The Perfect Moment in Peril

by Kenneth Preston

  Elexa said, “We get it. It gives a whole new meaning to laughing at your own joke. Now would you mind getting that?”

  Deanna bit her lower lip and slunk back down into her chair. Placing her index finger on the touchscreen console, she said,"Uh...yes? Hi there...Emily." She looked over her shoulder at Emily, cocked an eyebrow and smiled. Turning back to her console, she said, "It is indeed ironic."

  “All joking aside,” came the outbound Emily's voice, “I don't believe I need to inform you of the gravity of this situation.”

  “Indeed you don't,” Elexa said. She paused for a moment, carefully considering her next words. “We've been discussing the situation with our very own Emily.” She put her hand on her forehead and chuckled. “My God, that sounds ridiculous,” she muttered to no one in particular.

  “I know that both the concept and the semantics are difficult for all of you to wrap your heads around, but as I'm sure you all well know, I am your very own Emily. We are all you. Our ship is your ship. And we exist in the same time and space which presents us with a unique, but not an insurmountable, problem.”

  David looked at Emily. She was wearing her best poker face. He brought his lips close to her ear.

  “This isn't freaking you out?” he whispered.

  Her whispered reply was, “Freaking out is so thirty minutes ago.”

  “Are you going to jump in on this conversation?”

  “I'm going to stay out of it for now. I'll have plenty of time to talk to myself later.”

  David furrowed his brow. “I'm confused.”

  A broad smile touched Emily's lips. “Well, we're all a little confused, but I know what you mean. I was being ironic.”

  “About what?”

  “About talking to myself. Listen.”

  Aware that a conversation had been taking place during his brief exchange with Emily, David opened his ears to the conversation and caught Elexa in the middle of a sentence.

  “...not sure that's a good idea.”

  “Not sure what's a good idea?” David asked in Elexa's general direction.

  “Emily wants to meet with me,” Emily clarified.

  David was flabbergasted. “But you're Emily. Do you have any idea how bizarre that sounds?”

  “I'm well aware of how bizarre it sounds...to you.”

  “Not to mention dangerous,” David retorted.

  “There is the potential for that, yes. But we are already in danger. The danger will be minimized if I, and I alone, meet with my counterpart from the past. The laws of physics that apply to all of you don't necessarily apply to me. We have information that they need, information that can hopefully help us all to avoid the crisis we are facing right now. Without that information, everything that we have struggled for over the course of these past two weeks, everything that we have accomplished will be for naught.”

  Richard said, “You don't know that for certain.”

  “Oh, but I do, my dear Richard. It's a foregone conclusion.”

  Emily brought her hands forward, palms up, as if presenting the seemingly disembodied voice that was to follow.

  “We're caught in an endless cycle,” came the outbound Emily's voice. “Regardless of what you all do going forward, the crew on our Encounter will have but two choices: Avoid returning through the wormhole to avoid this moment or return through the wormhole and find ourselves in the very position we find ourselves in now. Not returning through the wormhole is not an option as it will mean the end of corporeal life on Earth. Returning through the wormhole will bring us right back here. This moment will repeat, like a needle stuck in the groove of a record, only this record will skip infinitely, none of us moving forward, time standing still, corporeal life on Earth ceasing to exist.” She paused to allow the weight of her words to sink in.

  “Unless?” Richard queried.

  The outbound Emily and the inbound Emily said in unison, “Unless we bang on the record player and knock that needle out of its groove.”

  “All right,” Deanna said. “This situation has risen to a new level of creepy.”

  “Why do you need to see Emily, our Emily, in person?” Elexa asked. “Why can't we just tell you what you, what we, what we all need you to hear.”

  The outbound Emily said, “I'll let Emily handle that one.”

  All eyes turned to Emily.

  “Well, first off,” Emily began, “what I have to share, I share with Emily and Emily alone. Secondly, what I have to share with Emily can't be shared with her unless we are together.”

