For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two

#HumanBehavior #MindAndSociety #HumanNature #TheSinsOfElina #PostApocalypticFiction #TemporalDeadZone #IdentityCrisis #ExistentialJourney​ #ArtificialIntelligence #PhilosophyOfMind #BehavioralScience #HumanNature #SocialStructures​ #ScienceFantasy #PoliticalDrama #PhilosophicalFiction
Penny Lake
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Thought Formation : A Novel
For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Preface
John of Penny Lake
John of Penny Lake

This is book two in the continuing saga of Sally and Pat as they try to restore a dead planet. Living in a reality where little if anything makes sense they persevere the best they can.

Imagine if you will, you suddenly wake up in a world you don’t recognize and thousands of years have passed by. Are you dead? Obviously not or you couldn't be having this conversation with yourself. Is this Heaven? It's not like any Heaven anyone has ever heard of before.

Working from an infinitely ethereal realm our reluctant heroes find a way to recreate and restore planet Earth so that it can be inhabited by humans once again. The fight is both physical and political and no one is sure if they can pull it off or not.

I hope you enjoy their journey.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Author

By Gary Brandt
Over The Edge Press
Arizona USA
Copyright © 2007-2023 by Gary Brandt.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Pictures in this book of trees and lakes were taken in Flagstaff, Az. Many pictures were purchased from photos.com or dreamstime.com. Any people in the pictures are models and have no relationship to this book or its story. Character faces are CGI, and are not real people.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
DEDICATION


FOR PLANET EARTH
May you have a long and happy life.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the characters John, Sally, Ben, Michael, Pat, and the others for sharing their story with me. I am especially grateful to Kaguya for bringing this story into my domain so that I could learn of it and share it.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 1
Deep Questions
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The LORD possessed me [ Wisdom ] in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth was.

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills were, I was brought forth: While as yet He had not made the earth, or the fields, or the highest part of the dust of the world.

When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon the face of the depth: When He established the clouds above: when He strengthened the fountains of the deep: When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not overstep their boundary: when He appointed the foundations of the earth:

Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.

Now therefore listen to me, you children: for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

For who finds me finds life, and shall obtain favor of the LORD. But he that ignores me destroys his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

---Wisdom (also known as Sophia) as written in the Hebrew Proverbs sometime during, or before, the 3rd century BC.

John and Sally sit for awhile quietly gazing at the artwork.

The museum in Powder Junction is Sally's favorite place to sit and contemplate. The past few years have been difficult. So much has changed. For every question answered there seems to be two or three new ones begging for answers. Everything is different now. Sally is hoping to have another meeting with her coalescent friend Josh, but there has been no sign of him. He told her that he would be there with answers if she needed him but so far he has been a no-show.

"John recommended the thought that he is waiting for her to be ready to accept the answers before he brings them. Sally is not convinced that is the reason, and is feeling somewhat abandoned. Since the loss of her little boy in a farming accident she has been despondent. All the joy has been sucked out of her life and at a time when her daughter is needing her more and more. Penelope is a teenager now and is finding life difficult in the boring town of Penny Lake. As the first of a generation of children born in this level 5 world she has had to invent what a child is supposed to be. Sally has been thinking of moving to a new domain, one more appropriate for children, but so far she has not found one more suitable than the Lake. The only other domain she knows well is Powder Junction, but that is a party town and no place for an adolescent.

"I'm glad you finally got out of the house. You've been holed up in there so long all the color has gone out of your face. You need to get out and get some sun." John says, with a look of deep concern.

"It's a fake sun anyway. It's all in Ben's head. Just like us. Just bobbing around in Ben's head going nowhere." Sally said, exhibiting more of her continuing existential crisis.

"Reality isn't all it's cracked up to be, huh? It's what we got to work with, though, so we gots to make the best of it. I'm so hoping to help you find your way back to happiness. I miss that lovely smile and your cute little giggle. I haven't heard that in years." John says, putting his arm around Sally and pulling her close. Sally lays her head on his shoulder, but there is no emotion in her face, no tears, no joy, just a dead look.

"In your last life, in Oregon, or was it California, you lost your wife. You told me how you could never fill that empty place in your heart. Magnify that about a billion times and that is what it is like to lose a child. That empty place is bigger than my heart, bigger than all of me. There just isn't anything left of me. I'm dead too. What does dead really mean any more? Everything is different from what it is supposed to be. On Earth when someone died you could assume that they just quit existing, or they went on to some afterlife.

"We are in the fucking afterlife! What does it mean to die here? I didn't think we even could, die here. But here I am, with a dead kid. Now what? Is there an after-after-life? Is it all some sort of joke? I need some answers John. I need some answers fast or I'm going to find a cliff somewhere and jump off and just see what happens. The only thing that keeps me going is you, the love that we share. If it wasn't for that I swear I would find some way to just fade away, to not be, maybe to never have been at all." Sally says, staring at a blank spot on the wall as if there was something there to look at.

Sally may not be able to cry, but John has shed enough tears for both of them. There are some things he has been afraid to say to Sally, but he just can't keep it inside any more. "I know how you feel, Sally. I've felt the same way. Joshua wasn't just your little boy, you know. He was my grandson. I have the same hole in my heart that you do in yours. I don't understand the way things work any better than you do so I feel all the same hurt, the same pain, the same frustrations and fear that you do. So don't pretend you have the market cornered on pain. We all feel it. Pat does too."

