Authors: Bill Diffenderffer
Plato’s voice softened as he assumed his most benign manner. “Mr. President, what comes from other Earths can be far more helpful than harmful. But much of that depends on you. Your existential threats do not originate off of this planet. They will grow out of the seeds you have been sowing for centuries. But in our analysis, it is in your twentieth century that the beginnings of potential destruction are found. And this twenty-first century shows no course corrections but rather an exacerbation of dangerous trends.”
“Oh I believe I fully understand our history. I have always had good history books on my bedside table – I understand the trends that matter. My administration has the most brilliant minds of academia represented and I consult them. We engage in truly enlightened conversations. I would love to invite you to join in them….Would you join us?”
“I would welcome such conversations. I share your love for history – but given all that I have seen across many Earths, I have found history to be a much more complicated predictor of events than most people believe. But importantly, the collective histories do create a body of data from which precise calculations of probabilities can be made.”
The President smiled, “I look forward to our future conversations. There is much we can both learn, I’m sure. But please let me get to a matter of more concern to me. You have told General Greene that we should expect other visitors from other Earths – visitors that would be more dangerous to us than yourselves. You tell us that we have nothing to fear from you but we should be wary of them. Is that correct?”
Plato nodded, “Yes that is so.”
At this point, the Secretary of Defense interrupted. He was a large beefy man with short red hair and small, round eyes, “Well, Plato, if they were here in this room, would they be saying the same thing about you? Would they tell us that we should trust them and not trust you?”
Plato nodded again as he looked closely at the powerful head of the Defense Department. He saw the man shared little of the President’s charm. Instead he saw a man who gloried in the power he wielded and wanted to exert his authority. “I’m sure they would.”
“So there you have it!” said the Secretary of Defense.
“And what is it you think you have?” Plato responded.
The people in the room fell silent. That question hung in their minds. The President looked to Hank Scarpetti, who merely looked away.
General Greene spoke then; he had been silent until then knowing that he was there only because he alone had thus far met Plato. “Perhaps Plato if you could tell us of the nature of the threat we would be better able to assess friend from foes?”
Plato looked around the room before he spoke. Greene he knew as a serious thinker, combative but not quick to judgment. The Chief of Staff he knew only from what he had seen in his file: that he was a true strategist in thought and deed. The Secretary of Defense had been a US Senator for many years and would think in political terms – as he expected Scarpetti to do. President Morningstar was still a puzzle to him.
“Before I can describe the threats, I need to tell you what draws other Earths here. It is not your planet itself or its physical resources. There is no desire for any of the militaries of any Earth to come here to conquer or control territory as you think it. That is so not because they would not like to, but because physically they cannot. We know of no way to bring armies here. The universe that separates us by unimaginable light-years and across dimensions makes such invasions impossible. The physical interaction between Earths is only possible on a very limited basis.
“But not all interactions are physical. As you are discovering –as Benjamin Planck is proving – the universe –what we call The Existence – is mostly Dark Energy and Dark Matter, not the physical matter you think of as the stuff of reality. And Dark Matter and Dark Energy are the foundational forces of ‘Consciousness’. And Consciousness is what your Earth has that the rest of the Earths that have reached the necessary stage of development will want to come here to affect and to interact with. For the consciousness that is here has its emanations at all the other Earths --- just as theirs have emanations here – emanations that you do not yet appreciate or understand. For all Earths are entangled by it. And the ability to affect that consciousness is what every Earth comes to seek. They will want to meld your consciousness into theirs – which will make them stronger.”
President Morningstar nodded as if he understood. “What I am hearing is that the threat to us is not a military one. Rather you want to control our minds, is that it?”
“No sir, it is not possible to control minds – one can only influence them – or destroy them…as you just did in the Koreas. But the mental state of humanity in the aggregate matters a great deal – both in how mankind deals with the problems and opportunities of its own creation and how it interfaces to the consciousness of the aggregate of Earths.”
“So no invading armies or lasers shot from space?” the Secretary of Defense emphasized.
