The Perfect Moment in Peril

by Kenneth Preston

  Of course, there was one being from the Great Community with whom the corporeal beings could, and routinely did, communicate with. That being even had a most unorthodox romantic relationship with one of the corporeal beings. They had been in love before Emily Díaz had graduated to the Great Community, and she had carried that love for David Phillips with her. As a corporeal being, she had looked upon David lying dormant in his cryotube as she embarked on the last leg of her journey to the Great Community, and she had resolved to carry her love for David with her.

  The unbroken bond of love between Emily and David was the reason she was unanimously elected to act as a representative for the Great Community, to be the one and only member of the Great Community to communicate directly with the corporeal beings. Limiting direct communication between the corporeal beings and members of the Great Community was necessary to avoid blurring the lines between those two states of existence. The five corporeal beings would have their day, just as every member of the Great Community had had theirs. Their direct knowledge of the Great Community had to be limited as much as possible.

  The corporeal beings had been unanimously chosen to stay behind and usher in the new evolutionary process. The Great Community had decided that, as part of the corporeal beings' own evolutionary process, they were to know as little of the new evolutionary process as possible. It was important for the corporeal beings' own growth and rate of advancement toward the Great Community that they take on this unique challenge for themselves. Their knowledge of this unique challenge had been limited. They had been told when and where the new life forms would be landing. They were expected to figure the rest out for themselves.

  Emily had reservations about the path her corporeal friends were about to take. She always had. She didn't need to bring her reservations to the Great Community. Everything was out in the open. No filters. The path they were about to take was a treacherous one―for the corporeal beings and for the future of corporeal life on Earth, the only planet orbiting its star that was capable of sustaining corporeal life without the aid of human technology. They couldn't do it alone, she argued. They needed the assistance of a member of the Great Community.

  It was communicated throughout the entire Community that Emily had one foot in the corporeal world, that her love for the corporeal being, David, was affecting her judgment. This point was not open for debate. This was a point of fact. Emily had nothing to concede, as the fact of her love for David and its effect on her judgment were out in the open. This was information that was shared by the entire Community. But her love for David and its effect on her judgment did not change the fact that the challenge faced by the corporeal beings was an unprecedented one, the potential ramifications of which could also be unprecedented.

  Everything that has happened is happening. Everything that will happen is happening. Everything is non-linear. This was a basic principle of the non-corporeal state. Yet the outcome of the corporeal beings' mission remained dark, unclear. It was happening in the future, yet the Great Community could not see it, could not experience it. This, too, was unprecedented and cast a dark shadow over the past, present and future of corporeal and non-corporeal beings alike. What did it mean when the outcome of the corporeal beings' mission was shrouded in darkness as if the outcome didn't exist? What did it mean for both corporeal and non-corporeal beings? What did it mean for life?

  The questions hung suspended in a vacuum in the Great Community. Her questions became their questions, but there were no answers forthcoming. Her concerns became their concerns, and the Great Community resolved to lift the veil of darkness that prevented them from seeing and experiencing the outcome of the mission. The corporeal beings would need help.

  It was a most troubling time for the Great Community, for the veil of darkness was not limited to the outcome of their mission. The veil of darkness had spread to cover an event that had just recently transpired. Emily had had an experience that could only be described as a vision. The veil of darkness prevented her from identifying the nature of the vision.

  Equally troubling was the fact that her family in the Great Community was not aware of this experience―something unprecedented, as there were no filters in the Great Community, no secrets; everything was shared openly. She had to communicate this experience to her non-corporeal family. Neither Emily nor her family in the Great Community knew what to make of this puzzling turn of events.

  For her part, Emily could not help but speculate that this meant that she was not fully immersed in the Great Community, that there was some kind of disconnect between her and her non-corporeal family. This insecurity on Emily's part was instantly shared with the Great Community, and also unprecedented. Members of the Great Community were not insecure. They did not have doubts. Those were corporeal traits. Her insecurity could only mean one thing: there was indeed a disconnect between Emily and the Great Community. Perhaps her love for David and her corporeal family was keeping her tethered to the past, preventing her from fully committing herself to the Great Community. Such was the danger of keeping one foot in the corporeal world.

  But the Great Community had selected her to act as a liaison between the Great Community and the corporeal beings, she pointed out. She couldn't help but view the fact that she had been selected for this task as a contradiction.

  Not only was she selected to act as a liaison; she was now expected to accompany the corporeal beings on a journey to the planet from which the meteor originated. The corporeal beings could not be expected to carry out this mission on their own. There she would meet with The Designer, the one who had created life the galaxy. The Designer resided deep beneath the surface of the planet. When the time came, she would travel beneath the surface of the planet, meet The Designer and await further instructions.

