.”

  “Yes, that part troubles me a little, “Lyle added. “With all the work into cultural sites I have done, I cannot recall anything like it nor would I have really even conceived of it. We all know cultures interacted, but the Australian peoples seem far removed from those here, where once the Silk Road was the connection from the eastern to the western world. It is mysterious. So why then the obvious plan or deliberate relocation of the stone with the markings? It would also seem to have taken place a long time ago judging by the evidence around the midden. That defies any known western contact with peoples of that part of the world.”

  Lyle continued, “Perhaps it was relocated away from the grottoes here at Dunhuang. The Silk Road was the lifeline between vastly different cultures all along its’ route. As time passed, more and more traders came and more and more trouble followed. People in those times were often confronted with more change than we ourselves experience. Still…I am baffled as to the connection, and how it came to be in Australia long before European settlement. And…the stone has similar markings but we are yet to fully determine its’ purpose. Surely it is not just a sign or indicator of some type.”

  “Well, the markings would indicate it may be just that,” Raynie said. “The information we seek unravels like some type of puzzle requiring a particular understanding to decipher meaning. These pieces or relics are not instruments but I suggest, are more in place to assist understanding.”

  “Yes, but what meaning?” Jenna asked a little frustrated. “We have no real indications other than the torus and the feelings in the lower chamber.”

  “Also if we look at the way this venture we are on seems to unravel in a similar way of synchronicity. Remember what took place before we left San Francisco and on our journey through China. Look at how Lyle and Jenna met, and now we are all close friends.”

  “So why does that mean we are involved?” Jake asked.

  “Why not,” Lyle interjected. “Maybe we are simply meant to. Look at our backgrounds, and we are being told of how we can be trusted. Think for a moment. All of this is based on intentions. Our own, those of Chan and others. Perhaps it is that simple.” he laughed for a moment, “Or perhaps it is not!”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, the mudras were an essential clue to discovery of the lower chamber. They indicated intentions and from within these intentions, a field of energy is realized. They combined to energize the lower chamber, I am sure of it. Any person with a sense of a higher self would have detected something beneath the caves long ago. So…I am thinking the access to the chamber was its’ activation as well.”

  “So who discovered it?” Jake asked.

  The other three looked at him and he knew what they were going to say, “Chan.”

  “And next you are probably thinking Chan knew of our intentions and our backgrounds and somehow sensed we were the ones to help him.”

  “Probably,” Lyle replied.

  “But how?”

  “And why? I suspect his life is devoted to this and his work has probably gone on for a long time, particularly in finding those who can help him. It can be reasonable to think he may have researched and cased out some candidates, including ourselves.”

  “Still a lot of mystery an
d things unexplained though. Maybe Chan knew of you two before he came up to you at Fongs?” Jake said.

  “And so there shall be more for you, yes,” the restaurant owner said as he stood at the door to the room. “Sorry to sneak up, I did not mean to, but you were all so involved I had to listen. I have brought you tea. No doubt you can see I too am part of this helping. My understanding does not go far past the torus for it is likely this knowledge is my only part to play. But…I have news for you. My most regular customer has left the city and also he has left another note for you to read.” He handed them a piece of folded paper, its’ mere presence once again entertaining Jenna. “On there is written some advice for you. I have been told there is no direction, only advice. From this you must determine what you are to do. But please, continue to help us. Do not leave us at this time please.” He was almost pleading with them. They were unsure of what they were doing and where they were going, and with the added sense of danger, he was concerned they might decide to discard this journey and return to their normal lives.

  “We are not leaving. Well, we probably will leave this city, but I think I can speak for the others here and say we are all very interested at getting further into this mystery, and finding out what is going on. Besides, I still have a few weeks before my lunar mission so there is a lot of time.”

  “You may think time is there for you but be assured there are those who move against this, and those who do the same yet are unaware they are doing so. Urgency is important. No delay. America is about to change so very much long before we thought it would. Those detonations you recently saw in your news are mere diversions and are a false threat to influence the minds of the many. This is bad indeed as it caught us un-prepared and so we have to move quickly.”

  “Gee…how did we forget that? I wonder what is going on back there?” Lyle said.

  “Yes me too,” Jenna added. “With all this I had forgotten to check myself.”

  “John and Tobias! We should contact them. Surely they will have something to add.”

  “Yes, yes, contact your friends. I know what they are doing and we thank them.”

  “You know?”

  “Of course. You know Chan, well so do I. Take this paper and study it. I will return later with supper. I ask that you leave tonight just after the golden hour. This way you can have some cover of twilight.”

  “Leave? We cannot stay?”

  “You don’t need to.”

  “What about your customer?”

  “He has his own path to follow. I will hear from him and so perhaps will you. Remain open to the connections building here. Stay alert and look for intuition. It is often said in your ways to go with your gut feeling. Do this.” With that he left them to discuss the latest developments and to study the piece of paper.

  When the owner returned a couple of hours later, the four were still speculating on the piece of paper. Markings showed similar mudras to those they had seen in the cave, but additional markings were still eluding them in meaning.

  “We cannot determine much beyond these mudras,” Jake said.

  “Yes similar to those in the cave. What else do you see?”

  “We cannot work it out,” Jenna replied, “They almost look like diagrams.”

  “You are correct, but what are they for?”

