Seven Point Eight (63 page)

After the familiar feeling of being hurled from my body, I sought their consciousnesses and scooped them up in my protective net. We emerged in yet another new world, and I began to wonder how many different realms were out there. How many alternate dimensions of reality existed, a finite or infinite number?

The mind boggles, I thought. It boggles to the point of insanity.

 
Looking around, I saw a luminescent canvas of blue and red. The red glowed with a blood-like passion that seared with energy and conviction, whereas the blue dazzled the senses with its electric coolness. Red and blue corpuscles floated by, pulsing and rippling like liquid electricity, while a vast network of what appeared to be electrical cables glowed and pulsed, as if high voltage power ran through them.

Everyone began to materialise around me, the familiarity of their faces contrasting with the vibrant backdrop. They floated in this liquid medium of space, dazzled by the stunning environment.

“What is this place?” Sonya enquired, transfixed.

We appeared to be in some kind of tunnel, with a surface composed of tessellated hexagons, like the grid I’d seen before. In the centre of each hexagon I observed a small jewel, which glowed red or blue.

In the background, I heard a reassuring noise, like a whooshing sound with a steady rhythm, and both the cables and corpuscles danced to the beat of this tune. I noticed the fabric of space had a flow, and we allowed ourselves to drift on this current, it felt safe and warm.

“It’s so very beautiful,” Dominique said softly.

“It’s like music,” Sonya added. “It has a beat and tone.”

“You know what?” Nicholas realised. “This isn’t a world, it’s a body. We’re inside some kind of entity.”

Looking around, Curtis laughed and answered, “I think you’re correct. It’s a vast body. The tunnel is an artery or vein, and the corpuscles are blood cells.”

“Let’s locate the rest of the organs then, or whatever body parts it has,” I suggested.

We all agreed and I focused my consciousness on a point further ahead, where the arterial vessels seemed to converge. Where they converged, they formed a larger vessel, which joined up with another set of vessels, creating a more complex network of arteries. I guided my six travellers towards this final point of convergence in the arterial network.

Once we reached it, a heavenly sight greeted our eyes: the heart of this entity. I saw a glowing red hothouse of energy, which filled my vision and my soul with its divine current. It had the texture of silken meat, muscle tissue draped with elegance like theatrical curtains and in places, I observed how it stretched taut, displaying a radiant sheen.

Intermeshed with the silken meat I noticed what appeared to be gargoyle-like creatures, their human-like bodies immersed within the tautness of the silken meat. They moved sinuously, engaged in some kind of euphoric rapture, making love at the heart of this being.

On closer inspection, I saw vessels wrapped around the outside of this vast heart, entangled within the outermost parts of the silken meat and these vessels carried flashes of light. Within and behind the silken meat folds, I also observed a tougher substance like the walls of the tunnel, composed of tessellated hexagons glowing red and, in between them, little jewels glistened.

“This would make a fantastic blueprint for a robot,” Curtis commented, gazing on the heart with wonder. “A being made of electricity, circuits, and a physical body, maybe that’s what this is.”

“Whatever it is,” Angelina added, “it sure is dynamite.”

“Can we find the brain?” Curtis asked.

“All living things have some kind of brain,” I pointed out.

I tried to picture a central thinking point in my mind, where the nervous system would terminate. Imagining a network of strings, I drifted towards another destination, not forgetting to scoop up my friends in my protective net.

We discovered a network of superfine threads, like angel hair, but pulsing with flashes of light. I noticed how the individual fibres were entwined, although some loose ends trailed like a wispy fray. Again, I sensed a rhythm or beat that the threads or nerves swayed to.

Following the threads, we discovered they converged in an immense cavern, like the inside of a great sphere. In here, we felt like insignificant specks. Great spinning discs flashed with white light and from each of these discs, tendrils stretched out like the branches of a tree, connecting each of these discs together into some kind of network. Further tendrils extended from the peripheral discs to the inner surface of the great cavern, the tips of which embedded themselves into the walls.

“This is amazing,” Curtis commented. “I don’t think humans could ever build something so vast and beautiful.”

“Did anyone build this, though?” Nicholas questioned. “Or did it create itself?”

“I think we need to take a look at this entity from the outside,” I decided.

I guided our consciousnesses out as far as possible, taking us through its vascular system and through subtle layers of energy like electrical skin. The entity came into view, and she was truly divine.

