The Perfect Moment in Peril

by Kenneth Preston

  “Who are you? Do you have names?”

  We are the inhabitants of this planet. We are one.

  “I don't understand.”

  Of course. You wouldn't, would you? Each of us are separate beings. Yet, we are one. We are a collective unit. We exist as one. We create as one. We interact as one. We communicate...with you...as one. As we are one and interact as one, the individuals in our collective don't require what you refer to as “names.” But you may assign us names if that would make communicating with us easier for you.

  “May I call you One?”

  We are one.

  “No, I mean may I call you One?”

  The being hesitated before replying. You may, but please know that when it appears that any individual of our collective is communicating with you, we, the collective, are communicating with you as one.

  “I understand.”

  Come, let us show you around. We can then discuss why you are here.

  Ironically, it had never occurred to George to ask why he was brought there. His sense of wonderment at the spectacle surrounding him seemed to have pushed that question to the back burner.

  He remained close to One as they approached the exit, like a child clinging to his mother in a room full of strangers. He was actually tempted to clasp onto One's hand. Logically, he knew that it was silly. The beings were identical in appearance. They were a collective. They communicated as one voice. He could communicate with any individual in the collective, and it wouldn't make a difference. Perhaps it was One's touch, the beauty that had been allowed to course through his body with the promise of more to come, that drew him close to that particular individual.

  The large double doors slid silently open. They stepped into a wide corridor that seemed to stretch infinitely in both directions. He tilted his head back. The corridor appeared to be open at the top, giving him a view of the majestic skyscrapers he had seen from Encounter. They were in the center dome. Collective members moved to and fro in the corridor. It didn't surprise George that they didn't acknowledge him as they passed. The entire collective had already met him. It was a difficult concept for George to wrap his head around.

  His companions led him to his right down the corridor. They passed a number of rooms and adjacent corridors. George peered into the rooms, briefly observing members of the collective moving and manipulating floating holographic images. He wasn't able to get a good look at the images, but they appeared to contain stars. Based on his belief that the collective sent the meteor to Earth, George surmised that the images were part of a complex interstellar mapping system. Some of the holographic images contained an array of symbols and patterns.

  They turned left, then right, left, then right. George felt as if he were gliding right along with his companions. His movements felt more fluid and graceful than they normally did. Whether it was physical or psychological, this place was having some kind of effect on him...and he liked it. He felt like a teenager with a strong crush.

  The corridor ended in a large, circular room. Holographic images hugged the walls. Celestial bodies, patterns, symbols and humanoid life forms filled the images.

  One led George to the center of the room.

  We have done everything in our power to make you as comfortable as possible.

  George smiled. “It's working.”

  Good. Your comfort is necessary going forward. You are more likely to be confident, focused, rational when it comes to what we are about to tell you.

  George's smile faded. “That doesn't sound good.”

  It is not. Your friends are in danger.

  One reached out and pulled two holographic images to the center of the room and enlarged them. George looked at the image on the right. His eyes immediately widened at the sight of Richard, Elexa and Deanna running frantically. What they were running from or to wasn't clear. He looked at the image on the left to see Emily and David speaking to a man he didn't recognize. George's eyes focused on Richard, Elexa and Deanna.

  “Why are they running?!”

  They are running from our dark counterparts. They believe that they are in immediate danger. Therein lies part of the danger. They are being manipulated, but they are not in any immediate danger. Our dark counterparts just want to rid the planet of your kind. Your friend Emily is the danger.

  George had to pry his eyes away from the image on the right to look at the image of Emily, David and the stranger. He was confounded. Did he say that Emily is the danger?

  “They're talking.”

  Yes, but everything is not as it appears to be. The danger in this situation is on the horizon.

  George furrowed his brow. “I don't understand. Who is that man?”

  That man is Emily's father.

  George shook his head. “No, impossible. Emily's father is dead.”

  I assure you, he is very much alive.

  George looked sharply at One. His mouth opened slowly. “He died...centuries ago.” He looked at the holographic image of the man One claimed was Emily's father. “It's not possible.”

  It's not possible; yet you are astonished by the possibility. It's a very interesting dichotomy, isn't it?

  George nodded his head slowly, pondering the possibility that he was indeed looking at Emily's father. He shook his head, shaking off the haze he felt himself sliding into. He needed an explanation.

  “How?” he gasped.

  It's a very long and complicated story.

  “Sum it up for me.”

  He was brought here by The Designer thousands of years ago, at the time that he was alleged to have died and was kept in a state of suspended animation until ten years ago. As a scientist, you are familiar with the concept of relativity. Time moves at a significantly slower rate here than it does on your world. What has been thousands of years on your world has only been ten years our world.

  "Who or what is The Designer and why was Emily's father brought here?"

  That would be the long and complicated part. The Designer is your mother and your father. The Designer is the originator of everything that was, is and always will be in our galaxy, the galaxy you refer to as 'the Milky Way.'