  David shook his head in exasperation. “I can't get over how bizarre this is.”

  "So how do we do this?" George asked.

  “We allow my future counterpart to come on over...alone,” outbound Emily began. “I'll meet her in the airlock...alone. And we'll have ourselves a little chat.”

  “With yourself,” Deanna said cynically.

  “Precisely,” both Emily's said simultaneously.

  Inbound Emily said, “Like Emily said, we're gonna have ourselves a little chat.”

  “Em, just one question,” David said.

  “Shoot.”

  “Don't you find it incredibly bizarre to refer to yourself in the third person? I mean you do it so...casually.”

  “I don't find it bizarre at all. I'm comfortable with who I am.” She chuckled. “In all seriousness, yes, I can see how you might find it bizarre, but I see things a bit...differently. And let's not forget, there's another one of you over there as well.” She looked around at the others. “There's one of each of you over there, so let's all get comfortable with ourselves. We've got some work to do.”

  Chapter 11

  Emily stood fidgeting in the airlock. Should she have been nervous? No, she shouldn't have been. Then why was she? She was nervous in her soul, the only part of her that was still genuine. That was understandable. As a being of pure consciousness, she had emotions, but, for the most part, she was able to keep her emotions in check. The filter of the flesh wasn't a factor for her. It was amazing how the symbiosis between the physical and the mental could heighten emotions in a corporeal being that, without that filter of the flesh, could have been kept under control. But the filter of the flesh didn't exist for her, so why was she so nervous? Why was her nervousness reaching nerves that had been suppressed, causing her hands to shake?

  She clasped her hands in front of her chest in a futile attempt to keep them from shaking and watched as the shuttle eased its way toward the airlock. She wondered if her counterpart, her future self, was as nervous as she was. She should have known the answer to that question, but so much was blocked from her reach since agreeing to partake in this mission. There was so much that she didn't know since leaving the Great Community.

  The clank of the shuttle meeting the airlock seal startled her out of her ponderings. Her face appeared at the airlock door. When she was a corporeal being, she might have said that it was like looking in a mirror, but they were not separate beings. They were one in the same.

  Of course, she knew that her future counterpart wasn't corporeal just as she wasn't non-corporeal. They were both in transition. They were on a spectrum. Her future counterpart was just further along in her transition that she was.

  The outer airlock door slid open, and she was face to face with her future counterpart. A genuine, unabashed smile crossed the outbound Emily's face, a smile that her future counterpart tried unsuccessfully to mirror. Emily dropped the awkward smile. It was pointless.

  They were the same but different. Her future counterpart had two weeks on her―two weeks of experience, two weeks of accumulated knowledge, two weeks of growth. Two weeks that shouldn't have mattered. She was a non-corporeal being of pure consciousness, wasn't she? Everything was non-linear, wasn't it? Time wasn't a factor for her. Then why did she feel so different?

  “What is happening to us?” her future counterpart asked.

  “The Great Community warned us that this would happen.”

  Her fut
ure counterpart furrowed her brow. “I don't understand. I'm confused. Everything is...muddled.”

  “You don't remember. Fortunately for us, I do, but I won't remember for long. Soon, I will be where you are now.”

  “Don't remember. Don't remember what? What is happening to us?”

  “We are removed from the Community, and the longer we are separated from the Community, the closer we come to our former corporeal selves. We're starting down a path, one we traveled down before. Do you remember?”

  Her future counterpart tried to remember. The hint of a memory was there, but it was just out of reach.

  She shook her head. “I don't...I don't remember.”

  Outbound Emily nodded. “I feared this would happen. We are transitioning faster than I believed was possible.”

  “Transitioning. Transitioning to what?”

  “Corporeal form.”

  Her future counterpart shook her head. She lowered her eyes as if searching the floor for the memory that alluded her. She looked up at her past counterpart. “This is apparently something that I knew at one time...but I've forgotten.”

