I survived the perils of Ghama-2 and the traps of the Crystal city to get to the enhancing devices. You will understand what I just said, if you have read the first two books of Ghama-2 An Afterlife story trilogy. This is an exert of the third book ‘’ The Return of the Emissaries’’.
Madeleine and I are lost. We went exploring the nearby stars, we went too far and we don’t know how to get back to Earth or to Ghama-2. Our bodies were enhanced in the crystal city; we are immortals now and we can fly and reach instantly our destination using the fabric of God that underlay all existing matter of the universe. We also use the fabric of God for far vision. We can zoom in to a star system, find the nearby planets, then zoom in on each one of them to see if one carries life. Then we can wish to get there, and we are there, instantly.
“Where do we go Madeleine?” I asked.
“Let’s go to that scintillating star; once there we will improvise.”
We jumped there instantly.
“That’s a pulsar; it is one of the universe mysteries.” I commented.
“That giant star is jumping between two parallel universes.” Said my soul mate Ram. It could not set itself in one and if we orbit it and jumped away, we might find ourselves in the parallel universe.”
I must tell you about Ram; when we finally got to the enhancing devices room in the crystal city, the artificial intelligence in the form of a robot told us that each one of our group had to lie inside a coffin inhabited by a ghost of one of the ancient inhabitants. There were whole rows of them, thousands of large size coffins. We had to lift the heavy cover, lie inside and close the cover. Then the coffin would be filled up with the enhancing liquid and the ghost would get inside us. Later, once the process would be completed; we would get out as an immortal with enormous powers, but we would share our new body with an alien ghost.
– Are you kidding me? I asked the Robot outraged. After all the hardship of that perilous mission on Ghama-2, you want me to drown and get haunted as I die in that coffin?
– You won’t die and the ancient will not take over. You are younger and you will have the dominant personality. The ancient will be a good companion and his wisdom will be appreciated.
The A.I. convinced me! I did it, and now Ram is my soul mate.
“The other universe could be the Ghama-2 universe but there is a chance that it is number three or four, who knows.” I said.
“There is a greater chance that it would be Ghama-2’s universe, more than sixty per cent.” Ram commented.
We looked for the planets that might be orbiting the pulsar and found a big one. There was a chain of moons evenly spaced around it. The planet was blue, and the moons were either gold or emerald alternatively.
“It looks like a jewel and that formation is certainly not natural.” I said.
“The people that built this system are or were a species of artists. You can’t create such a marvel without being gifted with a beautiful mind. I am anxious to meet with them.” Said Madeleine excitedly.
We augmented our far sight, and the planet was suddenly very close. We could see beautiful cities with exquisite and unusual architecture. We zoomed some more to see the people expecting angels of some kind but to our great surprise, there were only dogs; all kind of dogs and a few robots.
“Let’s jump to that street.”
I took Madeleine’s hand; we jumped and hovered a few inches over the street. We settled down and looked around.
Gooshee was the first dog to notice the sudden appearance of the strangers.
“Look at them,” said Gooshee telepathically to Shoodame his year-mate.
“They look like our fabled creators.” Answered Shoodame in awe.
“Let’s call Robot Clunk, He will know what to do.”
“Clunk! We got visitors. Come quick!”
Clunk was seated nearby watching the dogs play. The ageless and very ancient robot didn’t need to sit or wear a shirt and a pair of jeans, but he kept doing it in memory of his long gone masters.
The robot had been given an emotion synthesizer to love and care for his masters; to stand by faithfully, and serve all their wishes. There was such pleasure in doing so, such a sense of worth; but they were gone now. The population had dwindled over the centuries as more and more of the masters acquired the ability to travel to other worlds. It had started with other abilities and powers, telepathy, telekinesis, far sight, and finally instant travel.
Joe and Irene had chosen to stay in their very ancient house built on the shore of Lake Wanabago. Irene’s brother, Phil and his wife Alice were their closest
neighbors. They had been there for so many years sharing their love for the farm and country life. They did not have children, Phil, Alice and their daughter Edwina were all they had. There were nobody else.
“How unfortunate,” said Irene, “that as we were acquiring those modern abilities, we were losing our ability to procreate.”
“Yes and our scientists could not find the solution.” Answered Joe sadly. “They tried artificial insemination and cloning but the resulting children were born without the gift; none inherited those new powers and abilities.”
“Would you care for a cup of coffee and a plate of cookies?” Asked Clunk, their robot, intent to change his masters’ sorrowful mood.
