Seven Point Eight (53 page)

Turning to Paul, I commented, “They haven’t noticed us at all, have they? Are we invisible to them?”

He studied them too, watching their fluid yet aloof movements.

“No, we weren’t invisible in the other dimensions. Maybe it’s not so much they don’t see us, perhaps they’re simply not interested, or don’t care.”

“If two strangers dropped into your world, wouldn’t you take notice?”

It was impossible to tell if they were good or evil, they seemed indifferent. This wouldn’t be much of an adventure if they didn’t want to communicate.

We pushed our consciousnesses through the buildings, observing people quietly working. At each desk, I observed something like a very flat television and next to it, a black box with blinking lights. On the far wall, I spotted a really large screen like you’d see at the cinema, with some kind of grid displayed on it. A vertical stack of lights flickered on and off in a wave like sequence.

Still, no one spoke.

“What kind of world is this?” I asked Paul.

Looking around, he answered, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

However, something quite disturbing happened, I heard a very loud voice in my head and Paul did too because we looked at each other at the same time.

“What are you doing here?” it said loudly.

It was impossible to tell where the sound came from because no one looked up. Should we try and answer? We didn’t get chance though.

“Get out!” it shouted, so loudly that we wanted to cover our ears. “Get out!!”

Realising the hostility of this entity, we withdrew our consciousnesses back to the walkway, but apparently that wasn’t enough and we heard more than one voice.

“Get out!!!” they cried in unison.

Where could we go? We pulled back to street level, hoping the machine would power down so we could make a fast exit, but that didn’t happen. More voices joined in, and the chorus became
 
deafening.

“Get out!!!!”

Panicking, I pulled my consciousness upwards and Paul followed, giving us a bird’s eye view, rising higher above the city. Looking down, I felt overcome with awe as I saw the panorama of this endless city for the first time. There were stacks and stacks of skyscrapers as far as the eye could see. This world comprised pure city, I saw no green land for miles. It made me wonder how they ate, did they not grow crops? Did they just make it in a factory?

“Get out!!!!!”

More voices had joined in, the chorus becoming almost painful to the ears and mind. Even though we pushed our consciousness upward, we just saw just city. Finally, this world began to fade, as did the noise and we opened our eyes to find ourselves back in the machine, hearing the field power down and the sound of the needle stuck at the end of the record.

Shaken, we made our way over to the camera, ready to record our experiences. Paul gave a description of the world we’d just visited and drew a conclusion.

“I think I can safely say we’ll blacklist that world,” Paul said, still a bit dazed.

“I second that,” I replied, “so ignorant!”

***

Paul scheduled their next trip for four days time and just as Tahra thought they’d have time to discuss his recent revelation, they had some surprise visitors. In fact, she almost got caught out that morning, as she was still wandering about the farmhouse in her dressing gown. She opened the door to find Max standing there, along with Oscar and George. Her jaw wanted to drop and he looked puzzled to find her answering the door as if it were her home. Tahra felt relieved she’d showered, as the smell of sex on her body wouldn’t please him.

“Is Paul there?” Max said, irritation clear in his voice.

Tahra felt desperate to hide how startled she felt, so scurried away to find Paul.

Quietly, under her breath she said, “Max’s here, at the door, did you know he was coming?”

Mirroring her tone of voice he murmured, “No, not at all. This is a bit…uncomfortable.”

He finished dressing, threw on a shirt and made his way to the front door. Tahra followed but hung around in the background.

“This is a surprise,” Paul said.

“Why is Tahra here and not in the designated guest rooms?” he asked, very directly.

 
The annoyance in Max’s voice put Paul on the spot, and he racked his brains for a suitable response.

“Well, I felt guilty about leaving her alone out there so I offered her one of the spare rooms here in the farmhouse. It’s easier to discuss the project.”

Hopefully Max bought it. Both Paul and Tahra prayed he wouldn’t ask to see the room in which she’d supposedly slept. Max grunted a begrudged acceptance.

“Are you going to leave me standing in the doorway?” he said, impatiently.

Paul apologised and Max, Oscar, and George entered the farmhouse. They all sat around the large pine table in the kitchen. Paul made tea and Tahra kept her distance, hearing them in conversation for a while. As no one welcomed her over, she relaxed in the sitting room, reading one of her heavy and somewhat dry text books from university. It became harder to stay focused on the studying but the end of the course drew nearer, and it would only infuriate Max if she didn’t graduate. It suddenly occurred to her that she hadn’t written to her family in months, in fact, she’d barely thought about them. What would her father think about her activities, sleeping with a white man outside of marriage? She dismissed these concerns, being an adult living a few thousand miles from her parents now.

Finally, Paul popped his head round the door and announced that Oscar and George had requested a journey in the machine, so they’d be staying for a while in the guest rooms. Then he added Max would oversee this test, making him a guest too. Worse still, he asked to sleep in the farmhouse, and Paul conceded they’d have to go along with it.