  "The Designer is some sort of god?"

  If you prefer.

  “Emily's father was brought here by The Designer? Why?

  Despite her separation from the Great Community, despite the fact that her link to the collective she refers to as the Great Community has been broken and her physical body and individuality have been restored, she is not as she was before rejoining her collective. In fact, she wasn't like you before rejoining her collective. She had left her collective to become Emily Díaz in the late 20th Century and rejoined her collective in the 22nd Century. Though she has left her collective, her collective has not left her. Whether she is currently aware of it or not, she is very powerful. The Designer has been watching her for a very long time. It has led her here. It wants her to join it. To answer your question directly, her father was brought here to make it easier for her, to smooth the transition, to give her a sense of home in the form of the one person she had always turned to when looking for a sense of home.

  George studied the hologram. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but they seemed to be having a very pleasant conversation. Emily seemed to be in a state of bliss. Outside of her link to the Great Community, he had never seen her this radiant. Her demeanor brought a smile to his face, if for only a second.

  “You said Emily is the danger. What does that mean?”

  If Emily joins The Designer, the consequences could be disastrous...for all of us.

  George was befuddled. Turning to One, he said, “Could be disastrous. Why? What would happen...or could happen?”

  The Designer is powerful, but contrary to popular belief, it is not all powerful. The Designer has given us free will. In order to give us free will, The Designer relinquished its power over us.

  The Designer was once very good, but over time, it has become corrupted by its desire to control
life. It believes it has made a mistake by granting us free will. It wants to take it away from us, but it cannot, not without Emily. Her link to the Great Community will give it the power it needs to take away our free will. As you know, the Great Community is a collective like no other, individuals of pure consciousness coming together as one. Everything is shared. There are no secrets. If Emily joins The Designer, it can access the Great Community and rob it of its free will.

  “But Emily is no longer with the Great Community.”

  The Great Community is still with her. One never truly leaves the Great Community. She will return, and she will take The Designer with her. The Designer will destroy the free will of the Great Community. The destruction of free will within the Great Community will spread like a virus throughout all of The Designer's creations, throughout all life in the galaxy, for you see, we are all linked to the Great Community. The Great Community is an extension of all of The Designer's creations. It is an extension of all life forms in our galaxy. The Great Community is the pinnacle of the evolutionary process. Once it destroys our free will, it will have the power to control life or destroy it if it so chooses. What is life without free will? It will have the power to end the great experiment.

  However, this situation presents us with a unique opportunity.

  Teetering on the brink of the abyss, George was suddenly yanked back from the edge. “What opportunity?”

  The time has come for drastic change. We are going to overthrow The Designer.

  Chapter 27

  The shock froze her in place. She wanted to run to him, but her legs wouldn't move. She wanted to raise her arms to embrace him as he approached, but they remained at her side.

  “Welcome home!” her father exclaimed jubilantly as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest.

  The best she could manage at the moment was to sink into him. The side of her face was pressed against his chest. Her eyes wide open, she gazed blankly at David. He was in her field of vision, but she didn't quite see him. Her vision was blurring, darkening. She was doing everything in her power to keep from fainting. She had to pull herself together. In the event that she wasn't hallucinating, she needed to stay alert, to keep her wits about her.

  She took a deep breath through her nose and, exhaling through her mouth and into the fabric of his suit jacket, mumbled, “Thank you.”

  He pulled back from the embrace, his hands clasped on her upper arms. “Are you feeling all right?”

  She hesitated before meeting his eyes. They were as warm, sincere and safe as the eyes she had looked into thousands of years earlier. It had only been a little more than six biological months since she had last looked into those eyes, but of course, she had spent a significant amount of “time” in a timeless non-corporeal state. Her concept of time had become...complicated. It may as well have been thousands of years since she looked into those eyes, and they were still the eyes she wanted to look into when life threw her a curve ball. And despite everything she had been through, life had just thrown her the mother of all curveballs.

  “I'm fine,” she managed. “I'm just a little...out of it, I suppose.” It was an adequate generic answer. For the time being, she had managed to keep her wits intact.

  “That's understandable. You've had quite the journey.”

  Quite the journey. “Yes, but it's great to be back.”

  She had a game plan. Play the situation by ear, avoid specifics, look for openings and try to make something resembling sense out of the ridiculously senseless situation she found herself in. It wasn't much of a plan, but for the time being, it was all she had. Hopefully, David had caught on and would follow her lead.

  Sebastian furrowed his brow and smiled knowingly. “Back? You mean you've been here before?”

  Emily was stumped. “You said 'welcome back.'”

  Sebastian laughed heartily. “No, I said 'welcome home.' This is...” He sighed. “You're confused, and you have every right to be, but once I explain everything to you and the shock wears off, it'll all begin to make sense. Then you'll slap me.”

  “David!” her father said, releasing Emily and extending his hand enthusiastically toward David. “Welcome!”