  Even in her non-corporeal state, Emily was nonplussed by this revelation. Her non-corporeal family had known about her mission to meet The Designer before she had. She hadn't known about it until they had directly communicated the information to her. Another contradiction. It appeared that there were filters after all. Everything wasn't out in the open as she had been led to believe. There were a few secrets―perhaps more than a few.

  This epiphany had the effect of throwing her sense of identity in flux. She had believed herself fully immersed in the Great Community. Now, she wasn't so sure. She suddenly felt detached from the Great Community, just outside their circle of trust. She was at a crossroads, on the outskirts of the Great Community, on the outskirts of her corporeal family. She was blind, confused, alone.

  She was certain of one thing: she would have to figure it out for herself. She would embark on this journey with her corporeal family. They would need her help, and her distance from the Great Community would do her some good. The further removed from the Great Community she was, the closer she would come to reverting back to her former corporeal identity, for her non-corporeal state was dependent on community, not individuality. The Great Community shunned individuality for the sake of community.

  A natural consequence of leaving the Great Community and transitioning back to her former corporeal identity would be memory loss, for much of what she learned in the Great Community was learned without the filter of the corporeal brain. She would need guidance when she arrived on Kepler-438b. She would need the locals to help her because she would likely forget about her mission to meet with The Designer. She would likely forget that she had ever known of The Designer's existence. She would likely forget a great deal of what she learned in the Great Community.

  But she wouldn't forget everything. She would remember the basics. She would remember that she was a member of the Great Community. Unless she fully reverted back to her corporeal self, that basic memory could not be taken away from her, and regardless of how far she traveled from the Great Community, she would not fully revert back to her corporeal self unless she chose to do so. She didn't believe that she would make such a choice, but she wasn't sure that she wouldn't.

  She h
ad a decision to make: community, individuality...or both. The decision was hers and hers alone to make, but this journey with her corporeal family would go a long way toward helping her figure it out.

  Perhaps meeting The Designer would help her figure it out.

  Chapter 6

  Warm arms wrapped around David's shoulders. An unmistakable mane of hair pressed against the right side of his face. David didn't need to call her. She always seemed to know when to show up. Elexa and Deanna had left David alone in the warm African night only moments earlier. And here she was, right on cue. He was glad they were alone.

  Her arms loosened, anticipating his desire to turn and face her. He turned, wrapping his arms around her waist. He was smiling, but it was a weary smile, and she picked up on it immediately.

  “You're having doubts about me,” Emily suggested.

  David dropped his head. He knew full well that, while immersed in the Community of Light, she would have witnessed his conversation with Elexa and Deanna.

  “I'm not having doubts,” he said, feeling slightly embarrassed. “It's just that you've offered us so little information, and I can't help but wonder if you knew that there would be a gap in the genetic code.”

  “Ask me.”

  “Did you know that there would be a gap in the genetic code?”

  “Yes.”

  David looked away and chuckled. Shaking his head in mild frustration, he said, “Why didn't you...never mind.”

  He dropped his arms from around her waist and walked away from her embrace.

  “You know why I didn't tell you,” Emily said.

  “It's part of our evolutionary growth.”

  “You see that? You're closer to the Great Community than you realize.”

  Her witticism brought a brief smile to his face. He was glad he wasn't facing her. He didn't want to give her the satisfaction.

  “Are you smiling over there?” she teased.

  “Don't you know?”

  “I can't see your face, and I've explained to you several times, my knowledge is limited when I'm separated from the Great Community. So no, I can't see that beautiful smile that I know must be plastered to your face.”

  David turned abruptly, suppressing another smile.

  “Oh, I guess I was mistaken,” Emily said, suppressing her own smile. “But I suspect you were smiling, so it can't be all bad.”

  David bit his lower lip to keep from laughing.

  “Look,” Emily continued, “you're puzzled. I get it. And Deanna's miffed. The Great Community, myself included, decided that it was absolutely, positively necessary, and I can't stress that word enough, necessary to divulge as little about the mission as possible. The evolutionary process from microorganism to life as you've always known it must begin again. It is a natural, self-evolving process that needs to take place with as little outside influence as possible.” She paused, taking notice of David's furrowed brow. “You have a question.”

  “What is our role? Before discovering the gap in the genetic code, I was asking myself that question. The only answer I'm able to come up with now is that we're meant to find the missing link in the genetic code. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a place for us here. We wouldn't be ushering in anything. We would just be observing, and observing the beginning of the evolutionary process would be pointless. It would have absolutely no bearing on anything. You didn't need us to observe anything. Everything is non-linear from your point of view. You would be able to observe the outcome yourself. You should be able to observe the outcome yourself. Now I've already figured out why we were really left behind, but since everything is non-linear from your point of view, you should already know the outcome of whatever it is we were left behind to do. Does that about sum it all up?”