“Good idea Clunk, that will be comforting.” Answered Irene kindly.
“Here comes your brother Phil.,” Said Joe.
“Hi! I knew I would find you rocking on the veranda.” Said Phil.
“Hi!” Said Alice and Edwina as they came up behind Phil.
Clunk was coming quickly with a plate of cookies and the coffee pot. He was always very pleased when his masters had visitors.
“I will come back with an additional rocking chair and the cups.” Said Clunk joyfully.
The neighbors sat comfortably, facing the lake. The robot came back with the cups, and they waited patiently for him to serve them.
“Edwina turned out to be an exception; she developed the powers last month and she wants to travel. We have decided to go with her.” Said Phil. “Would you like to come with us?”
The news broke their heart for Joe and Irene could not leave their ancestor’s farm and the ancient house; they were too attached to it. They had been living in it for one hundred and fifty years now.
“We are not made for this kind of travel; we can’t leave the farm to go to other worlds, we love it here, the apple trees are blooming, it is time to plant the corn and we have the cows, the horses and the dogs to care for.”
“I understand you,” said Alice, “I know how lonely you will be; everyone is gone; we are your last neighbors but we can’t let our daughter go without us.”
“I am sorry for you too and I will miss you.” Said Edwina. “You know how much I love you, but I am young, and I just can’t get it out of my mind; I need to go, I need to travel to other worlds, I need to meet again with men and women of my age and there are none left here. There is no fun for me here.”
“We will come back to visit you if we can.” Promised Alice.
Years later, Joe and Irene had left the world, they had died of old age and Clunk was left with no one to serve but the dogs. Millenniums had flowed by evenly; the dogs had acquired a greater intelligence and Clunk had evolved too. He could talk with them telepathically and he had told them about Man, Dogs’ best friend.
“Man cared about you Dogs, before he created us the robots.” Said Clunk once. “Man built those cities and left us for other worlds. We keep them clean and standing in memory of them, hoping that one day some will return and be proud of us for it.”
The story had turned into legend and now for the first time in their lives, the dogs had seen man and called Clunk.
“I am coming, I am coming, please wait for me,” Broadcasted the robot, we heard him and waited patiently.
“Hello, hello to you, I am so please to see you.” Said Clunk as he turned the corner and saw us. “My name is Clunk, and I served the last people that ever lived on this world. It had been such a long time though, millenniums, so many millenniums since you all left.”
“Would you care for a cup of coffee and a plate of cookies?” Asked Clunk hopefully and excitedly.
“That might take some time to prepare, I guess.” Said Madeleine.
“Yes, you are right but not so much for I have been making cookies every day, for the dogs; I made a fresh batch this morning and we have plenty left and I kept some coffee seeds just in case, replacing them with fresh ones every year for the last ten millenniums.”
The dogs were all around us, hundreds of them wagging their tails.
“Where should we go?” I asked Clunk.
“The street will take us to the city outskirt where we will find the flying saucer. My masters’ house is located fifty miles west of the city on the shore of Lake
Wanabago.”
“All right we will follow you.” I said.
Something was moving under our feet, and it was not the street; we were standing on an invisible and immaterial energy shield created by the street and it was moving faster in the middle, where we were standing. As we left, all the dogs moved in the middle to keep up with us.
“They had reached a remarkable degree of technology for such a young species.” I/Ram said. “We can see no decay, anywhere, the buildings were made to last millions of years.”
“Our masters used molecular fusion to bind together the blocks of solidified air that were used as building material. The material can resist anything short of a disintegrator ray. The buildings, the furniture, the equipment, the streets, the computers and the robots, everything you see or touch, will last forever.”
“Incredible, how long has mankind lived on this world?” Asked Madeleine.
“A group of explorers, scientists really, came here to investigate the pulsar, one hundred thousand three hundred and twenty-five years ago.” Replied Clunk. “The pulsar powerful bursts of Z-rays destroyed the spaceship astronavigation devices, and the scientists could not find their way back to the Red Planet. So they decided to colonize this beautiful world. In the following millenniums, they built cities all over the world and as they developed advanced technology, they rebuilt the cities with everlasting materials. They made us to serve their needs, take care of the land and maintain the cities. The people were looking for something to evolve to and many became bored. Thirty thousand years ago, a star traveler came here with his mate. They didn’t come in a starship, they just appeared from nowhere and that created quite a sensation. These people changed this world forever.
