The Event Trilogy (Book 3): The Archive and Beyond

by Larson, Thomas

  What does one say, what does one think. I was at a loss.

  “I expect that there are a lot of questions and concerns with you all. And we will answer and soothe those questions. But not right now. You need time to rest, and to let the storm that we just broke on your shores to be calmed. We have rooms prepared for you and will have you rest for a while. Tonight is a special night in the sky, and we all need to observe it. We will send for you to rejoin us at what you call 21:00 hours. At that time we will answer many of your questions.”

  As we rose to leave, KHriz asked First Daughter and I to stay behind while HYlon and RRqil took the rest of the Clan toward their rooms.

  We sat and talked, he told me that he was reminded of the days many cycles ago when they, He and HYlon, would dine with Asuna and Tom on the Sky Crystal. He spoke of how they would discuss issues of the future and history of humanity and the planet called Earth, the Wet Blue Ball. But I sensed there was something else here.

  “KHriz, what is going on, why are you here, why are you with us. This all seems very nice, but there is something else, something hidden.” I said.

  His skin darkened, “Ah, just like your predecessor, the one called Tom; you have a keen sense, and ask hard questions.”

  He then started at the beginning; he spoke of his regrets that he and the Sky Crystal were unable to stop the meteor that exploded into the atmosphere all those years ago. They had tried, but were just unable to prevent it or the disease that went with it.

  He explained further that in the following loop they were able to find two people who had been visitors on their ship before the meteor.

  As we were growing up, we knew that QUalz had taken people from the Earth, and in fact had been allowed to visit many of the rooms that had been created for them. But we did not know about the repeat visitors.

  “First Son, your real name is what?” he asked me.

  “Tom, I was officially anointed, Thomas Williams.”

  “That is correct,” he replied, and then turned to First Daughter, “And you, what is your designation?”

  “I, I am Asuna Yagu……”

  The connection was made. We were named for Test Subject #1 and #2. I think KHriz saw the recognition of what was there.

  “Yes, you are what are called clones; you are all made from what you call the Predecessors.” He said, he was lighter in color now, that which had bothered him was out in the open.

  I thought for a minute, we had all been born about the same time, all of us together on the Sky Crystal, playing, growing, learning together. Wait, now that I think of it I did not remember the Twins all that well, we would see them once in a while but they were never part of the group of us, the ones we now call the Clan.

  Shock, silence, confusion and finally, ….. “Why?”

  Now it was his turn, he had to expect the question, he had to, yet I don’t think he was really ready for it.

  Finally, “When we took them, your predecessors, on to the Sky Crystal it was to create a cure for the illness. We needed the two of them because we had taken what you call DNA samples when they had visited us years before the meteor. Then with new samples after the meteor, we, Krezz, Father, as you called him, was able to create a cure.” He said.

  “Yes, we read that in the journals, it was a wonderful thing,” answered First daughter.

  “No, Asuna, in the end it was not. In the end we failed you, we stopped humanity!” he almost shouted, turning dark.

  We sat silent for a moment and then he continued.

  “When we made the cure, it worked well against the virus, but we did not think about what else it would do, could do. In the end it rendered your kind unable to procreate, you could not grow, just dim and go out like an old campfire.” He explained.

  “But Akiri? They had Akiri, and Augustus,” exclaimed First Daughter.

  “True, but that was because Augustus was conceived before the cure. And Akiri was the child of Thomas and Asuna, the medication they took was pre-production and it turned out to be slightly different.”

  There is was, all out in the open.

  KHriz said that they had made the mistake and then had to decide what to do about it. From their view there were two options, the first was to just let things run its course, the Earth without human kind and perhaps in future millenia there would be another species that rose to humans level, octopi, or cats seem to be the most likely. Or the other option was to try to restock the planet using the DNA material that was collected. The original samples were taken pre-cure so they were viable to reproduce after cloning. They had collected 24 samples from when they had visited the landing site at the place called Camp Romanica where they had taken the two predecessors, Tom and Asuna.

  The medical science team had to do a little work to remove the virus from the new samples but it worked. Krezz, Father as he was called headed the effort, and in the end he demanded blame only on himself for the initial failure.

  A long silence, and while we sat HYlon and RRqil joined us.

  “It would appear that you have told them it all,” Said HYlon.

  “Pretty much,” replied KHriz.

  “I have a question,” I said, “If we are clones, how will we add to our numbers, we have no skills or knowledge of cloning, are you going to do that for us or teach us how?”

  Three dark colored QUalz looked at us, then each other, and finally KHriz spoke up, “RRqil, you are closest to these two, closest to a mother that they have had. I believe it is the task of the mother to give ‘the talk’, or at least that was what I learned from the cultural data.”