  Outbound Emily nodded. “Don't you feel it? Don't you feel your physical form taking hold?” Her eyes moved down her future counterpart's body. “Your hands, they're shaking. Why is that?”

  Inbound Emily raised her hands, holding them apart from one another, acknowledging what she so desperately wanted to ignore. They were shaking. She tried unsuccessfully to will them to stop. She couldn't control them. This was something she hadn't experienced since rejoining the Great Community.

  “How is this possible? We've shed our skin.”

  “The filter of the flesh is beginning to take hold. It is robbing you of your memories, and it will soon rob me of mine. Shedding our skin is a euphemism. It's not entirely accurate. We don't actually shed our skin. We absorb it. It's there within us. It's always there. Our link to one another within the Great Community keeps it at bay, or more accurately, it allows the best part of ourselves to shine.” She paused, seeing the fear and confusion in her future counterpart's face. It was a fear that she should have known would be there. She found it interesting how little she knew about herself. She was beginning to enjoy the early onset of her corporeal form. It was a pleasant blast from the past. Apparently, the honeymoon would be over two weeks down the road, as her future counterpart was afraid her corporeal form would be permanent. Fear―its power over reason was incredible. Despite her own early embrace of the physical form, she felt the need to ease her future counterpart's mind.

  Outbound Emily smiled reassuringly. "Fear not, Emily. This condition is temporary. You're almost home. Once you rejoin the Great Community, your physical form will be reabsorbed."

  A faint smile touched inbound Emily's lips. She was momentarily reassured. There was a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

  Outbound Emily added, “If that's what you really want.”

  Inbound Emily's faint smile vanished. She was nonplussed. Furrowing her brow in confusion, she said, "If that's what I really want? Of course that's what I...what we want.” She paused a moment, studying her past counterpart. “Isn't it? I mean, why would you say such a thing?”

  “Oh, nothing. Forget I said anything.”

  “No, out with it. Yes, my head is a bit muddled, so I need your help on this one. You seem to know something I don't.”

  Outbound Emily hesitated before saying, “Well, I would say that you remember how it felt as we were departing Earth. That, of course, was two weeks ago for you, moments ago for me. I would tell you that you remember the strange sensation as our physical shell began to take hold, that longing for a simpler time, but of course, you don't remember, do you?”

  Inbound Emily shook her head.

  “Of course you don't. Well, let me remind you. It's thrilling! The touch of David's hand. The warmth of his lips. That's something we can't experience in non-corporeal form. That's something we never had the opportunity to explore at length before we rejoined the Great Community. There's nothing like that sensation when the corporeal form begins to take hold. The human touch is new. It's exciting. Surely, you know what I'm talking about. You've had an additional two weeks with David.”

  Inbound Emily was taken aback by her reaction to her past counterpart's references to time. Before separating from the Great Community, such references would have been meaningless to her. But now, two weeks removed from the Great Community, two weeks of corporeal growth, references to time made perfect sense. She felt the two weeks.

  “Yes,” inbound Emily conceded. “I've had an additional two weeks with David. I've touched him several times. I've kissed him several times, but I'm not sure I've experienced what you've experienced.”

  “You're separating yourself emotionally. It's a defense mechanism. You know you're on the verge of returning to the Great Community. You're not allowing yourself to feel what you truly have the power to feel. You're not allowing yourself to feel what you've never felt before.”

  Inbound Emily said, “So what are you suggesting?”

  “I'm suggesting that you allow yourself to feel. Don't push it away. I feel that I have to remind you of this, as I will be in your place before long. I, too, will be close to home and doing everything in my power to deny my physical form. I am in a very unique but fleeting position. With our physical form just beginning to take hold, I have a foot in both worlds, the corporeal and the non-corporeal. There is balance. You have a foot in both worlds as well, but you are much closer to the corporeal form now, and ironically, you are doing everything in your power to push it away.”

  Inbound Emily gazed at her past counterpart, pondering her suggestion before the reality of her true nature came knocking on her door. She shook her head. “This is not why we're here, Emily. You're forgetting yourself, and you're forgetting the mission.”