They taught our masters a religious philosophy of love, beauty and appreciation plus a technique to draw energy from the plants and everything or everyone that surrounds them. Loving and appreciating everything around them was opening channels to cosmic energy and using that energy, they could evolve their latent powers. Soon, the people developed telepathy, telekinesis and the power to separate their aura from their body to do what they called astral trips. The people could lie down comfortably, close their eyes, move their auras out of the body and fly to the stars. Those astral trips soon became their most passionate hobby. Eventually, they developed the ability to draw their body from this world to the world their aura was standing on using what they called the fifth dimension. They met with other species and one of them infected them with a virus that reduced the people’s fertility and prevented their children to evolve those new powers. In less than a thousand years, there were only a few people left here; and the cities were empty. Only those who had great attachment to the land stayed here and even with their augmented longevity, they were soon gone. Nobody came back from the stars for millenniums now and I am afraid that they all died. This is why I am so glad to see you.”
We had reached the outskirts and the street had stop moving its energy shield. We followed Clunk to the flying saucer and stepped over the rim. There was room enough for fifty or so of the dogs and they joyfully jumped aboard.
“My name is Madeleine and my friend is Richard.”
“It is an honor for me to know your names, they will never be forgotten; you will be part of our legends.”
“Tell me Clunk, what was the names of those people that came here and taught your masters that philosophy of love and energy?” I asked.
“The man was named Krishna and the woman Nicole Teaseman.”
We were in shock, our old pals had come here thousands of years ago, had taught the people that great philosophy and left to pursue their exploration of the galaxy.
“They didn’t know that what they gave them would lead those people to their extinction.” I said.
“They were lost in time and space probably. They came from Ghama-2 and might now be searching for their way home in one of the parallel universes.” Said Madeleine.
The flying saucer was just an opened saucer, no roof, no steering, navigation control board, or anything. The robot said home and it left the ground silently, accelerating away from the city.
“You seem to know those two travelers.” Commented Clunk.
“Yes, they were our friends; they came here from the future and from far away.”
The farmland was beautiful, and we enjoyed its soothing serenity. Some of the trees looked familiar; there were some of them on Ghama-2; they had fruits with raspberry flesh and cheese in the center. I left the saucer, moving instantly to one of the trees, picked two of the fruits and was back at the saucer in two seconds. I tasted one and it was just as delicious as I expected it to be.
“Here, try that sweetheart.”
“Thanks…Wow! Delicious!”
“Our masters could levitate but I never saw anyone moving that fast.” Commented Clunk.
“The dogs, do they eat fruits?” I asked Clunk.
“Yes, they like that variety.” The robot replied.
As we passed close to one of the trees, I used my telekinetic power and moved a hundred of the fruits from the branches to the saucer and held them in front of the dogs’ muzzles.
They understood my invitation and bit the closest one eagerly as I deposited the others at their feet. We reached the blue water of Lake Wanabago and the saucer landed in the back yard of Clunk’s masters’ long house.
The house was made of wood and stone and had a very ancient look.
“The wood was specially treated to last, but I had to repair the walls regularly over the centuries.” Said Clunk. “The floors are solid marble and gold and they resisted very well. I always put some slippers to prevent my repeated passages’ erosion.”
“That’s a good idea and you have been very considerate to do that.” Madeleine commented.
The house felt warm and soothing. There were family pictures, showing generations of owners, statues, tastefully carved tables, chairs and desks. A golf club and a fishing pole were hung like trophies with a picture underneath showing happy faces. There were hand carved stone sailboats on the shelves and all kind of other carvings. Beautiful oil paintings hung on the walls, landscapes with women and children and a few miniature portraits of the landlords. Large beds, wood desks and paintings gave a very rich and serene ambiance to the bedrooms. I loved the huge family room with its fireplace, cathedral roof, and long table with a dozen high chairs; shelves, a lot of them, loaded with souvenirs and books; two cushioned rocking chairs facing the large bay window with a view on the lake. I walked to a small desk and found Joe’s diary. I am a reader, I always was, and I was burning to read it.
“Do you mind Clunk, if I read it?” I asked the robot who was kindling a fire in the fireplace.
“Please do, my master is long gone and will never be back. It will be honoring him to read it. I did start reading it myself, but it saddened me so much that I had to stop and I don’t know the end.”
I took the diary and sat on one of the rocking chairs; Madeleine took the other one. We rocked silently for a while looking at the lake.
“You know Richard, all those times that you rocked alone, at your tall house gazebo, in Laval, Northern Canada, gazing at the stars and dreaming of adventures and romance, I was right there with you, talking to you, but you couldn’t hear me. I shared your dreams, I could read your mind, but you were oblivious to my presence.”