“No invading armies from space, Mr. Secretary. However, there are already plenty of armies here for them to use. The next wave of Earths coming here will bring new technologies and advanced knowledge to seduce less ambitious countries and extremist groups. You will find their gifts have many strings tied to them – strings that may bind the arms of some and strengthen the arms of other. The new technologies they bring will be both dangerous and destabilizing and the promises they make are yet more seductive and more dangerous.”
The Secretary of Defense continued, “So it will be another arms war. Well we know how to win that kind of war.”
The President shook him off, “No it’s not about that.” Then turning back to Plato he said, “I’m sure there’s a lot that I don’t understand yet, but my government will work with you on this. I’m sure we can do the right things here. But you need to work with us too. Do things our way. Let us manage what gets communicated to the people. They aren’t ready to hear all this. I’ll appoint a team to work with you and we both will work with each other through the team – that’s how I like to do things here. I have to control the message. I don’t want to scare our people with things they will never understand. Trust me to make this all work out.”
Plato listened and was not surprised by what he heard. He had come to expect it. “Unfortunately Mr. President, in my experience that approach does not work.”
“Well Plato, that might be your experience on other Earths with other leaders, but here I think I know best. You can trust me on this.”
Plato returned the President’s confident gaze. “Sir, all that I would point out is that I believe you will find that there will be no way to contain this story. Events will occur that make that impossible. Ultimately, what will matter will be the actions you take, not how well messages are communicated.”
The President held firmly to his view, “Don’t worry Plato, when action is required, we’ll take it. But for now, let us handle the communications.”
Chapter Eight
“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders”
Lao Tzu
General Greene escorted Plato out of The White House. He wanted to explain why the meeting with the President had gone as badly as it did, but he knew it wasn’t his place. The President perceived Plato as a threat and wanted to show strength in return. Greene would have recommended a less testosterone driven encounter. But instead he just said, “Where would you like me to take you?”
“General if you could help me get back to Planck’s island in The Bahamas that would be appreciated.”
“Of course, how about if I drive you to Andrews Air Force Base and set up transport from there?”
“Excellent.”
As they drove to Andrews in the general’s staff car, General Greene raised the issue that seemed to have been too casually dismissed during the meeting with the President. “Plato, I believe you are here to help us, but every time I hear you talk, you seem to mention more threats to us.”
“The threats are not of my making. To use one of your expressions – don’t shoot the messenger.”
“If I heard you correctly, others are going to come who will try to create disorder and chaos here on this planet for reasons of their own.”
“Yes.”
“Well our planet has enough chaos and disorder. Particularly as a result of the nuclear weapons destroying North and South Korea, our world is a box of explosives waiting to go off. Old hostilities between Pakistan and India, both of which have nuclear weapons, are surfacing again. Iran with its new nuclear weapons is threatening Israel. The whole Middle East is smoldering with daily suicide bombings occurring somewhere in the region and al Qaida growing more active. Africa is ubiquitous tribal warfare. While China is demanding more control and influence in Asia to the disquiet of its regional neighbors.”
Plato folded his arms across his chest, “Your President seemed to think he had all that under control.”
“We both know that none of that is under control….but you are saying that visitors coming from other Earths will go to those countries and religious fanatics and political extremists and offer them new dangerous technologies and make promises of support that will encourage all of them to more aggressive actions. That is what you are saying will happen, correct?”
“Unfortunately yes, they will go to them. And they will go to them speaking in their own language, in their own dialects, dressed like them and even looking like them. For each Earth has races and ethnicities just like this one. It makes them extremely persuasive.”
“And why would they do this to us?” the General asked.
Plato was sympathetic but had no comfort to offer yet. “Do not think of the other Earths as monolithic. Some that will come will be helpful and unthreatening. Their intentions will be good. Some are neither good nor bad, just curious. But others are rapacious. They are bottom feeders who have learned how to benefit from the chaos and destruction of others. Though the rewards have changed with the times, there will always be those who want more than they have. There are always those who have no empathy for those who are not like them. All Earths share the most horrible examples of people in the millions dying for the territorial ambitions of kings and emperors and modern political leaders like Hitler and Stalin and Mao.”
