First Light: Book one of the Torus Saga

by Berg, Michael

  “I get it. Almost from a scientific perspective placing it in a physical sense for our three dimensional concept, there is something happening, an energy setting it up for the manifestation of what the intention of the energy is. With light appearing always from the past, then what is in place for the light to be sent on its’ way? The intention, the fundamental spirit or connection to source or universal energy.”

  “Each moment the construct of everything draws from the source by which it can be put in place. Whether it is something a person decides to do, or the birth of a star, there is something beyond what we perceive as the speed of light. Light is a limitation to this dimension. How can infinity be held within a limited spectrum? Those two definitions defy each other in plausibility.”

  “Gee, what’s in this coffee? You two are having a brainstorm,” Raynie said jokingly as she looked into her cup.

  “Makes sense to me,’ Jake added. “I bet John could tell us a bit about this. He is working with flux mechanics and is likely to have some thoughts.”

  “Yeah…I wonder how they are getting on there at the cabin. It sounds like Ryan knows security. My mission is less than three weeks, so that means I really only have less than two. I am going to need something for the identification data before then.”

  The remainder of the night was spent researching the Dogon Tribe of Mali. It was true when Chan had said on how they sought a harmonious life, despite having some traditions seen as barbaric. Dogon tribes worshipped two stars located near Sirius B - Po Tolo a male star, and Emme Ya a female star. During the late twentieth century when knowledge of their traditions became more widespread, there was debate about their capacity for Astronomy, as both stars were not visible to the naked eye. Conjecture on how this came about continued for years, until there was no convincing resolution for or against some unknown or lost knowledge of the stars.

  Next morning they awoke to a rare day of light rain in the town. “It looks like a day to experience this place as it hardly ever is. Walking the streets of Timbuktu in the rain. Come on sleepy head,” Jake prodded Raynie. “You have to see this!”

  The four of them walked the slippery streets for a few hours during the morning, until the sun began to make an appearance. “Let’s eat and talk about what we should do,” Raynie suggested feeling a surge of hunger.

  “What information do you think Chan was thinking of when he described this place?”

  “Not sure Jenna,” Jake replied. “Raynie and I talked a little about it last night as we were falling asleep and could not work it out.”

  “I looked into any historical sites and we are pretty well there already. No outstanding places or ruins. I think the desert environment was just too harsh all around this town,” Lyle added.

  “Anything like the Buddhist Mudras Lyle, or ancient images?”

  “Not a lot really. There is some art and craft dating back a long time, some traditional masks, but not much else. Oh…and there is the Spirit festival held each year in worship of Nommo. It is the festival we have seen advised as just three days away. They call their religion Animist, and it focuses on the stars of Sirius B.”

  “Well Chan knows his timing. Rain and festival in Timbuktu,” Raynie added.

  For the next two days Timbuktu prepared for its’ annual festival. The streets were adorned with elaborate decorations, lights, and masks. Food stalls worked over time preparing traditional feast for festival goers, and an air of anticipation was building amongst the people. On festival eve it was ready and so the busy streets became calmer. As the evening wore on and the brilliance of the desert sky at night hung over the town, people took themselves indoors for quiet conversation, talking of coming festival and discussing its’ deeper meaning.

  When the sun began rising over the sand dunes, the festival then came to life. Those up early were open for business or busily preparing for the days’ activities, as people already began filling the streets, dogs barked, and livestock scrambled over the ancient cobbled pavement. The atmosphere about the town was a splendid indulgence of positive harmony, and this feeling in the air was embraced by the four travelers wholeheartedly. Never had they witnessed such an event so unique in its own character and in particular, the deities so vividly shown through costume, dance and art.

  They stood on a corner as the sacred snake Sewa wound its way along the street - its’ coming during the night said to cleanse the spiritual leader Nommo and transfer wisdom. Children danced around the snake dressed as stars, and there was one dressed as the moon. As the snake approached Nommo, a stream of dancers appeared as if they were the bad energy being cleansed from Nommo, and then another stream of dancers flowed to the leader from Sewa, bringing with them the transfer of wisdom. The scene enchanted the four of them, and at once they knew why Chan had sent them here. It was not for any relic or for any image, it was to experience the festival and feel this essence of harmony and spirit.

  They thought of how similar this cleansing was in meaning to the Nephrite Jade at Hotan. They saw the transfer of wisdom to the cleansed spirit, now devoid of the negative energies of the ego, and they felt an attachment to these people. Elated as they were with this, they had no hesitation in joining others who followed the snake as the scene was repeated around the town. All of them danced as the spirit was cleansed and wisdom transferred at nearly every intersection of the old streets - the air teaming with the feelings of the occasion.

  Afterwards as the afternoon lengthened, they joined in the lavish feast, with the town still a melee of harmonious celebration. Stars seemed to be shining brighter when the night sky emerged, as if in reflection of the festival below. The four travelers made no mistake about where Sirius B was, with many of the locals pointing it out to them whenever the opportunity arose.

