Robert and Arthur glanced at each other in common recognition of the smouldering mood Cherine maintained during the meal. As if she expected to surprise them, she carefully put her fork down and then announced, “I don’t care what anyone says, we’re going to Ntchizi’s world first.”
Robert grinned. “She’s been fighting you?”
“She dared to tell me that my responsibility is to my own species first.”
“How did you counter that?”
With a blast of satisfaction at her incontestable logic, she told them, “I said that her own responsibility to her species should have demanded she encourage me to save them first if that was true.”
Robert asked, “Since both of you are right, how have you resolved the dilemma ethically, to the satisfaction of both of you?”
Obviously feeling contumacious she replied, “We’re saving her people first. A couple of weeks delay won’t kill ours.”
“From what you told me it will take centuries of concerted effort to keep the cloud outside their solar system. Why do you now think it will only take a couple of weeks?”
She gave a triumphant grin, obviously anticipating their and Ntchizi’s chagrin. “If Ntchizi can help us with the dust cloud, why can’t her people? All we have to do is prove it is possible and then teach them.”
Cherine still distrusted official healers, so Arthur appointed POL volunteers to watch their bodies. Cherine first asked her healer to slow down the metabolism of their bodies so that they can last for weeks without their souls, and then the volunteers were taught how to best maintain the bodies.
The light beings have discovered they enjoy having ‘something to do’. Apart from their dedication to saving souls, they’d never considered such a possibility before and it excited them. They also discovered they enjoy interacting with other species who have different ways of thinking. An aspect of dealing with aliens that they struggle with is the necessity for answers and decisions within an impossibly short period. Somehow it seemed to spark the flame that turned more of them into the thinkers of their people. They responded to the request enthusiastically.
The first thing they noticed when they arrived and moved into normal space had all of them gasping with delight and reverence at the impossible beauty. Ntchizi was just as affected as her companions. All over the planet threads of light and colour soared from the ground out into space.
A light being gave warning. *Cherine, we must return to the void, the energy they are sending can kill us if we approach it.*
*Ntchizi, are you able to contact your people? I think those threads of energy are meant to attract the dust down onto their planet. We must know before we try to send the dust flowing away from your solar system.*
*I cannot contact them from here, the energy they are sending out interferes. I must travel to the surface. *
*Is it safe for you? *
*I do not know. I will avoid the energy where I can.*
Robert asked, *Why don’t you teleport? *
*I suspect the energy beams may deflect me. It could be more dangerous than flying through the beams.*
*Ntchizi, those beams are waving around like hair in a wind. It’s too dangerous.*
*I must try Cherine, our presence is too important for me to fail.*
*If anything happens to you I’m coming in to get you out, so be damn careful!*
*Hold it a moment. If they are succeeding, why does Ntchizi need to risk herself? *
*That is easy to answer Robert. The dust cloud may be tenuous, but we are talking about matter that stars are formed out of. If they are attracting the dust onto their planet, we’re talking about billions or trillions of tons of dust - what do you think it will do to their world? *
Robert's voice was heavy, *Such a valiant attempt doomed to failure! They must really love their Fiuremm.*
*Are we not part of them and are they not part of us Robert? *
By circling the globe first, it became obvious that where the surface was under water no threads grew. Ntchizi chose the largest open spot that was also the closest to populated areas. She returned with another six of her people.
*They have made too many sacrifices to agree to stop the energy beams. Cherine,* her voice was like a sob of devastating grief, *each beam was created out of the life of one of my people. We cannot accept their sacrifice was without reason.*
The light beings fled to the void in horror at the loss of so many souls. Robert felt Cherine’s spirit crumbling, so he quickly spoke. *Have the beams succeeded in saving any Fiuremm? *
*They have, the lack of certain rays from the sun was killing them.*
*Then they can never speak of sacrifices failing. What we need to do is prove our abilities before asking them to trust us. Cherine, we’ll move further from the planet so that we prevent the cloud arriving here. That should mean the light beings can join us - they also desperately need to help.*
The people of Ntchizi name themselves the Nuar-Fiuremm. They had studied the direction the cloud came from so they travelled in that direction until the planet was barely the size of a coruscating pebble. Cherine returned to explain to the light beings and they arrived in the billions to lend their energies to the endeavour.
For days it was difficult to judge their success, but slowly the cloud thinned and finally they were sending all that arrived beyond the solar system. The six Nuar-Fiuremm who’d arrived with Ntchizi were taught how to use their mental abilities to achieve success and they gloried in what was done and then grieved for the lives lost - that now would have to be destroyed.
