Symon looked down at his childhood friend. He then gently placed his head on her chest, relieved to hear her breath and her blood muscle pumping with a steady beat. He then checked her over, seeing some familiar burns on her neck. But the necklace was not there.
Symon channeled more positive energy and began to heal her burned flesh. “Come on Lexa, wake up. Come on, wake up, it’s me, Symon,” he begged his sleeping friend.
She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, looking disoriented but alright. “Symon? What…what are you doing here? Where is TynTomus?” she questioned her childhood friend.
Looking down, not wanting her to see the guilt in his eyes, he told her, “He died. I think it was a necklace that Jude gave him.”
“What…Tyn…NO!” she screamed as she started to cry.
“I will make this right, Lexa,” he promised her with tears in his voice that threatened to fall from his eyes again.
“It’s not your fault, Symon! You didn’t know what she was… what are they doing here?” she asked, pointing to the Dra couple, still sobbing. “Jude said they were energy mad. They’re the reason we were out here.”
“Jude was wrong, Lexa. Things have changed. These two are bonded to me as my friends like you are; they are good people.”
“TynLexa,” DraDonna said, feeling her own hot tears sliding down her face, “the necklace that killed your husband also killed my sister who was with child. I know that none of this makes any sense to you right now, but you must know that we mean you no harm. We never did.” She sat on the edge of the bed.
“I know,” TynLexa said, taking DraDonna’s hand. “I remember. I just don’t understand why Jude would do this to us. She was our bonded friend.”
“TynLexa, DraDevon and I will be your friends and we will stand by you like we do Symon, but I think I understand why Jude did what she did,” DraDonna told her. “I think she loved Symon so much that she was willing to do anything to be with him.”
“I just don’t know what I’m going to do without TynTomus,” she sobbed as DraDonna wrapped her arms around the young widow trying to comfort her.
“Lexa,” Symon said to his grieving childhood friend, “as Ambassador, I have the power to help you with your grief.”
So consumed in her sorrow that she only nodded her head in agreement, she pulled away from her new friend’s arms.
Symon moved around behind her on the bed as best he could and laid his hands on her head; with eyes closed he whispered her name and called forth the energy directly from the HEART stone chip in his head. Symon gave her the same blessing of comfort and strength that he had given to DraDonna and DraDevon.
Taking his hands off her head, he moved to help her off the bed. “How do you feel?”
“I hurt,” she answered with tears still visible in her eyes, “but I can deal with it.” She tried to smile at him.
“That’s good,” he told her. “We need you to be able to function. There is a lot going on and we may need your help.”
“Help? Help with what? Symon, what is going on?”
“Do you remember what Jude had you working on?” he asked her.
“Yes. She had me looking for something in the ground, but she didn’t tell me what it was.”
“Did you figure it out?”
“No, but I had a feeling I was really close.”
“You were,” DraDonna broke in. “More than you know.”
“What do you mean by that?” TynLexa asked her new friend.
“Come Lexa,” Symon said, pulling her toward the HEART stone altar. “There’s something else you need to do so you can heal and understand everything.”
“What is it?”
“You need to confront Jude so you can forgive her and…”
“And what, Symon?” Lexa asked, sounding distressed.
He put his hand on the cool stone of the altar with his three passengers. “I am taking you to see the HEART.”
Ambassador
31
In a flash of blue energy, four figures appeared in the darkness of the temple’s upper chamber. Once again Symon’s command for light was obeyed.
“What…where?” TynLexa stammered in confusion.
“We are in the entrance room of the temple, but the HEART calls it the upper chamber,” Symon answered her.
“But it is so…so…” TynLexa said, at a loss for words.
DraDonna laughed a little as she followed Symon and her husband to the stairs, “I know what you mean. It’s not what you expected is it?”
“I just don’t know… how… where do these stairs go?” she asked in confusion.
“Well they don’t go up,” DraDevon joked again as they trudged down the stairs.