  Over the next 45 minutes we were asked to unclothe and then we were enlightened. We had seen each other unclothed many times, and had never thought much about it. We knew that we had different parts, but suddenly found out why and what those parts were used for.

  No, we did not have contact during this time that is still too much, the concept is so far beyond anything that I, we had ever considered, sex; it was called sex, fornication, intercourse, and a host of other names. And from it came children, babies, the future, and the successors.

  After we clothed, we sat with RRqil, she was a light color, and the stress was gone from her. Asuna, I will call her that from now on, and I were perhaps still a little red. Our view on things, each other, was changed.

  It reached the appointed hour of 21:00 and we walked out to the front area of the Holy Place. There were benches in a circle around a fire pit. It was dark and only the flickering flames lit us. The QUalz had resumed human form.

  Chris / KHriz told us the story of the Sky Crystal, and how it came to be and circle our new home. He told us of how we had intrigued them, the QUalz, and while their ship was broken they had looped around the Blue Wet Ball and the Red Dry Marker for millennia, visiting, taking guests, studying the humans. But he never told the rest of the group what he, they had told us about the illness, the cloning or sex. I think he is leaving that for Asuna and I do to.

  “This is the shortest night of the year. It is the last one that we of the Sky Crystal will see. We are going away, going home.” He said.

  It was Lance who raised the question, “What will we do?”

  Helen / HYlon looked at him and simply said “Move on and survive.”

  “But how? I mean we have the transport pods and the larva but is that enough?” asked Teckla.

  “No, it is not, we will have to do things different, we will have to be more like the Predecessors,” I could not believe that had just come out of my mouth.

  “I think I can offer a little help there” said Molly, “There is a place you need to go to, a place where you can meet the past and build the future.”

  “Where?” said Margot.

  “West, you will need to go west, follow the route marked 90 and when the time comes you will find it,” she said, and then made that funny little QUalzian hiccupping noise that was their laugh. It has been so long since I heard it and it seemed so strange coming from this young woman.<
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  We silently sat under the stars, smelling the smoke, seeing the reflections of eyes outside the circle of light.

  Molly stood up, and turned to Helen, “Hatchling Mother, Is it time?”

  “Yes, it is, they have gathered,” replied Helen / Hylon as she reached behind her and brought out a bowl, it was filled with a thick whitish paste. It reminded me of the consumable that we have lived on all our lives. She rose and moved in front of me.

  “First Son, Thomas,” she smiled. “You have some knowledge, and now you will have more, this will help prepare you. I offer this wisdom to you, as I will offer it to Asuna, and Lance, and Margot and all the rest of you. You are not required to take the wisdom, but it help your growth and understanding. Will you take it?”

  “Yes, yes I will, I sense that this is what was given to the Predecessors in their pilgrimage, and I accept it willingly,” was my answer.

  In the end, the entire clan took a taste from the bowl.

  I cannot say what everyone else saw, or felt, but I saw the universe, the sky, the earth all in balance, all part of a greater thing, a single living creation. As I sat, I saw Asuna as I never saw her before, and as I stared at her, she changed, she stopped being the human Asuna. Her white jumpsuit disappeared and she was at first unclothed and then she morphed, she became a catlike creature with black tufted ears, she was small, spotted but there was a fierceness to her. I could sense it.

  I looked around the fire pit and I saw others had also changed, there were horses, bears, skunks, and where Margot and Cody sat two large, tawny cats, mountain lions, I recognized them from the other Margo’s sketches.

  Then, out of the forest came two others, they were not part of our group, there was a turtle, and on its back was a raven. As they walked toward us, they sort of melted, the turtle into the ground and the raven lifted off and flew into the sky. They were not of us and yet they were part of us. Sky Father? Earth Mother?

  I felt at peace, I knew, we were all there, we were all in part different and yet we were all part of the same oneness, there was a goodness, and we were part of it.

  I looked down toward the edge of the fire; I had not thought about my animal, I had not felt different. I looked down and smiled at my paws.

  One by one we dropped off to repose, to dream, to learn about what we were.

  June 21st 2075

  In the morning we were all still by the now cold fire pit. The Twins and Molly were gone, or should I say the QUalz.

  We sat around the cold fire pit, eating that mush that Nicholas had jarred for us. And yet, after the meal of last night, it tasted, well actually it was tasteless. We were changing.

  As we sat, Delta asked, “So we go west?”

  One by one the thumbs were raised, it was unanimous.

  In the cab of my red truck were a map and a note.

  Follow this to Bear Lodge, they are waiting.

  We left that morning, after eating; the route was easy, we just followed the travel way called Interstate 90.

  The route was filled with empty piles of rusted vehicles left on the road. The flora had blocked some areas and we had to redirect ourselves but for the most part we were able to move smoothly along.