Her lilac, iridescent skin sparkled with tiny flashes of electricity. Gazing at her divine face, I admired her beauty, her lips of deepest blue and the merest hint of a nose. She looked humanoid in many ways, particularly in the overall shape of her body and she stretched out naked in this medium of space. She possessed breasts and something like sexual organs between her legs. Her dazzling white hair fanned out around her head, as if she were underwater but the individual fibres reached out to the fabric of space around her, which featured a vast array of hexagons. The ends of her hair embedded themselves into the hexagonal tiled grid, like roots. At the moment her eyes were closed, as if she slept.

She was the only entity here in this dimension and, perhaps, she was the entire dimension.

“That’s one hot electric chick,” Tyrone commented, in his inimitable style.

“Do you think she’s dreaming?” Angelina wondered aloud.

At this point, she opened her eyes. I don’t know if she saw us, but she stared straight ahead and looking into her eyes, I saw something even more beautiful. Galaxies rotated and stars twinkled, she had the whole cosmos in her eyes.

“What the…” I heard a few of us say.

Vast space within a vast entity.

An immense goddess.

You have such magnetic allure.

I want to enter your eyes, embrace the cosmos within you.

Where will you take me?

Is this heaven?

However, the goddess, her cosmos, and the fabric of space around us began to dissolve. My heart sank as the interior of the machine came into view again.

I didn’t want to leave.

We needed to return.

Her eyes…the cosmos…

This would be the destination for the OOBE project’s maiden voyage.

We’d discover what lay within her eyes.

***

Paul listened to Tahra’s suggestion regarding the Goddess Realm as the destination for the maiden voyage. He’d already highlighted a world for everyone to visit, although out of fairness, he considered her input.

“I’m going to put it to a vote,” he said, “between the Goddess Realm and the Therianthrope Realm.”

Tahra nodded, but she’d still fight to persuade the others on the merits of the Goddess Realm.

Paul assembled all the recruits together in the kitchen, and they squeezed around the table like sardines in a can. He stood at the foot of the table and introduced the proceedings.

“As you’re well aware, we stand on the threshold of a series of major expeditions involving all twelve of you as a team.”

A few murmurs of excitement issued from the team, and Paul waited for them to subside before continuing.

“There are two possible destinations for the first of these expeditions,” he continued. “The Therianthrope Realm and the Goddess Realm.”

Tahra picked up the thread.

“You’re all familiar with the therianthrope world. With its expansive scenery and friendly inhabitants, it’s got great potential for long term exploration. However, our last trip revealed a truly divine world populated by one single entity…a vast goddess. She’s so beautiful and awe inspiring, and she touches my soul. When you look into her eyes, you see the cosmos, a potential doorway to a heavenly realm, or even another universe. I believe we should visit this world first and foremost.”

Paul interjected.

“Bear in mind that the therianthrope world has proven itself to be a vast storehouse of knowledge, which allows our findings to be put to some practical use. So, those of you who want to explore the Therianthrope Realm raise your hand.”

Oscar and George raised their hands, but no one else did. It appeared to be a foregone conclusion.

“I assume the rest of you would like to visit the goddess, then,” Paul said.

Ten heads nodded in unison. The Goddess Realm became the destination of the maiden voyage, and Tahra suppressed a little squeal of excitement, respectful of Paul’s defeat.

***

The next day, Paul received a telephone call from Max, no surprise as the climax of his project approached. After the initial pleasantries and enquiries, they got down to business.

“If the upcoming voyage is successful,” Max began, “there are a number of funding bodies
very
interested in taking this forward.”

Paul sat up straight in his chair.

“What funding bodies?”

“You don’t need to know who these funding bodies are, just that they’ll ensure your project runs for another three years,” Max pointed out.

Paul was torn. His project could be hijacked by a major corporation, but would that be worth it to continue OOBE for another three years? He felt the pressure and a myriad of thoughts ran through his mind. Maybe the investors would be philanthropic, people with a vision that equalled his own.

“That would be excellent,” Paul responded, wishing to appear interested. “My deepest desire is to revive the knowledge and understanding of these other realities, bring them to the awareness of humanity again.”

A pregnant pause followed, before Max responded.

“I strongly advise against progressing down that route.”

“What?”

“The funding bodies in question don’t wish to share this knowledge and understanding. Their money buys exclusivity.”

Paul felt crestfallen, he sought to reveal the deeper truths of the cosmos, not line the pockets of the elite few.
 
However, maybe he could enter negotiations as to attain his profound objectives, he required funding.

“You need to give this some serious thought,” Max continued. “These are the people I answer to, even if I don’t deal with every one of them personally. They’ve followed this project every step of the way and will be looking at the results with anticipation.”