“DraDevon, my love,” DraDonna said, “that was only funny the first time.”
With a little mirth still in his voice he looked back at his wife, “Sorry,” he said with a wink.
Symon smiled at him. “I thought it was funny, Devon.”
The four finally came to the entrance to the HEART’s chamber.
TynLexa stopped for a moment as the others went ahead. She read the words that had been written on the wall. Although she did not fully understand, she was stunned by what she saw. “BIO-18 FIRST CLASS. Human-Environment-Allocating-Relocation-Technology,” she read aloud in awe. “H.E.A.R.T.” She quickly followed the other three into the chamber.
She stopped again in surprise at seeing such a strange room. She saw the screen that had the image of the enlightened flower, the metal counter just under it, and in the center of the room, the small sofa with Jude laying on it and Fredrik standing over her.
“Fredrik?” she asked in surprise at seeing another one of her old childhood friends in the HEART s chamber.
“Lexa? What are you doing down here?” he asked her.
“I could ask you the same thing,” Symon asked him with concern. “I thought you were making sure all the sleeping people in the courtyard were safe.”
“My Symon, I see all my children at the courtyard and they are all well,” the HEART said. “My servant Fredrik needs to see me. He needs to understand who I am and all that is going on just as much as the rest of you do.”
“But what are you?” TynLexa interrupted with a fresh wave of tears of confusion in her eyes. She looked up at the screen with the enlightened flower.
“I am your MOTHER,” was the HEART’s simple reply to the nearly hysterical woman’s question.
“I don’t understand what that means,” she said. “Our MOTHER. I was told all my life that you are our GOD, the HEART of our planet,” she said in a hysterical ramble. “Yet here I am and all I see is an image of some kind of flower. Is that all you are?” She stopped for a moment hoping one of her friends would help her make sense out of this. “Will one of you please explain this to me?” she yelled to everyone in the room. “What is that?” She pointed to the screen. “Where are we? How could we be down so far?” TynLexa broke down into sobs and sank to the floor next to the sofa where Jude was laying. “I just don’t understand,” she said as she continued to sob.
“TynLexa,” DraDonna knelt on the floor next to her. “Do you remember your research?”
TynLexa looked up at her in surprise at the question. She nodded her head, unable to speak through her tears.
“Well I was on the same track in my research. Everything was the same everywhere, and there was something in the soil or in the ground.
“We saw your sketch of the core drill and DraDevon made it. He is a very talented welder,” DraDonna said smiling up at her husband. “The core drill worked beautifully, and when we got down only about nine or ten feet we hit metal. We dug down and found that what was under the ground was metal, but it was a kind of metal that DraDevon had never seen before. It was so strong that not even the steel core drill could cut through it.”
She paused, looking in her friend’s eyes, seeing the light of understanding beginning to spark there. “TynLexa, the world isn’t real. It is
a vessel… or a ship if you will… taking us through space. Our people have been living on this ship for more than a thousand years. We need a new planet to live on, and now the HEART is taking us to one.”
“I still don’t understand what the HEART is, DraDonna. I was raised to think of her as our MOTHER, our GOD who is the HEART of our planet.” TynLexa was still struggling to understand. “Now I don’t even know what that means anymore.”
“She is what was once called a computer. She controls and takes care of this ship. She has learned how to feel, and she loves us,” DraDonna said simply. “I know this is hard to take in. I still have a hard time with it myself, but we all need to be strong so we can get through this.”
“Get through what?” she asked, still confused.
“The people went energy mad last night, my daughter,” the HEART jumped into the conversation. “I had to put all my children to sleep. When they wake up, My Symon will have to explain things to them. He will need the support of his friends because he is without his first Councilor.”
“Jude!” TynLexa said standing up and turning around. She looked down on Jude’s prone form. Fresh tears of betrayal spilling from her eyes, she said, “Why did you do this to us? You killed TynTomus! How could you!” she yelled at her. “Had you gone mad?” TynLexa screamed at her, but then she realized Jude was still sleeping. “Symon, why isn’t she waking up? Why doesn’t she move?”
