Unison (The Spheral) (65 page)

Sephroy angrily tapped his cane on the floor. “Your level of understanding hasn’t advanced enough for you to demand answers from me!”

“I’ll go find Jall.” I headed towards the door. “I’m sure he’ll be willing to tell me about Sutara, and why she’s contacting me.”

“Sutara is contacting you?”

I smiled victoriously and turned to face Sephroy. “From the future.”

“Jall gave those to you shortly after you first arrived here. I managed to get all of them except for the one you had.”

“Where did we arrive from?”

“That I can’t tell you because no one knows. Spherals are born into the Outersphere, the realm of which I’m originally from. I was fortunate to witness the birth of this spheral.” Sephroy smiled reflectively. “Its spore materialized in front of me, sang its song of creation and expanded into a spheral.”

“Time…is relevant to sound,” I said. “I spoke those words to myself as I lay dying after being attacked by bandits. I didn’t understand what it meant…until now. Without sound, there would be no vibration, no movement…no expansion. Everything would be at a standstill. Time wouldn’t exist.”

Sephroy smiled and peered at me like Master Franklin when he heard me play the violin for the first time.

“Is Earth within a spheral?”

Sephroy pointed to the echoer. “Give it to me, and I’ll show you.”

I reluctantly handed the echoer to Sephroy. He pressed it against his chest and closed his eyes. Moments later, a beam of light shot out of the echoer and projected a hologram that looked exactly like the spherical torus I witnessed in so many of my visions. Contained in the center was the nucleus that emitted specks of light that poured out like a fountain and connected to all the galaxies. Now that I had a chance to examine it longer, it almost reminded me of one of the plasma globes in the Nikola Tesla exhibit at the Alexandrian Repository.

Sephroy amplified one section of the spheral and pointed to a flashing red light. “Earth.”

“I saw this in a vision I had while I was playing a difficult passage on my violin. It produced the most radiant chord I ever heard.”

“It’s the most beautiful music to our awareness. We’ve never been able to duplicate it,” Sephroy said.

“The music of veneration flows from the highest sphere."

“A wise observation.”

“My friend made it. He said it was superstitious nonsense. I have the urge to hike to the Himalayas and show him this projection to prove him wrong.” I laughed.

Sephroy pointed towards the spheral. “How do you think he’d react if he knew this is the size of a spheral as seen through our vantage point in the Outersphere?”

I faced Sephroy for confirmation about his statement to which he snickered and nodded his head.

I walked around the projection to grasp the magnitude of what I’d just learned. “He’d handle it better than I am.”

Through my incarnations, I comprehended the nature of man and why civilizations rise and fall, but this stretched beyond that limited perception. It took some time to grasp we were nothing but a small blip within a sea of light, contained, finite and observable by a race of beings outside our level of understanding and size.

“How do the Six fit into all of this?” I asked.

“Six collectors of experiences inhabit each spheral and coexist on worlds with sentient life forms. The knowledge they accumulate gets stored in the spheral membrane. As evolution nears, the Six are born geographically closer together, improving the chances of Union. When they join, they ring in Unison, and it can be heard from outside. Once every sample enters this stage, the spheral membrane vibrates. All the knowledge since the beginning of this evolutionary cycle is released in one pulse that feeds our main consciousness."  

“You…eat us?”

"Not
you!
" Sephroy winced. “Your knowledge. And as we're eating, the spheral membrane absorbs the instructions for your next stage of evolution. Once the process is completed, the spheral swirls in two opposing directions, expanding until it separates, producing an exact duplicate of itself.”

“It’s like cell division!”

“It is cell division. The first spheral dies, and the energy it releases powers our worlds for a time that’s incalculable by your present level of mathematical cognition.”

“How is that possible? If I’m here, how can I exist on other worlds?”

Sephroy shook his head. “You’re still thinking in subjective time. Beyond time exists a vein that ties you to your proto-awareness.”

“COR!”

Sephroy covered his ears. “No need to shout, Chap. I’m in the room with you.”

“You’re talking about COR! If I can connect to the vein, can I identify all the Six?”

“You can…and Sutara already knows how. That’s why I took her away long before you all had the chance to meet.”

“Why?”

“Earth is the only world in this spheral that has yet to ring in Unison. For this reason, the unenlightened of my world wish to force you all together because they can’t get your knowledge fast enough. The sages I followed taught me that evolution must occur naturally and without interference. The effect of progression for sentients who aren’t ready is dangerous to both your Universe and a large portion of the Outersphere.”

“How dangerous?”

“If there is a defect in the specimen, it dies. It’s not as if spherals grow on trees, Chap. They’re rare in the Outersphere. If they cease to exist, so will we. I had to stop Jall and the rest of our gluttonous leaders from setting a dangerous precedent. My intervention saved this spheral, which may have already been destroyed if I didn’t stop them. For my insubordination I was rebuked for going against my orders, and an inquisition was scheduled. I was so angry I refused to attend. By the time my senses returned, it was too late. When we’re within this spheral, we can only stay inside for the equivalent of one-hundred Earth years before our individual pattern becomes indistinguishable from the rest of the matter in the Universe.”

“You can never go back?”

“Only a miracle can help me return, and I don’t believe in miracles.” Sephroy narrowed his eyes. “Did Sutara really contact you from the future?”

“Yes.”

“In how many of your rotations?”

“In all of them I can recall.”

“Did you ever meet her…in person?”

“In my last incarnation.”

“She’s doing it to me again.”

“Doing what?”

“Trying to get me to believe in miracles.” Sephroy sat on the chair behind his desk. “Sutara is the most powerful of the Six within this spheral because she lived the most varied personalities.”