  “Thank you, sir,” David replied confidently, taking Sebastian's hand. “It's great to see you again after all these...years, centuries, whatever.”

  “Yeah, the timeline,” Sebastian said. “It's a little confusing.”

  Emily said, “Confusing doesn't begin to cover it, any of it. What's happening here?”

  “Where do I even begin?”

  “You can start with the dead part. You're supposed to be dead. Why don't we start with that?”

  Sebastian nodded. “Yeah, that would be a good place to start.” He paused, his eyes sweeping the room.

  Seconds of silence felt like minutes. Emily wanted to grab him by his sport jacket, shake him, slap him across his bearded face and demand an answer.

  When mere seconds of waiting became unbearable, she said, “What the hell is this?!” Her voice was quavering.

  Sebastian remained silent, contemplative, his hands on his hips. Emily was on the verge of screaming at him when he finally said, “This is going to be difficult for you to hear, and even more difficult to believe.” He chuckled nervously. “I don't even know where to―”

  “Tell me!”

  “Right. Okay, long story short, in 2015, when you thought I...died, I was actually abducted by a group of men whom I later learned worked for NASA. My death was staged. When you attempted to take your own life, they struck a deal with me: They would save your life if I would agree to come here. I, of course, agreed and was placed in a cryotube for my journey here. I remained in cryopreservation on this planet until fairly recently.”

  Emily grabbed her head with both hands and clamped her eyes shut in frustration. “I'm sorry; I know there's a lot more to the story, but let me cut you off right there. NASA abducted a school teacher. That's what you're telling me. NASA abducted a school teacher.”

  “That's what I'm telling you.”

  “Oh, good. I just wanted to make sure I was hearing what I thought I was hearing. I've only been semi-corporeal for a short time. I thought maybe my ears were playing tricks on me. Carry on. I'm dying to find out why NASA would want to abduct a school teacher.”

  Sebastian smiled sheepishly. “It does sound absurd, doesn't it? But of course, at this point, we're all well past the absurd, aren't we?”

  David raised his hand. “I'll go along with that.”

  “Thanks, David,” Sebastian said.

  Emily said, “Can we cut to the chase?”

  “The Designer,” Sebastian replied.

  Emily furrowed her brow. “The designer? What are you talking about? The designer of what?”

  “The designer of everything you know, life as you know it, life in our galaxy, all of it. It used NASA to bring me here.”

  "Sound like a god?"

  "You can call it 'a god' if you like. We call it 'The Designer.' NASA abducted me because The Designer willed it. NASA brought me here in exchange for saving your life because The Designer willed it. But it was all for you. The Designer doesn't want me; it wants you. It wanted you here, and it wanted you to be happy when you came here. It wanted you to be with family, to be with me."

  Emily shook her head, doing her best to make sense of the conversation she was having. If she were still a non-corporeal being, a being of pure consciousness, her heightened intuitive abilities would still be intact. She couldn't help but suspect that that was part of somebody's or something's plan, drag her away from the Great Community to bring her back to her physical state, thus limiting her intuitive abilities.

  “If The Designer wanted me here so badly, why bring you here? Why not just deal with me directly?”

  Sebastian shrugged. “The Designer works in mysterious ways.”

  “You've never met The Designer?”

  Sebastian seemed amused by the question. “Of course
not. Nobody has.”

  Emily threw her hands up. “Then how do you know...never mind.”

  Frustrated at her inability to read the situation―something that had come naturally to her in her non-corporeal state―she turned, hands on her hips, and walked a few paces across the room, the soles of her sneakers slapping the floor.

  She pivoted toward her father and said, “Why me? What does it want with me? Why am I so special?”

  “You're a member of the Great Community."

  “I'm one of billions in the Great Community. I'm no different than the others.”

  “That's not true at all,” Sebastian countered. “Thousands of years ago, you left the Community to become my daughter, Emily Díaz. That selfless act was the catalyst for billions of people to join the Great Community."

  She didn't know where to take the conversation. She didn't know how to respond or what question to ask next. None of what she was seeing or hearing seemed real. In fact, she couldn't even be sure that what she was seeing or hearing was real. She wanted to believe her eyes; she wanted to believe that her father was standing before her, but she didn't know if she could. Logic told her to remain skeptical. Her father's presence was a desire. It was what she wanted.

  “The statue,” she blurted out. “There's a statue of me in the lobby.” She shrugged melodramatically, palms up. “Do I really have to ask?”

  “That statue is a testament to how important you are. The inhabitants of this planet have been waiting a long time for your arrival.”

  “Did you send us the meteor?” David chimed in.

  “We did.”

  “The DNA wasn't intact, and there was a map that led us here. Coincidence?”

  “I'm afraid not. It was a necessary ruse―” He looked at Emily. “―to bring you here.”

  “This was all a ploy,” Emily charged, “to bring me here. Me, not us.”

  Sebastian nodded. “The Designer wants you. It is not interested in your friends. They can take the missing code in the DNA and leave whenever they like.”