Ntchizi showed her Terran friends mental pictures of her world covered in heavy layers of space dust. Some of it was radioactive and causing damage to all organisms. *They have double reasons for grieving. Cherine, take me within you so that I do not succumb to my despair for I must first return to remove my body from yours.*
Robert interrupted, *I never was good at science, but allow me to ask you some questions Ntchizi. The threads of energy, are they similar to the experiments I learnt for creating static electricity? Is that how they attracted the dust? *
Arthur immediately surged with lights of jubilation, the sound of triumph in his voice. *Damn! You’re a genius! Ntchizi, ask your people whether they can reverse the polarity of the threads. If they can, they should be able to reverse the flow and get rid of most of the dust covering your planet.*
Since the dust had mainly collected at the roots of the threads, they soon had evidence of their success as space around the planet filled with dust. Urgently they helped the dust flow out of the solar system. The main body of dust was close to blocking the sun again, but millions of Nuar-Fiuremm arrived to share in the fight. Gradually they took over the defence of their home and the Terrans and light beings watched them for a while before withdrawing. Ntchizi passed on a message asking them to participate in a celebration, a double celebration, for they wish to turn the sacrifice and release of their fellow Nuar-Fiuremm into an affirmation of life, a beat of hearts in gratitude and love as they dim their energies and allow their altered souls to stop existing.
Arthur was worried about the amount of time they’d been apart from their bodies and felt they should return immediately. Cherine did not back him, even though she was also worried, for she sensed Robert was not ready to leave. He was gnawing at a problem and his thoughts had retreated deep within himself. He called for light being thinkers.
*If you are shown by the Nuar-Fiuremm how they transformed themselves into threads of energy and one of them is detached for us to try and carry to the void, do you believe your superior knowledge of energies could make it possible for you to reverse whatever was done so that their souls can be saved? *
There could be no definitive answer to his question other than the proof of an attempt. The Nuar-Fiuremm agreed to the sacrifice of one such thread. First they gathered to sing their grief, gratitude and love to it and the Fiuremm were part of them while the one who’d lost his/her Nuar-Fiuremm stood dumb at the loss it no longer could comprehend. Their threnody accompanied the thread as they disconnected and guided it into space. Without touching it, millions of light beings surrounded the energy thread and transferred it into the void. Their energies protected it as they struggled to understand what there was of a soul within it.
The Nuar-Fiuremm had projected the entire process they’d undertaken to be converted, but the light beings were not very good at visualising the reversal. Robert, with Arthur helping, reversed the process in his mind and then sent it as a memory for the light beings to share. Robert had barely ended sending when the thread shimmered and with a tortured shriek it re-formed into a soul.
The light beings had to rush to the defence of the system as the Nuar-Fiuremm went wild with joy, unable to control themselves for a time. Robert shocked Cherine by remaining unemotional and demanding Ntchizi pay attention to him. She forced herself to be calm.
*In our species our bodies are important to us, for they carry the genetic information we wish to pass on to our children. How important is that to your people? *
*The body you think of as being the material part of us is not as susceptible to mutations as yours are. Progeny are not created in the same manner. At times that it is judged more Nuar-Fiuremm to serve the Fiuremm will be needed, hundreds of us will gather in a dance of creation. It is a time of great beauty Robert, for we send our love for each other and our hosts to be merged. Out of that concentration are split the new Nuar-Fiuremm. None can say, this one is mine, my act of creation; we can only say, these are ours to be loved forever.*
*Does your healing power know how ours work? Could it take cells from another and create a body for this one so that it may return to its host? *
Arthur asked Cherine to join him in a dance of love. As she did so she found his heart was weeping out of pride and love. *Oh Cherine, my son has found himself, he is awakening to his potential. The two of you break my heart. * She ended up cradling him within herself, as if he were her son.
Their bodies needed two days to return to their usual strength so they stayed at home, like convalescents welcoming visitors while they lay on their beds and later, sitting in the lounge as their visitors prepared their meals and served them. Cherine asked Arthur to arrange for the council to give her permission to talk to the people.
She stood on the podium without speaking. Slowly, deliberately, her arms rose as her face became transformed, suffused by love. “One day we will have grown so that each of us is capable of loving every single other person in our world. I’m very close to feeling that way already - I love all of you.” She stared into the cameras for a long moment and then her head tilted so that her hair swept across her face like a dark silken curtain.