Symon could not hide his shame from his old childhood friend. “Jude wanted me to mind wipe Donna and Devon as a part of her mad plan for us to be together. I knew it was wrong and they didn’t deserve it, so I…” He stopped, ducking his head as his shame and guilt overwhelmed him.
“Go on,” TynLexa said, her concern for Symon showing in her eyes.
“I gave her a jolt of negative energy. I only meant to give her just enough to make her forget her mad plan, but I was in so much pain that I lost control and gave her a high dose.” He stopped looking at TynLexa’s stunned face. “I didn’t know that she had that stupid necklace on, TynLexa! I swear to you… the jolt must have traveled through to your husband as well as JorMelony, killing them both.” Symon looked over at DraDonna as well. “I am so sorry, I didn’t know she had the necklace; I am not even sure what it is.”
“It is a control collar,” the HEART said. “These control collars, as well as several other malevolent devices were reported as destroyed just after I took control of the ship. I had the MPB cut hers off. The necklace corrupts the one who wears it by blocking out the good effect of the energy to the brain. It also blocks the help that the Traveler’s Joy plant can offer. So in effect, Jude’s actions were a result of energy madness.” Everyone in the room was stunned into silence for a moment.
“HEART,” started Symon, “does this mean that Jude didn’t really love me? Was it all just some dark obsession brought on by the necklace?”
“That will be for her to reveal to you if she wakes up, My Symon,” the HEART answered him sadly.
“It wasn’t your fault, Symon,” TynLexa said as tears of sorrow coursed down her face. “I don’t even think it was her fault; I don’t think she would have hurt anyone if she had been in her right mind. I do know that she loves you, though, Symon. She always has. I understand now why she did it and…” she stopped to gain control of her tears. “I can forgive her.”
“But can you ever forgive me?” Symon asked her with his head bowed, too filled with shame to even look at her.
TynLexa crossed the room to where he stood and put her arms around her childhood friend and whispered in his ear. “There is nothing to forgive; you did nothing wrong.”
Symon hugged her back, relishing in the warmth and comfort her embrace gave him.
After releasing her friend she looked up at the image of the enlightened flower on the screen. “HEART, I’m not sure if I know what you really are, but I believe that you want to help us.” TynLexa looked down at Jude and then back up at the screen. “Will she live?”
“I do not know. I have placed stones that I control on her body that will help to keep her alive while repairing what damage has been done, but I cannot say if she will ever wake. You can take her up to your office, my Symon, and place her in your private chambers. Then you need to take care of the rest of my children. And you will need to go soon. I see that some are beginning to stir. You will need to use all of your strength and power of empathy as well as projection to help them understand what is going on.”
“HEART,” he addressed the old computer with weariness in his voice, “I love you and I love all of your children, but I ache from all that has happened… from all the loss. I can’t help but feel like I’m responsible. I don’t know if I can do this anymore. You chose poorly when you chose me,” he told her, his voice raw with pain. “I am weak.”
“My Symon,” the HEART began, her multi-toned mechanical voice oddly soft. “I chose you because I knew that you would have this great capacity for love. The powers that you now bear are greater than those of Ray, the first of my Ambassadors. But the powers that you bear do not come from me, or the chip of HEART stone that you have in your head.
“They come from your soul. I only enhance what you already have. Your ability to love is what makes you powerful. This is why I am not surprised that you love Jude the way you do. This is why I have released you to marry. I believe that it will make you even more powerful and more able to serve my children.”
The HEART paused for a moment as the enlightened flower continued to gently move on the screen. “Now you must pull yourself together, my Symon. My children need you. I see that you now have good and loyal friends that will stand by you. Draw strength from them. And you are strong, my Symon; that is why they draw close to you. You are their friend and leader. No matter what happens when we land on our new home, it is my intention to keep you as my Ambassador.”