“How can we be varied when we repeat the same life?”

“There you go with your linear sense of time again. After death, your present organism duplicates itself and recycles, which is why you can recall your past rotations. The newly created organism then divides in two, and a new individual is born to interpret the world. The data of your combined experiences is stored within your proto-awareness. The more varied your lifecycle, the higher the grade of wisdom you acquire.”

I cupped my hands around the spheral. “But that’s all dependent on your willingness to let us continue.” I slapped my hands together. “All it would take for our annihilation is one strike from a hand in your world. We’re at your mercy.”

Sephroy shut down the hologram and handed me the echoer. “You’re only aware of your size when you have something to compare yourself with. Size is nothing more than another subjective perception.”

“Why did Jall give this to me?” I asked.

“He invented it to speed up Union between the Six. Think of it as a COR to COR communication device.”

“Sutara can already do that without the echoer.”

“The miracle I spoke of in your last rotation happened a very long time ago. Two Sixes, from different species, had a child who was born in the exact moment another Six passed away. This child gained knowledge from both species. We’ve never witnessed such a joining before, and when I first laid eyes on her, she was the closest thing to a miracle I’d ever witnessed. Such a sweet little thing—the girl with two worlds in her mind. I used to sing that to her before she went to sleep.” Sephroy pointed his cane at me. “She was your daughter, Chap.”

“Shishandi?”

Sephroy’s eyes widened.

“I’ve seen her in a vision—after Jall gave me the echoer. Is Sutara a future incarnation of Shishandi?”

“She is.”

“What happens when the Six meet?”

“Union is a rare event. Spherals take long to erupt, which is why many on my world want to speed up your meeting.”

“What do we get in return?”

“Everlasting life in our realm, where you’ll still be gaining knowledge from your extensions who’ll continue to exist in this reality. When the next evolutionary age begins, a new band will materialize, and your upgraded physical existence will continue to acquire knowledge until the next stage of evolution.”

I asked Sephroy all the questions I had about the Ancients. When I inquired how long ago the events occurred, Sephroy couldn’t answer as he lost track of time long before the Great Cataclysm, which he refused to discuss. “They even had their calendars all wrong back then,” he told me. “I was so confused, I stopped trying to remember the age of this spheral. There’s no reason to remember.” He opened a drawer and removed a gold ring and examined it. “Not knowing how much time has passed makes my sentence easier to serve.”

“Why should I look forward to joining your world? Your people don’t seem any better than us. What they’re doing to you is cruel.”

“Given the choice again, I wouldn’t have gone against my orders. I witnessed the birth of this spheral and got too attached. It’s a hazard in my vocation. I could’ve backed down from this assignment, but the opportunity to witness your development was too difficult to resist.” He sighed. “At least I stopped them from destroying you.”

“If your people are anything like us, they’ll try again.”

“That is possible.”

“Do you know who the last Six is?”

“Yes, but I won’t reveal her to you.”

“Her?”

“That’s all I’m giving you. Enjoy the happy life you’ve created for yourself. It will remain that way as long as the Six don’t rush to Union.”

I thought back to the time Wade gazed up at the sky and ruminated over how small we were in comparison to the vastness of space and how it demonstrated the limited wisdom of the Corporate Hierarchy. I’m not sure which troubled me most, our small size or that our knowledge fed a race of aliens. My feelings were irrelevant because even after Sephroy’s revelation, my life remained unchanged. I put so much effort looking for something that in the end only led to more questions.

I left Sephroy’s trainlet with a new understanding of time and was comforted to know my sons would continue to exist. Somewhere beyond this incarnation, I was still teaching Aaron how to play violin and attending James’s soccer matches. Holly was still making me a tray of pastitso on Firstday nights, and I was still clashing with Maestro Manolis over repertoire selections. I laughed to myself as I recalled the Mozart versus Chopin duels with Manolis and appreciated how the Universe never failed to shine its light over my darkest moments.

THE SIXTH

W
hile I was working on my message to deliver to Unity, there was a knock at the door. I opened it and faced Mother who held a female infant in her arms. I immediately recognized her and the man who brought her.

“Vivek!” I excitedly hugged him.

Mother gazed wide-eyed at Vivek and then at the babe in her arms. “Is this Sutara?”

Vivek stepped back, bewildered.

“Yes, but this one is the youngest version I’ve met in person.” I slapped the side of Vivek’s arm. “What brings you to my side of the tunnel?” I asked in Tibindi.

“Your emissary guided me here. He told me this is where I would find you.”

“I don’t have an emissary. Did he tell you his name?”

“Sephroy. He told me you were the man I seek.”

“Is he here with you?” I stepped outside and had a look around.

“We parted company at the top of the mountain. He said he did not appreciate crowds.”

“What made you come looking for me?” I asked.

“Suti was dying. No one knew what was wrong. She became very weak and had difficulty breathing. I believed she was going to die. One night I fell asleep with her in my arms and witnessed you save her life in a dream. You placed your hands over her head, and a white aura surrounded the both of you.”

“I had a similar dream a little over thirty days ago. How did you get here so fast?”

“Our journey took far longer than that.”

Sutara extended her hand to me, and I picked her up. She felt slightly heavier than in my dream.

“Damon,” Sutara said with perfect diction.

“I must have traveled back in time during my vision.” I brushed a few delicate strands of hair away from Sutara’s eyes. “Just as you traveled back in time to save me.”

Vivek widened his eyes, and I laughed.

How did you find Sephroy?” I asked.

“I had another dream. Suti came to me as a grown woman and told me I must find you if I want to save her. She said your healing was only temporary and that she was still dying. She showed me where to find the man with the walking stick who would lead us to you and that her father would also be here. Is he?”