  Emily smiled and approached David. “You're perceptive, and you're right on the money on just about everything.” She paused and dropped her head momentarily. Lifting her head, she sighed and said, “With the exception of your last point.”

  David furrowed his brow. “I'm confused. As you explained to me on several occasions, everything is non-linear. What's happening in the future is happening now.”

  “Right, what happens in the future is happening now,” Emily said gravely. She paused to let the reality of her words sink in.

  David's eyes opened wide. The reality of Emily's words did more than sink in; they hit him like a punch to the stomach. “You can't see it, because it's not going to happen.”

  Emily tilted her head and shrugged. “Well, an event with an uncertain outcome is unprecedented for the Great Community. We don't know what it means. That in itself is unprecedented as well. Our theory, our hope, is that there is more than one possible outcome.”

  David dropped his eyes to the ground and nodded slowly, trying to find solace in Emily's words. There was hope, and hope on the verge of oblivion is everything.

  “So we fix it,” he said optimistically. “We make the future happen. What's the next step?”

  Emily closed the gap between them and draped her arms over his shoulders. She smiled her warmest of smiles and said, “The next step is to go for a little ride.”

  David, his arms around Emily's waist, captivated by her smile, said hypnotically, “Where are we going?”

  “Um...I'll let George and Richard handle that one.”

  “David!” George called from Encounter's airlock. “Oh, hi Emily. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.”

  Emily and David stepped back from one another, withdrawing from their mutual embrace.

  “No worries, George,” Emily called back. “We were expecting you.”

  “We were?” David said softly to Emily.

  “You were?” George asked.

  “Well...I was,” Emily said loud enough for both to hear.

  “David, Emily, we found something.”

  Chapter 7

  “It's a map,” Richard said, standing next to George behind the meteor.

  It had taken George and Richard just over three hours to decode the information in the DNA.

  David was incredulous. “A map.”

  “A map,” Richard echoed. “An intergalactic map. A set of coordinates in the form of complex mathematical equations.”

  “A map to where?” Elexa asked.

  “Kepler-438b,” George replied. “It's an exoplanet in the Lyra constellation, about four hundred seventy light years away.”

  George's words were met with gaping jaws, wide eyes and silence.

  Elexa broke the silence. “We're expected to go there?”

  George shrugged. “It's just a map. There are no instructions. However...” His eyes drifted to Emily.

  The rest of the crew followed his gaze, putting Emily in the proverbial spotlight.

  George said, “You're the elephant in the room, Emily.”

  Emily smiled and said, “Yes, we're expected to go there.”

  Her statement was met with gasps.

  “How long would a trip like that take?” David asked.

  “Under normal circumstances,” George said, “at warp...wait for it...approximately one hundred ten days.”

  Deanna immediately picked up on the first part of George's statement. “Under normal circumstances. But these aren't normal circumstances, are they?” There was a sense of hope in her inquiry that was picked up by David and Elexa.

  Richard chuckled. “Understatement of the century, or perhaps millennium would be more appropriate being that we've been on this mission of ours for well over a thousand years.” He looked at Emily, a glint in his eye. He gave her an affectionate smile and continued. “No, these aren't normal circumstances, not by a long shot. These are bizarre circumstances...in so many ways. Although, I suspect that the circumstances don't feel quite as bizarre for our dear Emily.”

  Emily smiled and said, “On the contrary, my dear Richard. The circumstances are quite bizarre, for myself and the entire Community of Light as you call it. But go ahead. You were saying?”

  “Regarding t
he time it would take us to travel to Kepler-438b, if we do indeed agree to accept this mission, there is the possibility that we can significantly cut our travel time.”

  Richard glanced at Elexa. She took the hint, her eyes opening wide with the realization.

  “The wormhole,” she said.

  “The wormhole,” he echoed.

  “What wormhole?” David inquired.

  "Wormholes are passages through space and time that can create significant shortcuts between two points in the universe," Elexa replied.

  “Thanks for the theoretical science lesson,” David scoffed. “I know what a wormhole is. What wormhole are you referring to?”

  "I was getting to that before you so rudely cut me off," she retorted. "This specific theoretical wormhole we're referring to is a spatial anomaly that was first discovered in the late 21st Century when the two of you―” She gestured to David and Emily. “―were in cryofreeze. The prevailing theory, and I must stress that it is still just a theory, is that the anomaly is a wormhole.”

  “However,” Richard said, picking up where Elexa left off, “it is, or was, a widely accepted theory. In fact, it was so widely accepted that NASA's best and brightest, including my dear husband over here, spent a considerable amount time studying the, let's just say it, wormhole. Long before I met him, George had calculated, based on the anomaly's characteristics and dimensions, where a ship with warp capability would end up should it travel through the wormhole and how long it would take to arrive on the other side. And...” Richard gestured to George with both hands.