  “We were hoping you could tell us.”

  “Um,” he laughed a moment, “Me. I am not aware enough to interpret such work. They are beyond me. You need to trust your intuitions.”

  “And these,” Lyle said, “I have seen something a little similar before but these are different. It is almost as if they are indicators or directions. Old maps I have seen of this part of the world have similar items indicating a path to follow. Those old maps were not just traveling maps for a journey by foot or horse - they were more like paths to discovery. I studied them some years ago and I learned they were used to guide young people to places for higher understanding and appreciation of the self, yet they would also indicate locations as if they were on a map.”

  “And how do you use your intuition when considering such things?” the owner asked.

  “Um…as if the place indicated when you see it as a physical map, is a representation based on the place to go, based on the psychological map.”

  “But are they actual locations?” Raynie asked.

  “Most certainly,” the owner replied, “As you can see this is a map but it does not show a path to follow that is a trail or a highway.”

  “It is a path of self actualization, or a guide to show people where to go based on how aware they are and to interpret these indications as directions,” Lyle said.

  “Precisely. We all are on a journey of self-enlightenment regardless of what we do or where we are. Study this during your travels. You must leave this evening. I have word of people here other than locals and tourists.”

  “But we don’t know where to go.”

  “Trust you will by the time you need to depart. I will return in an hour when you must leave.” He left them to eat supper offering them nothing else to understand the puzzle before them.

  “Well, looking at this, it would seem that the grottos are marked here. See these mudras and their proximity to what must be a city on the fringe of the desert. I can tell from these converging lines this is a city,” Lyle said pointing to an area on the page. “To be given this at this time must only mean the journey ascribed to, is from this point onward.”

  “Then we go further west?” Jenna asked.

  “Yes.”

  “But from here, there is a lot of remoteness with hardly any settlements.”

  “I know,” Jake added, “I have been scanning geo-spatial information. Heading west from here will take us towards the wilderness of northwestern Tibet.”

  An hour later, the owner returned, “Farewell friends and many blessings for your journey. Take these supplies of food and drink I have prepared. You will not come across many vendors to help you west of here. Travel safe and remember to trust your intuitions.”

  The four of them thanked him for his hospitality, each embracing him warmly, and then they departed taking the old ways to the outskirts of the city. They rode in silence during the drive west away from Dunhuang under a vivid evening sky of deep hues of colour and the first glimpses of stars.

  “Remember back at the springs when we visited after the pagoda?” Raynie said. “Consider that event similarly. I mean, we were not exactly sure on what it meant at the time, but now with this additional information, those images and the feelings we had at the springs, mean something more.”

  “That helps,” Jenna said. She had been struggling more than the others with the concepts they had been given. Her scientific mind edged towards analysis of the events and to proportion them into some basis in science, but she was failing. This type of thinking or approach was relatively new to her, though not entirely. Whilst able to grasp concepts beyond those strictly scientific, her senses often returned to the orthodox thinking that comes with the majority of science endeavor. She felt keen to overcome this and had been discussing it quietly with Raynie on several occasions.

  “Think then Jenna. We are encouraged during this time to trust intuitions, our gut feelings. The owner also told us to look for events or information that could become apparent as a result of this trust. Maybe you could see it scientifically. Imagine there are energies or forces, or whatever…at play. Whilst we cannot exactly pinpoint their origins in a scientific way, perhaps they are scientific in the sense of deriving from a source we have been unable to detect in a measurable mathematical method.”

  “When we were in the caves, the mudras indicated a sense of awareness required to decipher the method to open the door to the lower chamber.”

  “Precisely. Also, think of faster than light, you know the science. Until you had the methods to detect material or energy beyond light speed, it was seen as a fantasy of science fiction writers and the few theoretical scientists of the time.”


  “Yes. But then we opened our minds to new possibilities and set about trying to prove them. String theory and extra dimensional theory are examples.”

  Lyle suddenly exclaimed so loud, the other three were almost shocked. “String theory…um, science is it!”

  “How…”

  “It is an association which is the best I can come up with, but I am sure this could lead somewhere. The elements of strings take us away from the conventional third and fourth dimensional realities and beyond. These elements are at play simultaneously offering us much more than we see. Outside of our organized lives, a sense of organisation, yet disorganized is ever present. For example, when quantum physics looks at the underlying energies of quarks, higgs boson etcetera, they see a reactive process. These particles react or rather respond to being analyzed. So therein lies the potential for a state of flux, ready to be changed or realigned or…”

  “So you are saying these energies are linked to our projected intentions.”

  “Yes, well at least that is what I have come up with. Perhaps this venture of ours, this entire thing, is emanating from those intentions. All people involved so far have been enacting this, making it happen without the confines associated with focusing on how. It is more a case of just is, without the need to consciously scope it in our brains. Even the eye detail on the stone found in Australia indicates a resonance with insight.”

  “Like projecting a field of energy tied to your intentions based on your feelings?”

  “Well, think of an old analogy. Those with guns are more likely to meet some trouble or their end by way of a gun, or a person who incessantly projects worry into their lives, can often experience the very event they are so concerned over, thus bringing it into their life. Yet…I am positive that people who achieve high success actually project their intentions towards achieving such success, which means they experience those things or events that coincide with fulfilling their expectations based on their intentions. So this can happen whether one chooses good or bad.”