“My HEART my MOTHER, I will always serve you and your children. I hope that you don’t think that I don’t want to serve, because I do. It’s just that… I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of a mistake I have made.” Symon humbly said.
“My Symon, have peace in your soul. I promise that this time of pain is but a small moment. I know that your friends will stand by you, and they will always hail you with a warm soul and friendly hands.”
“HEART,” DraDevon said in an apologetic tone. “I’m sorry to interrupt you but I’ve thought of something.”
“No need to apologize, my son. Please speak your thoughts without fear.”
“I was thinking about us being out there for a special gathering when everyone wakes up,” he went on. “All of them slept though the pulse, but JorRobert was out there fully exposed and would not let Symon heal him like Fredrik did,” DraDevon said, concern in his voice.
“I think he is energy mad. I am very worried about him causing problems for everyone. I know he’s capable of killing.” DraDevon remembered everything that JorRobert had said and done to hurt him and his wife over the last two days.
“My poor son, JorRobert is tormented by the loss of his wife,” the computer said. “Heal him if you can, Symon. But please, all of you, help Symon do what he can. Protect the rest of my children from JorRobert’s madness if he cannot be healed.”
“We will, HEART,” DraDevon promised. TynLexa and DraDonna nodded in agreement.
“You must all go now. The people will be fully awake soon,” the computer instructed.
“Yes, HEART,” Symon said as he bent down and cradled Jude up in his arms.
They started for the stairs, but Symon stopped, looking around the HEART’s chamber. “Where is Fredrik?”
Madness
32
The ringing in Fredrik’s head would not go away. He was trying to listen to everything going on in the HEART’s chamber, but the pain that the ringing caused was making it hard to concentrate. He could hear them, but what they were saying did not make any sense to his pain-filled brain.
Fredrik was also having a hard t
ime seeing. He just didn’t understand why things didn’t look right. To his eyes things looked twisted; the colors were wrong somehow. The twisted colors and images only served to make his head hurt more. He rubbed his eyes, hoping that would clear his vision, maybe help with the pain in his head.
When Fredrik opened his eyes he could see things still didn’t look right. He could see all of the people in the room but they didn’t look right. They were all his friends, he knew that, but his eyes were telling him something different. They looked like a maddening jumble of colors to him.
“Maybe the pulse did something to them.” Fredrik thought in a panic. “But why can’t I see them right or understand them? There can’t be anything wrong with me. It’s them, it has to be them. The pulse changed them,” was the thought that twisted in his pain-tormented mind.
Fredrik listened to Symon confess all the guilt that he held inside. “What is the matter with Symon? How could he have feelings like that for Jude; it’s… it’s… but it’s not as if I didn’t know. They are my bonded friends, but… how could they?
Aghhhh!” Fredrik brought his hand back to his head. “The pain won’t go away! I need to get out of here. I need to talk to someone who will understand; but who? Everyone else is sleeping.” He tried to listen to all that was going on.
“The HEART… she…not our God…what is it? What is that flower on the screen? Why won’t it stop moving; why is it so bright? I have to get out of here!” Fredrik thought as he rubbed the sides of his head with both hands, hoping desperately that the pain would go away so he could understand what these people, people he had loved all his life were saying.
“JorRobert is still awake! Maybe he will understand and help with the pain in my head… but Symon can help… no, Symon is damaged… and the HEART; she isn’t real… she’s not our MOTHER!” Fredrik slowly backed away from the sofa where Jude was lying, and made his way to the stairs.
Fredrik hoped no one saw him go as he ran quickly, quietly up the stairs. “I have to get to JorRobert; maybe he can help,” was the irrational thought that played over in his mind as he ascended to the upper chamber. “Symon can’t help me; he was the one damaged by the pulse.
H.E.A.R.T. Saga: The Children Page 22