“We are children of the dust clouds that formed our sun and planets. We are children of all the ages that life struggled to become our forefathers. We are children of those generations we call the mad ones. We are children of those who fought to save the few who could change.” She stared with a stern seriousness to her. “How many times we are children of the past, how many times we are the parents of those who will follow us. What a tremendous weight of responsibility lies on the shoulders of each generation, for we bear both the responsibility of children that hold the dreams of those who gave them life while we also hold the responsibility of seeing that we leave this a world fit for our children to fulfil their and our dreams.
Can any of you imagine how stricken by spiritual poverty we would be if those responsibilities were not our glorious destiny? It does not matter if you do not have a child of your own, as long as you have loved, done one small thing to make this a better world, all the children of the future are yours also and you are part of that shiny destiny that fills our hearts with sunlit beams.
Thousands have responded, giving of their time and hearts to heal our world. They are paying their share of the price demanded - how will the rest of you pay your share? I have come to speak to you today because our world, our people and our dreams need your help.
Abnegate your role by withholding your participation or by living your life in such a way that you are an additional burden to others and you do not betray your people as much as you betray yourself. Withhold one portion of food that could fill the belly of a starving child on the other side of the world and the suffering of that child belongs to your soul - that you may never and can never abnegate.
For a child to be born, there must be pain. For a world that has been poisoned and nearly killed, rebirth will also be painful until a new balance is found. Over the past centuries our planet adjusted to the damage and weather patterns altered so that where rain fell, now sere dust blossomed and where an apocalyptic sun had sculpted the land to expose its arid bones, now floods washed the land clear of all fertile soil. Men died of flood, of drought, of hunger and pestilence and our civilisation fell about them in ruins. We must not allow the same to happen to us.” She paused on that dramatic declaration and plea, giving them a few seconds to respond emotionally.
“What awaits us? We’ll have floods because of the land returning to life. Weather and seasons will swing from one extreme to the other until they settle into new patterns and they will demand sacrifices of us. It makes sense, just stop to think about it. The land we used to call the barren lands now exult with life. Soon that life will change the atmosphere to the extent that the clouds gather to provide the rain they need. It means other lands that were blessed by those rains will now suffer droughts. It could be a calamity for us, even as the earth rejoices, if we do nothing.
We are not unthinking beasts, we can plan, we can see what the future will be and there are ways for us to palliate the results. If there is no rain for you to plant your crops on your farm, then use your new gifts and after consulting with POL, plant your crops in the assigned part of the new land that is eager for them. Are the forests suffering? Then use your gifts to bring them water. There is much we can do so that not one person suffers hunger, not one inch of reclaimed land is lost and our Council and other departments will advise you and see us through the difficult years so that we assist in the rebirth of our world without paying too burdensome a price. I have spoken of the obvious, however, I have not come to speak to you on behalf of our leaders, I have come to plead with you on behalf of all life.
We have the power to protect ourselves and thread our way through the complex changes that await us. Since the old ones died, many people, some with mutations that may make them seem alien to us, having carved for themselves a corner of our world, eking out an existence that borders on starvation. They too are human beings, they too have their fears and dreams, they too live for their children. Are we to close our hearts to them and allow them to suffer and die because of changes we have wrought? If so, I will name the gifts I shared a curse on my soul.
I’m still a young girl so I think I am entitled to make what many will call an emotional appeal that may sound naïve and childish. Will you help my dreams and gifts be the joy they have been for me or will you abandon me and allow them to become a curse? Will you rest in your beds at night, pleased that your honest sweat has seen to the safety of your family while children elsewhere weep with hunger pangs or will you expand your vision to include all children and all people of our world? I say we can do it and I’ll do everything within my power to make it happen, if only you’ll all choose to stand by my side.
Thank you for listening to me and goodbye.” She faced them with tears streaming down her cheeks and then teleported directly back to her home.
Dear visitor, if you only joined us now, at post 22, welcome.
I think you have missed some beautiful parts of the story of Cherine and Robert.
This is a reminder, you can go to the top of this page and use the link to return to Post 01.
Thereafter, each post has the next link at the end of the story. Or else, from post2 onwards, all you need to do is alter the url, increasing the post number by one.
If you do enjoy the story, I do not ask that you resteem or upvote; those to me are just bonuses, a sign you enjoyed reading Boxee. All I really want as encouragement is that you recommend the story to all your friends; those you think would enjoy such a fantasy story.
I would like to add a personal note, which is also a hope of mine. You may or may not enjoy my way of keeping my writing simple where I can; you may or may not enjoy the style of the adventures experienced; but, I am very confident you will each grow to love at least one character.
Is that character going to be Cherine, Robert, Arthur, Bobby, the Fire Woman or her daughter, or one of the others you will come to know? I will not even try to guess, but I know you will, for I have loved each of them and written of them with love :)
Thank you.
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