“I am sorry about that, it would have been less lonely if I had known that I was not alone, that I had a friendly ghost on my side, caring for me. I would have passionately and repeatedly declared my love and affection for you who stood by me so faithfully. I would have told you how grateful I felt. I would have hugged you mentally and sheltered you in the warmest part of my heart and told you the sweetest words that would come to my mind.”
‘’ When I exited the enhancing coffin in the crystal city, levitating out, I should say, I saw you hovering close for I could see ghost then. I was excited and knew I had great exciting adventures to come but I noticed that you were sad, I guessed you were feeling useless now that I was enhanced. You could not protect me and comfort me in moments of despair, I did not know what to say to you, at that moment, Jesus came in the enhancing room. I looked at Him, the son of God and God himself.
-Hi, Jesus, how are you doing? I asked stupidly.
– I am doing well thank you. Congratulation.
– Thank you Jesus. Madeleine here, has been ghosting me all my life and now she would like to share with me the coming up adventures; would you give her an enhanced body?
– Yes, be good and good luck to you both. Jesus said smiling as he disappeared.
You were no more a ghost, you were levitating in front of me, smiling.
“I know Richard, thank you for asking Jesus that favor, now, let’s read that diary together. I will share your mind and your eyes, I will comfort you in the saddest moments.”
“All right, let’s do it.” I replied as I opened the diary.
—–
“I never thought that I would one day spend some of my time writing a diary, but I don’t know what to do anymore; there is just so much time to spend and I can’t walk the land or rock on the balcony all day long. Clunk and the other robots are doing all the work and there is nothing left to do. It is important for them to serve; it gives them the satisfaction of being useful and worthy and I can’t take it away from them. Besides, I am getting old now and I don’t see or move as well. We meet with Phil, Alice and our niece Edwina every day for our morning walk or a few hours of sailing and we find comfort in each other’s company because there is nobody left. My brother Jack used to live with us but he had turned fidgety last year.
“I need to go, “he said, “I am sorry, but I feel that I am just wasting my life doing nothing here. I did an astral trip to a very beautiful world yesterday, it was a world of tiers, four stories high, like a wedding cake and I met a man on the first tier. The man saw me in my immaterial form; he said that his name was Kickaha and he needed my help to recuperate the controls of that world that had been taken away by a brutal alien visitor. He took a flute from his backpack and blew six notes and a doorway opened to another place, a castle room. He said he was giving me the enchanted flute and I just had to play the six notes to join with him and he threw me the flute. I don’t know how but I caught the flute; my aura caught it and I brought it back with me. Here it is.”
I took the flute in my hands, and it had a magic feel; it was made of the strangest material, different from our solid air material, it was different from anything I ever touched.
“I am going.” Said my brother Jack. “I am needed, I can be useful to a worthy cause, but I will come back if I can. Goodbye my brother.”
He left and never came back. Last month, it was our friends’ turn to go. Our niece Edwina, the last child born on this beautiful world developed her powers. That had not happened for centuries. One day Alice said she was pregnant; Alice was two hundred and twenty-six years old and she was pregnant for the first time in her life. That was sixteen years ago, and I can’t express how much we have loved that baby. Edwina grew up alone as a child with the five of us and she developed great affection for my brother Jack. She loved each one of us, but she had a special kinship with him.
After he left, she started to spend some time alone developing her own powers.
Last month she told us that she would join her uncle Jack on the worlds of tiers; she said she had finally found it and she had decided to materialize there. Phil and Alice wouldn’t let her go by herself, they decided to go with her, and we approved of their decision because we would be otherwise extremely worried for the child. But we can’t go with them, we are not the adventurous type, We are attached to our house that sheltered fifty generations of my ancestors.
They went and since then, we feel very lonely. There is nobody else living in this whole world. We don’t watch movies for we feel even worse after viewing one but at least we have each other. I have Irene with me, and I love her so very much. We met two hundred and ten years ago and it was love at first sight. She had come from far away to find other people because the cities were deserted already. She was walking sad and hopeless when I spotted her at the city outskirt. That was such a coincidence, it was the first time in years that I had gone to the city and when I saw her, I shouted: Hello there, Hello! And I ran to her and as I came close, I saw that she was a young woman, my age, and she was so beautiful. We looked at each other and she came silently to my arms. I could see her tears flowing down her cheeks. She had come to think that she was the last one; that she would never meet someone else; someone to love and share with and I could not believe my luck.
