Bill and Martin disembarked from the RUT, and set out on the half-mile walk to the house. The afternoon sun slid behind the clouds. The two men walked, deep in thought. They men shared a common goal; to recover a destiny stolen by the spirit of deception.
Fearing another bout with self pity, Bill chose to recommence the reality gymnastics that he had initiated. “Have you ever encountered someone else who had experienced translation?”
“Oh yeah.”
“You’re not the only one?”
“No. There are others. It’s not like an association. They are spread out over the globe and from everywhere in the universe.”
“Do you mean that they are aliens?”
“I guess you’d call some of them that. It’s all a matter of what you call alien. The human race is mainly alien. But I think you are asking if they were born here. The answer is, probably not; they aren’t from around here. Very few come from a common place of origin; they are from civilizations scattered across the sky.”
“Where are you from?”
Martin laughed, “I actually am from here, as far as I know. And yes, I think there are a few others from here but it isn’t advertised and I haven’t crossed paths with any that I know of. I think some of the Tibetan Monks are moonlighting as time travelers. I’m guessing about that, of course.”
“Really; are any of the outsiders trying to take over the world?”
“I certainly hope not. I’ve only met a handful. But they all agree on what I’m telling you. I’m the freak among them. And no, for the most part they are here for more benign reasons; exploring, doing research, having fun, or what ever. The ones that are here with intentions to dominate’ or federate, are usually in such trouble that they perish before they can carry out their nefarious plans.
“How are they different from the ones on vacation?”
“The ones on ‘vacation’, usually get here via the more advanced teleportation technique; ‘remote reading thing’, remember? They are from cultures that have successfully transitioned from our level of barbarism.”
“Really; distance isn’t a problem?”
“Distance is an illusion; it is a perception that we’re bound by. It works pretty well for us but it can be sidestepped.”
“Boy, you’ve lost me. Do you have an example, please?” Bill whined.
“Well yes; sort of. Imagine taking a film recording of a scene that you’re in, a movie, and laminating all the frames together, one on top of another, into a block. On the surface you see a record of a moment in time. It can include any number of individuals or things that existed in that moment. Various points on that surface of the frame represent distance but not time.
Now imagine cutting through the block, from front to back. Slice right through your own image. Look at the cut surface of the block. You would see the passage to time rather than distance. Starting from your image at the beginning of the cut and moving back in time you would be visible in that cut up plane until the point where you entered that location in the scene. You might look like a smear. You would require some examination to fully understand.
Realize that any given moment is represented by single frame in this example. There are frames before and after; the past and the future. The realm that we live in restricts our sense of now to the single frame that we call the present. That is the nature of the realm we live in. Other realms are limited in other ways. Some realms could be likened to living in that slice where moving in one direction is a change in time rather than distance.
Imagine the same block after you put it in a blender. I think there is a realm that has a definition similar to that. Don’t ask me what that looks like. I don’t have a clue. There are many ways to slice it.
Even as a visualization tool, this is an example that falls quit short of the actual reality of things. Some of the individuals I’ve encountered can’t even point to the sky to locate where they’ve come from. It’s just as well; they were pretty weird.”
“You know, for someone who looked innocent yesterday, you sure know a lot about realms.”
“I didn’t know yesterday whether or not I could trust you.”
“You got any more surprises?”
“Not that I know of; do you want me to continue?”
“Sure. What did you mean about these guys looking weird?”
“Usually they look different, but maybe weird is not the word; how about extreme; no that doesn’t work either. In any case, that generally isn’t what distinguishes them. I usually felt funny around them. It seemed to be a spiritual disturbance. Sometimes it is pleasant and sometimes not.”
“When was the last time you noticed one of them?”
“I’m not a 100% certainty, but I think there may have been as many as three of them at the forum yesterday. I don’t think they were associated with one another or with anyone else in the group for that matter.”
“Three of them? This is just crazy. Who were they?”
“The guy who died might possibly have been one of them. The first man to try and help him may have been one. And there was a woman in a long sleeve blouse, I am fairly sure she was one. She had a pleasant feeling emanating from her, and yet I don’t remember even seeing her face.”
“What do these people say about this place?”
“Well I didn’t talk to any of them but others generally agree that this planet is a great example of pre-enlightenment history. They describe our science and technological endeavors as an ‘investigative schism’; a myopic effort to punch our way out of a paper bag. We are however only several centuries away from cosmic enlightenment; as one of them put it.”
“Isn’t that special? Should we be worried about these folks? Is there something we could be doing?”
“Yes, pray. But aside from that, I don’t think there is a lot to be concerned about. Many are just angels doing their job. Usually they’re the ones with the halos.”
Bill shook his head “Come on. Now you’re playing with me.”
“Actually they do have halos. I haven’t seen any, but Teal told me that she occasionally saw them. The rest are pretty transparent, in character that is. Move away from the people who give you the “willies” and toward the ones that give you the warm fuzzies.”
“Where have I heard that before?”
“Probably your daughter; kids are often sensitive in that way. She may not understand the mechanism but she can probably tell the baddies from the goodies without too much trouble. As parents, we often talk them out of believing that there are monsters.”
“Hum; she is like that. She couldn’t get far enough away from some people. And she was afraid of monsters at night.”
“You didn’t try and make her believe that they didn’t exist, did you?”
“Well . . . No, my wife usually handled it. I never asked her what she told my daughter. What ever it was it worked.”
“I hope she just told her the truth. If she’s still sensitive, it will go well with her.”
Bill was glad to get Martin to his house. There they could both unwind; quietly
Bill put Martin up in his guest room. He felt quite sure that he would be safe for the night. The lack of news may have had to do with the embarrassing position into which it could put the UNIS. The organization could, however, suppress news, even rewrite it, if necessary.
If the translation didn’t happen tomorrow, it could be as much as another week before the UNIS picked up Martin’s scent. His time was running short.
* * * * *
Chapter 24 – Alpha Translation
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
Albert Einstein