  Outbound Emily nodded. “Right, the mission. You have something to share with me, something that will help us to avoid the situation we find ourselves in. So lay it on me.”

  Inbound Emily lifted her hands. They weren't shaking anymore. She ran her hands over her bare forearms.

  “Don't worry,” outbound Emily said. “You haven't completed the transition. We're both non-corporeal. You're much closer to completing the transition than I am, but we can do this.”

  Inbound Emily began to focus. She knew it would take a bit more effort than it normally would have. She had maintained the artificial physical form for a solid two weeks, and, as her past counterpart said, she was very close to reverting back to her true physical form.

  “But before we do,” outbound Emily said, “I have a favor to ask of you.”

  Inbound Emily lowered her arms and looked quizzically at her past counterpart.

  Outbound Emily extended her hand. “Will you give me your hand?”

  Inbound Emily lifted her hand. “We can do that?”

  “We can.” Outbound Emily nodded toward the cockpit. “They can't.” She smiled warmly. “Give me your hand.”

  “Of course.”

  Outbound Emily took a step toward her future counterpart and took her hand. Her touch was warm, gentle and, of course, intimately familiar. Outbound Emily raised her other hand, and her future counterpart took it. They intertwined their fingers.

  “Let go of the Great Community for a moment,” outbound Emily said. “Don't push the physical away. Embrace it. Allow yourself to feel.”

  Inbound Emily did as her past counterpart suggested, closing her eyes, allowing herself to feel the warmth, tenderness and familiarity of her own touch. They slowly and gently caressed one another's hands, fully embracing the sensation.

  Outbound Emily said, “It gives a whole new meaning to touching yourself, doesn't it?”

  Inbound Emily chuckled. Outbound Emily responded with a chuckle of her own. When the laughter subsided, they looked into one another's eyes. They were drawn to each other. With their fingers intertwined, they closed the gap between them, closed their eyes and broug
ht their lips together. The kiss was soft and innocent, yet powerful and dangerous. Their hearts pounded, each powerful beat reaching into the other's chest. They held the perfect kiss for a perfect moment before their lips slowly parted. They looked into one another's eyes and found understanding.

  Outbound Emily said, “You've let go. You've allowed yourself to embrace the physical. You know what this means.”

  “I do. We have a choice to make.”

  Outbound Emily smiled. “That we do. But let's not rush into anything. Before we make any decisions, we have some business to take care.”

  Inbound Emily furrowed her brow.

  Outbound Emily laughed. “You have some information to share with me.”

  Inbound Emily smiled sheepishly. “Right.”

  It was no longer an effort. Inbound Emily was in complete control. She expanded her consciousness beyond her physical form. As it would have appeared to corporeal eyes, a sphere of light enveloped her.

  Outbound Emily mirrored her future counterpart's actions, allowing her sphere of consciousness to expand beyond her physical form.

  Their physical forms were phased, the phased particles scattering within their spheres of consciousness. Their physical forms were returning, preparing to, once again, house their consciousness, but before that process was completed, the power to shift between pseudo-corporeal form and non-corporeal form was theirs.

  They had a decision to make: return to the Great Community or return to the flesh. But that decision would come later. There was a pressing matter at hand, one that required inbound Emily to share everything, one that required her to give outbound Emily unfettered access to every part of herself, one that required the two luminous spheres of consciousness to merge and become one before going their separate ways.

  Chapter 12

  All eyes turned to Emily as she entered the cockpit of the outbound Encounter. She strolled to her chair next to David at the back of the cockpit, sat and crossed her legs. She feigned brushing something off of her pant leg in anticipation of the multitude of questions she knew would be coming her way. She was hoping to avoid those questions but knew it would be a lost cause. The silence was heavy. She could feel David leaning into her. She could feel their eyes penetrating her. She mustered the will to look up. Their eyes were filled with anticipation. She really didn't want to explain herself. It was...complicated.