“It sounds like we don’t have a chance,” the General said.
“It is the same struggle every Earth must survive in order to reach the next stage of development. Some Earths have survived it. My Earth did. There is hope for yours.”
“So what do we have to do?”
Plato smiled, “I was hoping someone would ask me that. Before a problem can be solved, the problem must first be recognized to exist.”
“You don’t think we know there’s a problem?”
“I don’t think your government wants to admit to how great the problem is. I think your people take too much for granted and take too little responsibility. Your country has no view of long term consequences and chooses leaders with no experience, no wisdom and no true judgment. A 51% majority is treated as a political mandate to impose poorly developed programs on the other 49% and then all lament the partisanship and lack of support. In my world, the great sin in all things personal and political is to be out of balance. Balance based on mutual respect and an appreciation of all things shared in common is the basis for survival. Balance is no virtue here – it is all teetering from one extreme to the next. Leaders are applauded who can inflame the minds of twenty percent of the people. In my world such leaders are shunned as selfish and reckless. In an increasingly dangerous world, the loss of balance invites destruction.”
General Greene listened to Plato with mounting desolation. He did not respond. As the car neared Andrews, he then asked, “So what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to make sure that everyone sees the problem.”
As David opened the door to his New York City apartment, Gabriela bounded off the couch where she had been working on her laptop and jumped into his arms. Joyfully he held tight to this beautiful dark haired woman who miraculously loved him. And she too thought his love was a miracle. Though just a few days had passed since they were together on Pirate’s Cay, those days had been scary and eventful and their world had changed. Suddenly they were involved at the heart of revolutionary times, not political revolution so much as cultural and technological. And each had so much to tell the other.
Each of them had also dearly felt the absence of the other in the recent days. Locked away in the Pentagon, David had yearned for Gabriela. He had so much to share with her and then his bed seemed so empty. For Gabriela too his absence had been hard. But all of that was washed away in the flood of new experiences they saw in their future as soon as they stopped hugging each other. The new experiences had to wait a while as they laughed and hugged and talked over each other and then as they started kissing and tossing off clothes and then as they used the couch in ways it hadn’t been used for lately.
Afterward they threw on some clothes and tucked into the corners of their couch to talk, with so much to talk about. But David felt he needed to start with something else first. He went down on one knee in front of her and took Gabriela’s hand and said, “I don’t have a ring yet – but I’ll get one. I just don’t want to wait another moment. I want us to get married. Will you marry me?”
The breadth of Gabriela’s smile was answer enough but her “Yes yes yes” sounded wonderful to his ears. Then after a little more hugging and kissing, Gabriela’s usual manner resurfaced. “So what brought that on?”
“I knew I needed to do it when I was locked away at the Pentagon. I wasn’t scared as much as aware that the future was far more uncertain than I had truly appreciated. Before The Object arrived, it was so easy to just stick to my routines day after day. And you were part of those routines. Now I know that nothing is certain and lives can change, the whole world can change from one day to the next. If those kinds of changes are out there, I want to be sure you are with me.”
“I know what you mean. That’s what I’ve been feeling.” Gabriela leaned forward just to take David’s hand. They exchanged a long loving gaze. Then Gabriela said, “Ok. So what is happening? Tell me about Plato!”
Later after each had talked and talked and talked and both were all caught up with the goings on of the last few days, they returned to what would happen next.
“I think it depends,” David said. “Right before Plato left Pirate’s Cay to go to meet with the President, he told Dr. Wheeling, Planck and me that he wanted us to do some things – things that he thought were very important. It was like all of a sudden we were on the same team – his team. Planck, who had spent a couple of days on The Object, was clearly already on Plato’s team.”
“What does he want you to do?”
“Well first, he wants me and Dr. Wheeling to return as soon as possible to Planck’s island. Plato is planning on making that his base of operations. In fact, he is going to bring his crew members down to the island. He says they are all bored up on The Object and want a little R & R on the beach.”