  We are anxious to arrive, and yet, there is a peacefulness about the trip. We are growing. We often change who was riding with whom to share our dreams of visions from the night before.

  I do not think we are morphing into the creatures that we visualized ourselves as, but rather, we were made aware that we have those fauna’s traits, they are in our character and each character plays a part to the greater whole. We fill a need.

  One might look at Tyler, who was a mouse and feel that it was a lesser spirit, but then it is her detail orientation, her scrutiny skills that make her a part of the whole. There are hunters, and protectors, and thinkers, and messengers, they are all among us.

  I remembered something in one of the journals about coyote, the trickster, the changeling. He was not the greatest hunter, or most powerful, yet he was the seer, the one who senses the problems and points them out, usually at his own expense. I have been the leader and logical for so long, this could be a challenge.

  I know of one of the changes that we will have to address, but not yet, not until we reach Bear Lodge.

  We spent the night in a place called Chicago, it was once a large urban area. We stayed on the outskirts of it, sleeping on a raised section of the travel route. Actually, we began by trying to sleep on the raised section but late in the evening there was an event, a water storm, with electrical discharges. Lance determined quickly that it would be wise for us to seek cover under the raised area.

  It was cool after the rain and Asuna come close to me seeking to share warmth. It felt strange to have that contact; growing up we had learned from the QUalz that contact was just not something that you did. It was how they were, and we just took it up. But this contact, this closeness, I liked it.

  June 22nd 2075

  Once again we were on the road, following the travel way. It was an uneventful day. The travel way was more open, and we reached higher velocities in our vehicles.

  We reached a place called Sioux Falls, according to some old signs. It was still reasonably early and we might have been able to travel another hour but chose not to.

  Margot, Delta and Cody wandered off. They returned about a half sweep later with some flora, it was sort of a leafy pod shaped seed about 10 inches long and 4 inches in circumference. Inside the green leaves there are row upon row of little yellow nuggets. I tried it, it was crunchy. I liked the way the individual yellow nuggets kind of popped in my mouth.

  It was kind of cool again last night. Again, contact, I liked that too.

  If what Joseph figures is correct, we should reach Bear Lodge tomorrow, late in the day. I wonder what is there.

  June 24th 2075

  We arrived last night at about 20:00 hours, it took much longer than we thought. The roads were mostly clear until we turned off on to travelway 34. It was different than what are called interstates. It slowed us and at times we had to stop and find a way to continue without the use of the travelway. I had never considered that these vehicles that we had chosen were capable of travel off of the hardened surface.

  Of course Lance, again mentioned on several of these occasions that if we had taken our transport pods we would not have had an issue.

  As we rolled up to the place called Bear Lodge, we knew it was the place, in part because the sign gave it away, but also there was behind the edifice, a huge monolith, a grey spike that reached toward the sky. Was this the home of the Sky Father?

  The edifice was made of what is called wood, a building material that is taken from the forested areas. Compared to what we had seen in some of the urban areas the edifice seemed very humble, but there was power here, it radiated from the monolith, and focus on the lodge.

  As we pulled, in there was a paved area for us to rest our trucks. In front of the lodge was a group of chairs that circled a fire pit. A fire pit that was burning, the smell of a tree called a cedar was emanating from it. Over to the left there was a tree, it had red spherical objects on it, some lying on the ground around it.

  We walked to the tree, it caught our attention. It was Grace who picked up one of the spheres and after sniffing it, and licking it, she took a bite. The look on her face was one of pleasure.

  “It is sweet, and and and, wonderful!” She exclaimed excitedly.

  Soon we were all trying these things, these spheres, and they were, as Grace said, wonderful.

  I think it was Teckla who first noticed the figures standing by the fire pit; we turned toward them and walked toward them. Their skin was brown and wrinkled. He was tall, and aged, bent, she was darker than he was,. They both had sticks for support.

  He looked at the old woman and said loudly, “Well, we got the apple thing out of the way.”

  She laughed.

  We were confused.

  “I am Raven, this is Turt
le, welcome, welcome home, we have been expecting you for longer than you can know. Let us begin, again.”

  Epilogue

  It was 48 years ago that we arrived at Bear Lodge; we learned from Raven and Turtle before they joined the other plain in sleep. We have also learned from ourselves and from our animal spirits. Asuna and I learned about children and added 12 to our clan, others also were fruitful.

  Although we still have the skill, I stopped writing the log each week and over time it was only through telling at the fireside that the stories, our stories, our traditions and the experiences were kept.

  It is a new world, a new time, and there is peace, goodness prevails and the Sky Father and Earth Mother give us bounty and happiness.

  WOWAHWA

  Thomas Coyote