“Will you marry me? I love you!” I asked immediately.
“I love you too.” She answered.
I took her to the long house, and she loved it.
“That’s my ancestor’s house, your house now, I live alone here for my parents are gone and my brother Jack is trying to find someone and might never come back. I got great news too for you; we have neighbors! Phil and Alice and they are great company.”
We have each other now but there are no neighbors anymore and we are getting old. One day we will be gone and there will no one left on this beautiful world. According to history, a group of scientists and explorers left the Red Planet about fifty thousand years ago to investigate this mysterious pulsar. When their spaceship reached this world, a gigantic sun flare burned their radars and astronavigation computers. They landed and proceeded to repairs. Later on, they received a communication from home, it was a goodbye and last wishes message saying that there had been a nova, and the Red Planet was going to be utterly destroyed. They were mankind’s last hope for perpetuation of the species. Now that we are getting old, I ponder about the significance of the efforts of those millions of people that tried to make a difference; that tried to do their contribution for the race evolution towards a great destiny.
There will be no destiny for we are the last ones, and it hurts me deeply. We have failed; somehow men took the wrong turn and the hope, the sacrifices and the prayers of the multitude behind me will not be rewarded. What will come after men? Will dogs or the robots evolve into a civilization? If so, will they remember us? Will they remember that once we were there before them and prepared their way?
If the dogs evolve to a civilization, they will need the robots to do the manual labors for them. The dogs could only become a civilization of philosophers. Maybe one day, they will meet with another species that would be worthy of their affection.
If not the dogs, the rats, perhaps, will evolve to sentiency. I can hardly imagine a civilization of Rats and Robots but who knows maybe the Rats will deserve a grater destiny than men?
Irene died yesterday! I didn’t know what to do; I dressed her in her most fancy clothes and put her necklace and bracelets on and Clunk placed her body in a transparent solidified air box. He pumped the air out before fusing the cover on. The body will last longer that way. Clunk put the box on the grass behind the house and he planted bushes and flowers around it, leaving just enough space for me to go see her from time to time.
I can’t express how lonely I am now or how intense is the sadness that squeezes my heart. I loved Irene and she is gone and there is nobody else, nobody to share my grief with.
It has been ten long years since Irene passed away. Sad days succeeded painful ones and there is nothing that excites me, nothing that I would like to do. I can’t live much longer with so much sorrow, so much loneliness. Men came to the world for nothing; we were just a temporary streak of evolution and God, if there is a God, didn’t care for us. God didn’t need us; He didn’t need our help or contribution. Perhaps, He never even noticed us so low we were in the creation scale. Men came and soon now, men will be gone, and nobody will remember us; all for nothing.
I asked Clunk to put my body in a box beside Irene so that if there ever come a visitor, the visitor would be able to see what men looked like. I told Clunk that I will die soon, today hopefully for my heart became irregular and I have a hard time to breathe. Goodbye to no one, this diary was just a waste of time.
“Here are the cookies and the coffee.” Said Clunk courteously.
I was crying, I didn’t think that I could cry in that enhanced body of mine, but my soul was crying. I could feel the pain and the sadness of that old and so lonely man. Madeleine came into my arms and we hugged and cried together.
“I thought my dearest that we would never experience sorrow now that we are living in what I thought to be the seventh level of heaven but I feel miserable and I miss the company of our friends.”
“You know Richard, we were enhanced not that long ago; we don’t know everything yet about how we can react emotionally but one thing becomes apparent to me, we are not in Heaven, we feel heavenly good most of the time in our wonderful body but we felt some guilt at destroying all those Vegian worlds and now we experience sadness. We are still human, half human and we haven’t lost our capacity for human emotions.”
“And I hope that you will keep those human qualities,” said I/Ram my soul mate, “otherwise life would be less interesting for me.”
Clunk could sense our pain; he had the telepathic ability to share our emotions; he kneeled down in front of us, respectful and silent and the dogs that had wandered into the house were all around us now and they too sensed our sorrow and started to moan softly, to bemoan man’s fate.
“All right, all of you,” I broadcasted, “we will not let it happen that way; we will change the past. There will be men again on this world, men to cherish all of you and share with you a greater destiny. We will leave you now, but we will be back.”
That story began in the third book of my Ghama-2 trilogy ” The return of the emissaries ”, many events, some of them quite dramatic followed up, you will love reading it. Just contact me and I will mail you the three books of the trilogy.