Gabriela laughed, “I guess that means they really are just like us. We all love the beach!”
“He wants me to do a full interview with Planck and he wants me to learn all about The Object so that I can write about it. But the next thing he wants from me is the strange one. He wouldn’t tell me why, but he wants a list of the most influential people in the United States. He wants everybody from the CEO’s of the TV networks and Cable companies to the most popular actors and athletes to the bloggers who have a million followers.”
“Why do you think he wants that list?”
“I can only guess that he wants it because he wants to influence them…. Anyway, my point is that Plato wants me to do these things to serve some purpose of Plato’s and The Object’s. But what do they really want? Are they good guys or bad guys?”
“I think you should do what you do best. Write the story. Follow it step by step. That’s what you do.”
“That’s what I want to do. So I guess I’m going back to the island.”
“And you said he wants Dr. Wheeling to come to the island as well?”
“Yes – I think because he wants him to be a spokesperson – about what exactly I’m not sure.”
“Well that settles one thing,” Gabriela said adamantly. “If you’re going back and Dr. Wheeling is going, then I’m going too!”
After several days at home, Dr. Wheeling returned to Pirate’s Cay to find it more resort like and less like a monastic retreat. People he didn’t recognize were out by the pool and others were sunning themselves on the beach. Then he looked closer and saw that the appearance of some of the newcomers to the pool and beach area was markedly different than what he had thought previously was a human norm. Skin colors varied from the white to black he was familiar with but included yellows and greens and blues he had never seen before. Hair colors and styles varied with new creativity that would be the envy of avant garde hairstylists everywhere. Then he noticed ear shapes varied too. Almost all the crew, male and female, stood well over six feet tall and looked like they spent all day in the gym and had never tasted junk food.
As he approached the lobby he saw monks meditating there led by Master Ozawa and then he saw Planck rising from where he had been sitting to come over to him.
“Dr. Wheeling! I’m glad you returned.”
“Planck I’m glad to see you too. What is going on around here?”
Planck seemed like a little boy at his own birthday party, “My island seems to have become an interstellar rest spot. We’ve been joined by some of Plato’s cohorts off The Object. As you see, physical appearance seems to be more a matter of choice with them. By the way, we don’t call it The Object anymore. It actually has a name. It’s called The Bucephalus, after Alexander the Great’s horse.”
“I’m surprised you are not besieged by the media.”
“Yesterday was the first day, right after the Navy Seals left. We are keeping it secret. I think Plato wants to use this as some kind of base of operations – although to do what I’m not sure. I told him to make himself and his team at home. I did have to send a boat to Nassau to get more supplies. But I figure I owe him since he rescued me from the Russians. So what brings you here?”
“He said I should come back. He says he has a role for me but I am not sure exactly what it is he wants me to do.”
“You should go find David, he’s here too. Gabriela as well. He spent a lot of time with Plato this morning. I think he knows what’s up.”
Dr. Wheeling found David sitting by the pool writing on his laptop. He noticed Gabriela in a light blue bikini floating on an air mattress in the pool. She looked lovely. His eyes lingered on Gabriela; she saw him looking and waved at him and gave a smile. He waved back and then smiled to himself as he remembered his previous evening in the city with Dr. Mary Grasso, a lovely woman in her own right, he thought.
“Professor, good to see you here. I’m a little surprised but Plato told me he thought you would come back.”
“I surprise myself too. Planck tells me perhaps you know why I’m here.”
“I think I am beginning to know. Or at least I know what Plato wants me to know. What he tells me makes sense. Frankly it is stuff I never wanted to hear but can’t ignore once I did. And it is stuff you always sort of knew anyway, you just didn’t want to look at it straight on. Plato makes you take the rose colored glasses off.”
“So tell me.”
When David finished, Dr. Wheeling nodded several times. “Yes that is what I expected. What he told us when we first met him. He wants us to help lead the world away from insanity. And what exactly is it that Plato wants?”