Children of the Source (17 page)

    Judith looked at me.
  “Ahh.”  She placed a hand on his shoulder and he flinched.  She nodded and backed away.

    Burt scowled.
  “I feel like I should be on my knees in front of you.  You were the repository of all wisdom, knowledge, and the law for them.   The female version of the Creator.  It was a vast thing.  These women were bred and raised for this.  It was rather like the Dalai Lama in that the same personality kept coming back.  You were the last.  After you died, the post was never filled again.”

    Judith said, “I hope I wasn’t that bad.”

    “No.  In the dream, you died during an accident while your spacecraft was entering the atmosphere of a planet.”

    I looked down remembering, and looking up,
tried to smile.  “Now this is a new time.  Hopefully, some of the past will remain in the past.”

    Burt stood
,  scowling.  “Best be getting back with our guests.” 

    The soldiers formed a box around the four jay hawkers.
  They were young.  The oldest barely thirty.  Three were young men in their late teens, eyes challenging and lips curled, they walked heads held high.    The injured jay hawker, a youth with the wisp of a mustache, arm in a sling, caught Abe’s eyes, smiled slightly and nodded.  They passed the Main Gate, and in minutes disappeared into the pines flanking Highway 180 going into Flagstaff.

    “They’re going to hang, aren’t they, Dad?”
  Abe, voice low and depressed held anguish.

    “Possibly.
  I don’t know.  That’s up to Carson.  He could send them back on a train if he  thinks they aren’t a danger to society.”

    “Or deserve a second chance.”

    “Indeed, a second chance.  We can pray to the Powers-That-Be for a second chance.  Prayer can be a powerful tool.  We’ll see.”

10

    The rest of the day was a celebration for the safe return of our hunters.
   We kept them close, and rejoiced.  That evening we staged a music fest with comedy and foolishness.  A grand time until late into the night.  Outside we looked up at the alien spacecraft, lights in their windows, and wondered when we’d meet.  We’d built a wonderful life in Cheshire using talents and abilities from many sources - physical and nonphysical, ourselves and others from other realities.  Now I had to go to a place I dreaded and had avoided with every excuse I could think of.  But no more.  I had to search out a reincarnational self of long ago - Kodus.  I had no idea where he was, and what he’d been doing.  So I prayed to the Powers-That-Be and to my Entity (about whom I had grave questions).  I asked to find this self so I could understand my role in all of this.  It was one of the last places I wanted to go. 

    I realized this reincarnational self and I were created from the same energies.
  Judith said it was like muffins from the same lump of dough, where we were each separate and distinct from each other.  There can be bleed throughs from one personality to another as they are from the same energy.  Memories, injuries, inclinations, likes and dislikes.  Essence memories, I call them.  But the creating Entity makes and programs each personality to do certain things, to be in a particular place and time for reasons that are often hidden from that personality.  Entities come together to create cooperative ventures with their personalities.  The personalities always have the irrevocable freedom to do as they wish in their waking lives.  But Entities often meddle with their personalities - charting events and experiences that keep them on course.  Not always a happy thing for the personality.

    After a late night cup of tea around a small fire in the wood stove, we went to bed.  And to sleep.
  In short order I found myself in that strange corridor of doors.  Some doors radiated fear, anguish, and pain.  Others  caring, love, balance.  Then I felt drawn, like a magnet, to one door.  It opened by itself on an older man with grey interested eyes that twinkled with curiosity and humor.  “Jamie, welcome.  I understand your reluctance in coming.  I’m Kodus.”

    I stepped into a Spring garden with sunshine and a warming light breeze.
  “You decided to reunite with our Entity, Kodus,” I said.

    “For me it took a long time.
  Others may never.  I understand why, and your distrust for our Over soul.”

    I felt this familiarity and odd camaraderie.
  “I feel I know you,” I said.

    He nodded.
  “You should.  Some lives are coded closely on other lives, depending on the Entity’s intent.  We are about as close as two lives can get, and so there will be much shared in knowledge, memories, and abilities.  Our Entity has made you almost an extension of myself with important differences, but of course, we are different people.  The story must go on, and you are the teller now.  But first I want you to meet someone.”  We went deeper into the garden, past waterfalls and pools.  Then turning a corner we found a grotto and a lady sitting on a bench.  Regal, elegant, self-assured, she smiled and rose extending her hand.  I went down on one knee and placed her hand on my forehead.  Why I didn’t know.   Graciously she raised me up.  “Those times are past.”  Judith in almost every way imaginable but with a subtle difference.