  Over the next three days they continued to look for anything else they thought Chan might want them to see. They toured the museums again, visited the oldest of the buildings searching for any clues, and spoke to some of the elders in the town asking for stories of the old traditions and the harmony they sought in life. Nothing further came to them and at the end of the third day they were convinced Chan had sent them here to see the festival and to appreciate the local’s vision of harmony for life, in an environment that drew upon both the resilience and the fortitude of people just to survive. Very much locked into history, Timbuktu was a town steeped in tradition appearing almost unchanged despite the times.

  “Where shall we go next?’ Raynie asked, now a familiar question amongst the group.

  “There has been no sign of Chan or anyone else these past five days. I can only imagine he had not traveled here and so were are in fact alone and the next move is entirely up to us,” Lyle replied. “Considering this, I suppose our only option is to return to America and thus our little world tour comes to an end.”

  This brought a hint of sadness for a moment to all of them. They had been so caught up in this journey, most thoughts of home other than of John and the others, had eluded them. Now with the reckoning of going back to California without anywhere else to go, they felt resolute with one thing - they would take their heightened sense of intuition and all they had learned back with them. This aided their recovery from the brief sadness, as they knew the activation Chan spoke of was the onus of why they had even commenced these travels. His words of coincidence still figured prominently and that was all they had to go on. It was an open book for them all. They had definitive destination, yet inside they each knew the energy of their experiences had set them on a course beyond anything they could liken to normal travel, be it for discovery or associated with their profession.

  Jake and Raynie spent some time together discussing what they had found in the buried beneath the snow. Evidence found on the stone had confused them at the time, but with the coincidental chain of events since, they had both reckoned on the activation for themselves, having commenced with the discovery of the relic.

  Jenna and Lyle had grown closer by the day since th
eir meeting on board the international space facility. Prior to their rendezvous, both of them had focused mainly on their work – perhaps a little too much. They now figured the coincidental nature of their meeting and the subsequent events, as being a lead up to something much more significant than their work.

  As they sat discussing what may lie ahead with Jake and Raynie, they all agreed that the journey had been significant, but were yet to fully appreciate how much it actually meant in the mind of Chan. He had come across them all in such an unexpected way, had urged them to journey telling them danger was far more apparent then they understood, and had guided them during their course across Asia to Europe, and then to Africa. Their real reason for this endeavour had become clearer, but it was still lingering somewhat in the mist as they struggled at times to reckon with why they were the people to have done this, and precisely what help it was to Chan and the other people with whom he associated.

  Next day they organized a flight back to Nigeria and a connecting HyperJet flight back to the east coast of America. They had chosen the east coast after lengthy discussion based on the news John had told them about the Agent in San Francisco. Jenna’s house was far too risky, but she knew an associate scientist who owned a house near Boston. She contacted him the night before their departure telling nothing of their journey other than the need to locate somewhere in the Boston area so she and her colleagues could attend a conference. This little lie played on her mind after the call and even though she could relax a little after her associate gave them permission to use the house, the act of lying was troubling to her.

  “Don’t worry too much. Some little lies might need to be told. After all, Chan has been lying or deceiving those who are trying to watch us, so it cannot all be bad,” Lyle reassured her.

  Within twenty hours they were all resting comfortably in the house near Boston. “I am going to call John and tell him we are back and where we are. I expect he is probably wondering what we are up to,” Jenna told the others as she walked through the large French style doors in the lounge room to the formal gardens outside the house.

  Upon returning she had news to tell them that John and Ryan had made a lot of progress developing the technology, along with some reassurance for Lyle that all will be ready prior to him leaving for his trip to the Moon. Lyle was required to report in, as all people traveling to the Moon were, six days prior to lift off.

  By chance or coincidence, Jenna received a call up notice for a mission to the Moon only seven days out from Lyle’s departure date. Apparently she was required to assess the mechanics of new mining equipment soon to be deployed. ‘What a stroke of luck,’ she thought.

  “Lyle!” She shouted to him before entering the library where he was seated reading a book on quantum physics, “I’m coming with you!”

  “What?”

  “Yes it is true. I have just taken a call and they want me as part of this Moon mission. They want me to assess and report on the reliability of some mining technology being tested. We can go together. Isn’t it amazing how our seemingly chance meeting has evolved into this mission type status.”

  “It is ironic. We will need to leave tomorrow for Kennedy Space in Florida.”

  “What about us?’ Jake asked as he and Raynie came into the room wondering why there was excitement. “Can we stay here?”

  “Um…you can but I only have this house for a few more days and both Lyle and I will be away for two weeks. My associate guy called me just before, and he is coming to Boston and will need his house back, so I thought perhaps you could join the others at the cabin, in the mountains.”

  “Sounds like a good idea,” Lyle said. “Take some time out in the mountain air whilst Jenna and I breathe the manufactured stuff. You can get to know Asper and Lorraine and from what I hear, Ryan might have something to add to what we have learned recently.”