No sex for a little while, then,
she thought.

They all dined together at the table: Paul at the head of the table and Max opposite Tahra, which created an awkward situation for her. Sometimes, he gave her a disconcerting stare and it made the atmosphere at the table weird. Paul didn’t seem to notice though, and Tahra wondered if she was just being over-sensitive.

Afterwards, Paul showed Oscar and George the machine: how it operated, giving an explanation of how it worked in layman’s terms, and he showed them the inside of the machine. They all sat inside it, Max included, to get a feel for it before the trip the next day.

Later, they took a ride out to a restaurant in the nearest town, which provided a relaxed evening’s entertainment. Tahra had to refuse alcohol as it affected her remote viewing capabilities, and she advised Oscar and George to abstain too. Paul and Max laughed together like old friends and fortunately for Tahra, this distracted him so he she didn’t have to suffer his intimidating stare.

It felt strange to Tahra sleeping in one of the spare rooms, which they hurriedly made up as if she’d been staying there on a regular basis. Max opted for the room next door to Tahra, and it took her a while to fall sleep as she half expected him to come knocking on the door, although that didn’t happen. She encountered him in the morning coming out of the bathroom, hair wet, and semi naked and Tahra lowered her eyes, embarrassed by the feelings of arousal that tingled through her body. He brushed past her, watching her with a wily smile then he disappeared into his room. In her room, she paced the floor with irritation.

Why wouldn’t he just go away?

Why couldn’t her emotions behave themselves?

Didn’t her body know she’d put her relationship with Max to bed?

He persisted on soiling her innermost thoughts, creeping into that secret place in her heart and between her legs.

His presence in the house made her want to repeatedly bathe herself.

Tahra made sure she didn’t encounter him emerging from the bathroom again. However, the social atmosphere compensated for Max’s visit and before she knew it, the day of the next trip in the machine arrived. This time she had to tow Oscar and George, which offered a challenge to her psychic abilities. Could she achieve this, and where would they travel to in the machine?

***

Oscar and George looked at me with apprehension as all three of us walked into the barn that housed the machine, ready for a mutual adventure. I had my own doubts too, concerning my ability to tow two consciousnesses, but I’d soon find out how difficult that would be.

We climbed into the machine, the hatch closed and we all held hands, as it had become custom to do so. Max watched from the outside. The sound of ‘
New World
Symphony’ by Dvorak’ came over the speakers and we heard the field power up. At this point, I gave their hands a squeeze. The buzzing and tingling overtook my body and after my consciousness had moved from my body, I waited inside the machine for the two orbs of light belonging to Oscar and George. It wasn’t too long before I saw them, now came the hard part.

 
I visualised a net that extended from my consciousness, scooping them up like little silvery fish, then I allowed the frequencies to take over me and draw us to the intended destination.

A world came into focus, again very different to the ignorant city realm and identifiable as contrary to our own world. It had a similar appearance to the serpent realm, in that the colours were so luminous. I noted the deep indigo, violet, and blue hues in the environment and the substance, or fabric of this world seemed very fluid. It reminded me of liquid mercury with rainbow ripples, like when you drop motor oil into water. The sky of deepest indigo had the texture of suede and there appeared to be no light source, in fact, everything in this world seemed to be self illuminated.

The foliage looked like that of the serpent world. I saw huge ferns that appeared to have some kind of inner light and, like the ignorant city world, seemed to be outlined in ink. However, there were no humans here, only some strange entities that looked like the Indian Gods and Goddesses of the Mahabharata. Female beings with multiple arms danced, and people with elephant heads watched. Maybe they’d had contact with humanity at some point in history.

“It’s so beautiful,” Oscar commented, in his light orb form.

“Concentrate on forming an image of yourself,” I directed them. “You can appear however you wish in the other realities.”

Oscar materialised beside me as his usual self, but for a blue face and George chose to remain as an orb.

Looking up, we watched a train of what appeared to be bubbles in the sky and inside them sat entities, drifting silently through the deep indigo sky. As the bubbles moved, we saw they created ripples in the fluid medium in which they propelled themselves. The bubbles converged on a point in the sky and disappeared into it, although it was impossible to tell where they were going.

“I don’t know what to say, it’s… realer than real, so vivid,” Oscar said.

“Are all the worlds so beautiful?” George asked.

“Most of them, but this one is especially striking,” I replied.

We began to explore a little more and move through the foliage. I noticed blue, purple, and pink reptilian creatures moving through the undergrowth. They had fluidity to them, as if liquid mercury ran through their veins and an iridescent outline traced around them. I spotted some quite large reptiles with pink pustules on them, and when I extended a warm greeting towards them, they pulsed, or cycled, through a range of colours from pale pink to darkest blue.