    “What can you tell me that will help us understand what is going on?”

    Kodus looked to Marta, his mate.  “This is the completion of a larger experiment.  Our Entity, through me and now you, led the way for this event to reach a successful completion.  How successful depends on you and others of your time and place.  There are choices to be made that can lead to positive options undreamed of in your reality.  Laith, your son, is a part of this, as he is closely allied with your planet.”

    “Why Ren/Locus?”

    “Part of the landscape.  There are no positives without negatives.  The polarity of balance.  Part of the self-correcting nature of the Creative Force.  Ren/Locus is part of a negative that can turn positive or at least neutral.   The Entity is self absorbed, and part of a more mature Entity whose experiences are available to all parts of the whole, including Ren.  You’ve seen Locus come back to balance.  The opportunity is there.  There are other miscreants who will try everything to ruin this endeavor.  Keep  your wits about you.”  Kodus smiled.  “You have one advantage I didn’t have, being able to be in several places at once.  A profound ability you will need, I suspect.  Marta and I will be there to encourage you and Judith.  That is one thing personalities can do who rejoin their Entities - lend their experience, knowledge, and encouragement to those still out there.  What you call essence memories.”

    One question worked in my mind.
  “How will those returning treat Judith?”

    Marta said, “She, as I was, will be revered.
  There will be a recognition of who she is.  Some will want to create the old monarchy.  That will be a challenge, for she will have all the knowledge of our former civilization.”

    “One of our positives is the yearning to correct our mistakes.  To make our civilization the success it might have been,” Kodus said.

    “If I am right,” I said, “the group you led made a success of it after leaving eugenics behind.”

    “True,” Kodus said. “But there are those who were involved in eugenics who are still convinced it was the right way to go.”

    “Even after the horrors of what happened on Adora?”

    “There were those,” Marta said, “who refused to leave, believing they were right.
  Eventually that World chose to expel them, and start over.  They still search for a place to go to prove they were right.”

    “And Akenton?”
  I asked.

    Marta laughed.
  “After killing Mator’s body, he finally understood the futility of what he was doing.  He spent a long time dedicated to helping other life forms, and finally rejoined his Entity.  Your Charles carries all the lessons of his Entity.”

    “And the baggage from Akenton’s life, so he intends to stay in the background,”
  I said.

    Kodus nodded. “But it may not be possible.”

    I woke with more questions.  Issues I’d never considered.  Were there those among the aliens who still had secret designs with eugenics?  How would Carson react if the aliens revered Judith, treating her with exalted status?  But one factor that intrigued me was the idea of Entities with personalities being created by older more powerful and developed Entities.  And their experiences being available to the personalities, like grandchildren having the knowledge and experience available from their grandparents.  How far up the line could that go?

     One morning three days later we heard the train whistle blow, and breathed a giant sigh of relief.
  Ren was finally gone.  We were home free, and congratulated ourselves on our good luck.  “The gods are with us, you’d say, eh, Dad?” Abe said, plainly relieved.

    “Yea verily as your grandfather would say,”
  I agreed.  I never made fun of any religion or their god or gods, saints, and prophets.  I never knew for sure their reality or lack of it.  Kept my options open.

    The day went well, and after lunch I joined Victoria at a woodcarving class lead by the Big Bear, Fred Lopez.
  A gentle giant who spoke his mind.  Straightened me out a time or two.  Man had a ethical compass always pointing true North.  Greg Lopez’s older brother.

    Coming out of class we were surprised to hear the beating of helicopter blades headed our way.
  Carson’s command chopper put down on the road next to the airplane barn.  Hensley, General Carson, Colonel Randolph, four guards and, last of all, Ren climbed out of the chopper.   I said something in Irish I didn’t know I knew.  Victoria looked at me sidewise, and at my request ran to get the council and her mother.  I headed to the soldiers, my heart beating in my throat.  This couldn’t be good.  All I could see in my mind was a black parachute settling in the twilight on the ground.  Didn’t make any sense.

    General Carson, face, an irritated mask, glared at
Hensley and Ren.  Derek, face impassive, stood to one side with the four guards.  Three of them I knew personally.  The pilot nodded to me, and I nodded back.  Captain Jack Howard didn’t get to fly much. 

    “Will?” I said.

    “Jamie.  Ren, here, has a fantastic story that Mr. Hensley has bought into about you being able to melt a rifle into a puddle with your mind.”