  “Hmm…sounds OK in fact,” Raynie said looking towards Jake thinking of just spending some quiet tome together in relative solitude. “It will be a good opportunity for Jake and I to continue the discussion we began back in Australia, though I think its’ relevance is much clearer now. And getting to know the others will be nice in such a setting. We’ll be thinking of you as we smell the fresh pine and look into the sky at night knowing you are watching over us.” This made them all laugh taking away the serious edge to the conversation.

  John had sent the necessary devices for both of them to use in masking the ID chip the day before via a courier network only he and Ryan knew of. They both had made use of such people in the past when they needed to acquire technology, or to share it amongst cooperatives, and this sparked the notion of how they had not come to be known to each other in the past. When the devices arrived, they provided some much needed relief to the space faring couple. With Jenna’s call up to the moon, the urgency had doubled. Forcing John to work harder and the result had been a successfully construction of the right technology for their trip to the Moon. Ryan made an additional security algorithm break through just prior to John sending the devices and they were confident the two Moon travelers would be secure.

  “I’m not sure on when this wholesale deployment of the ID thing is going to happen. I am suspicious they will bring the implementation date well forward. We could be lucky and it might not be during you mission,” he told them via a holographic call. “But best we are safe on this.”

  “See you in two weeks,” Jake and Raynie yelled to Lyle and Jenna as they entered the boarding area for their HyperJet flight to Florida. They waved back leaving them with the vision of a broad smile before turning a corner and be lost to sight. For a moment Raynie and Jake felt alone, as this was the first time the group of four had all been apart for weeks.

  “Let’s go,’ Raynie said breaking the moment and tugging on Jake’s arm. She moved her hand down to his and they walked together holding hands out of the terminal. The next two days were spent relaxing at the house in Boston and preparing for the trip back to California. Their flight was uneventful aside from the views at fifty thousand feet and almost before they had time to soak it all in, they had arrived in Las Vegas for the drive up towards the mountains to the north west. Jake was again in his driving element and took to manual control of the vehicle they had hired - taking Raynie on a roller coaster type ride at high speed up through the mountains.

  At Monitor Pass they stopped for a while to rest and take in the view. “We should come back later in the year and go skiing at Tahoe,” Jake said as they stood under the wide-open blue sky. “Kirkwood is a good bet. Some of the deepest cover around Tahoe and a bit away from the scene at Squaw and Stateline down by the lake.”

  “Yeah sounds great. I cannot wait. And look, Alpine County, we are in snow country!”

  They turned left at the intersection lower down in the valley, taking the road towards Jackson. After about ten miles, they made their way up the small dirt road, Jake described as a track, towards the cabin in the forest. Warm and heartfelt greetings were in store for them. Both John and Tobias instantly felt at ease and after introductions, Asper, Lorraine, and Ryan felt similar.

  “Welcome to my little piece of paradise,” Ryan said to them as they walked inside to have a round of coffees. “I am sure you have lots to tell us and we are all ears.”

  “I…um we do have a lot to tell you. With this little black out in communications we have been enduring, I have almost burst at the seams wanting to spill the beans to you guys,” Raynie replied.

  “Well I sure hope I don’t…um, spill coffee beans I mean.” The joke went further to establishing relations between them all as they adjourned to the cabin laughing.

  **********

  Several space ready vehicles were situated on launch pads at the space complex and one was lifting off as their HyperJet taxied to the main terminal. In contrast to the days when the pioneering space flights of the latter twentieth century, where launches reached a peak of twenty per year at the space port, there was now a hive of activity about th
e place with launches several times per week.

  The privatization of space flight in the early twenty-first century brought on an entire new round of the space race not seen since the nineteen sixties. Kennedy Space was now a part of an integrated spaceport network with four additional sites across America - the first of which was established in the New Mexico desert to take the first sub-orbital tourists into weightlessness. Research in space was huge business and the few companies with the technological capabilities had taken advantage of their own pioneering age, and were now ferrying people and cargo as far as the Asteroid Belt. One of the biggest changes was the vehicles flying into space. No longer were rockets the main stay of operations. Heavy lifting cargo vessels and swift shuttles were the vehicles of choice.

  Cargo was shipped into orbit using massive HyperPlanes. Each Plane was over three hundred feet long with takeoff similar to a HyperJet, before igniting fusion propulsion at designated altitude, shooting it into orbit in half the time the older rockets had taken. Reaching speeds well over mach fifteen for near Earth operations, and up to speeds almost three times faster for deeper space, they were dreams realized for the very oldest of staff responsible for spacecraft manufacture. Flights could be as short as re-supply to the orbiting Space Station Internationale, or as far as re-supply to the outer reaches of the Asteroid belt beyond Mars.

  People now enjoyed a ride far different to the shaking and sometimes terrifying rides in capsules atop rockets, and of the Space Shuttle launched attached to its’ booster system. High flying entrepreneurs had opened access to space for people aside from those directly involved with the program, yet even their forays into the unknown were as redundant as the vehicles they succeeded. Personnel Shuttles were capable of vertical lift off with passengers seated as if on an atmospheric flight, which then ascended to one hundred thousand feet before igniting fusion propulsion for injection into orbit. This made for a far more pleasant ride without the unpleasantness associated with G forces pioneer space travelers had endured.