  
 I laughed.  “Sure.  I do this regularly as you know, General.”  I looked at Ren.  “Melting things with my mind.  Yep, sure do.”

    “Don’t be a smart ass, Jamie,”
Hensley said, “We have proof.”   Lips thinned, nostrils dilated, his eyes turned triumphant. 

    “From Ren, a murderer and horse thief.
  I am impressed.  Where’s your proof?”  By now our council and Judith had arrived.  There was something wrong here.  Something terribly wrong.  My mind searched.

    Ren stepped forward and grabbed my left forearm.
  “This is from the aliens.”  He held up my arm with the cuff.  Carson’s eyes locked with mine.          

    “So where is this melted rifle?”
  I challenged.

    Ren grabbed a shovel from inside the chopper  walking unerroringly to where we’d buried the mess.
  He cleared away the dry weeds and began to dig. “See, we have a dangerous liar here, Mr. Hensley.  General Carson.  The man is a secret alien planted here to welcome them.”  He dug down a foot and grabbed the melted rifle, pulling it out and shaking the dirt away.  He threw it on the ground at my feet.  “Who’s the liar here, Jamie?”

    “Are you able to
do this, Jamie?”  Carson asked, astonishment at what he was seeing.

    “Yes, I am.”
  I said quietly.  “Ren deliberately shot my daughter.  Fortunately I was able to destroy the rifle and repair the damage to Victoria.”

    “You will arrest this man, General,”
  Hensley ordered, voice hoarse.

    I reached out, touching
Hensley’s arm, and knew.  I put up a protective shield around Carson just as the first shot rang out.  I pointed in the direction of the rifle shot.  The second shot was followed by a distant shriek.  The first bullet fell harmlessly at Carson’s feet.  The second bullet entered my body.  I doubled over, working my sound shield in my body.  Blood spurted on my shirt below my heart as I worked a reversal in time.  I opened my bloody hand with the fifty caliber bullet in my fingers, and threw it at Hensley, hitting him on the side of his forehead.  He sat down hard, my blood smeared on the side of his face. 

    I turned to Derek.
  “The sniper is a Marine Gunnery Sergeant.  His spotter was killed in the parachute drop.  The sniper is stunned.  He will remain that way until you find him.”  Derek left with two soldiers.

    I turned to Hensley, terror stark in his eyes.
  “Arranging the assassination of a General Officer of the United States Army.  And lowly me.  Why?”  My body returned to normal.  I took a deep breath.

    Carson hefted the bullet and then retrieved the bloody one meant for me.
  “Why?”  His lips tight, eyes dangerous.

    “You can’t touch me,”
Hensley said, voice rising. “I’m the Chief Deputy ... ”  No empathy for anything but his own self-importance.

    Carson hauled him to his feet.
  “You think you can arrange murder and get away with it?  You’re not back in Washington D.C.  You are out in the wild west and I’m your Judge Roy Bean.  Talk.”

    “God came to me in dreams and visions and told me ... ”
  Hensley saw the incredulous expression on Carson’s face.  “No, it’s true.  He said in several dreams that Jamie was evil and a powerful agent of the Devil, and you are his ... ”

    “How did you convince your boss to allow this to happen?”

    “I didn’t need to.  I have the power.”

    “All by your lonesome.
  You and God.”  Carson let the bunched shirt go, and Hensley sat on the ground.  Ren started to run.  The third guard collared the large man, but was struck away.  I pointed at Ren, interrupting his balance.  He fell, struggling to get up.

    “Don’t,” I said.
  “Your body won’t work.”

    “You are of the Devil, and if not that, a powerful alien in disguise,” Ren shouted.
  He stopped trying to get up and turned to the General, voice hard, words fast,  “You’d better seriously consider what you have here in Jamie.   A dangerous superman or a precursor of an alien race that could take control of the Earth and reduce us to slaves.”

    “No.
  The aliens mean us no harm,”  I said.  “They are witnessing what is happening, and may decide to leave, considering.  You’re a real pair.  God and the Devil.  What next?”  I could see Ren/Locus’s Entity laughing at the massive joke played on Hensley.  Appearing to Hensley the way he saw God in his mind.  Knowing his primitive beliefs about good and evil.   Impressing and reinforcing his message about how he wanted Hensley to see and react to me.  Making sure in vivid dreams and visions that Hensley got the message.  Ren was already programmed to do what he did.  They played the rest of it out.  A man in the seat of power and willing to use it.  Religions and cults can get started that way.  Scary.