A look of fire appears in Sally's eyes at the mention of her ex husband Pat. "Pat? Well Pat should have thought about that before he and Ben went off inventing farm equipment. He should have been watching. He shouldn't have left that stuff out where Joshua could play with it. Joshua worshiped those guys and they should have been more careful. They should have known. They should have known. So they are off lolly gagging by the lake talking about efficiency and fabrication methods and effectiveness and all that bull shit and I'm left with the headless corpse of my baby boy because of one of their stupid contraptions. I'm sorry John, for you and the pain you have suffered, but I'm a long way away from ever talking to Pat or Ben again. That's just the way it is and I don't think that it's going to change any time soon. Probably not ever."

John remembers the screams all to well when Sally found Joshua in the field. That is a day Penny Lake will never forget. The shock of that event went through the town like a thunder bolt and changed everything. The innocence of Penny Lake was lost in a flash. Nothing has been the same since. John did his best to console Sally but the hurt is still too raw. It will take time. Time won't heal this wound, nothing can do that, it's too deep. Time will, as it usually does, make it more bearable, and ultimately survivable. John knows better than to say any more. All he can do is let Sally lean against him and hope that she will find the strength to survive. He knows she will, somehow.

"Josh! Oh my God it's Josh!" Sally squeals as she runs down the hall, throwing herself into the arms of her old friend Josh. "Oh my God! Oh my God! It's you. You're here! You're finally here! I've been waiting for you for years! Where the hell have you been?"

"Oh, wow! What a greeting. I'm glad to see you too. You called me God three times. That's the first time I've been called that." Josh says as he wriggles out of Sally's hug so he can breathe.

Sally giggles. "Oh, I didn't mean it that way. It's just a figure of speech. Oh my God! Hee hee. There I go again. It's been so long. I don't even know where to start. My friend John is here. Let me introduce you." Sally drags Josh over to the bench where John is sitting. John stands and extends his hand being as polite as he can be. Sally is beaming as she introduces her two best friends to each other.

John is happy to see a smile on Sally's face again after so many years. He is a bit set back, though, at the show of affection that Sally has for Josh. Pat had stayed with John for a year after he and Sally had split up and John was working the best he knew how to find a way to get them back together. With Sally's sudden happiness in the company of another young man John is beginning to wonder if he has wasted his time. John shakes hands with Josh and says "Howdy, son. Glad to meet you. Sally has told me a lot about you. We have come here a number of times, her always hoping that you would show up. I'm glad you have finally arrived."

"I'm happy to be here. And I'm glad to finally meet you, John. I have heard a lot about you too." Josh says with a big grin.

"Really?" John asks. "Other than Sally here I didn't think you knew anybody that would know me."

"Trust me, John." Josh replies. "As a coalescent I exist in all time at once. So I move easily into the past and the future. In the future of your current time line you are quite famous. You are the story teller of record for this time period. I am indeed honored to meet you."

"Oh. Well then. I'll make sure that I only tell the stories I didn't make up." John says with a smile. "So you are a time traveler. That is interesting. I have heard about that."

"Well, not exactly a traveler. I'm there all the 'time'. I just coalesce, appear in form, at a particular place on the time line in a particular place in space, like right here, right now." Josh says, trying to explain the unexplainable.

"OK Josh. I didn't wait years for you to come here and talk to John. I want you here for me." Sally says with a giggle. "So what took you so long? What about the old seek and you will find, ask and it will be given speech you gave me last time you were here?" Sally says with that sideways stance and a hand on her hip that girls use when they want to be listened to.

"Sally, you know you're the reason that I am here, and I think you know that I have always been here, in the background, aware of you and what has been happening in your life. My existence as a coalescent is an extremely rich existence, which is why I choose it. It also comes with some responsibilities. I could totally screw up a time line if I am careless, so before I coalesced this time I needed to get permission, from you." Josh answers, ready to dodge in a hurry if Sally throws something at him.

"From me?" Sally asks. "For Gods sake Josh, I've been calling you and calling you. Isn't that all the permission you need? Maybe I'm confused."

Josh pauses for a moment to try to put his thoughts into words Sally can understand. Then he says "Lets try to explain this from my perspective. I know you and am in contact with you as the you that you are right now. I also know you and am in contact with your past self, since I also exist in the past. I also know you and am in contact with your future self since I also exist in the future. I also know you and am in contact with your super self that exists in the same all time all space domain that I do. So when I interact with you now that potentially affects not only you right now, but you in the past and you in the future and your super self that exists in all of time and space. I had to get permission from ALL of you, not just the you in your here and now. I hope that explains it a bit, and I hope in the process that you are beginning to understand that you are a lot more than you think you are. You are a truly magnificent being, when you get to know all of you, and I am honored to know you."

Sally looks confused, and asks "If you have been in contact with my past self, why don't I remember it?"

Josh responds "Because you don't. You only remember, in your present form, a tiny tiny bit of your past. You have no idea who you were 100 years ago, a million years ago, a billion years ago. Most of that is not part of your present awareness. You are so much more than you remember. All of you are. That is why I love being a coalescent. I get to know more of you than you know of yourself. It's fun. But I don't want to confuse you too much with all this stuff. I'm here now to be with you in your time of grief, to help you work through it, and I do so with the full cooperation of the ALL of you that I know, and love."

Sally, still looking confused asks "So. Since you have already talked to my future self you already know how this is going to turn out? We are just actors reading a script that has already been written and is finished?"

Josh laughs. "That would be sooooo boring if that were true. No. That is why I have to be so careful. What we do, right here, right now, creates causality ripples that can change the future and reverse causality ripples that can change the past. The universe is a dynamic place with the past present and future in the constant dance of change. One of my jobs is to help keep it from all falling apart, but still allow it to be interesting, fresh, and worth experiencing over and over again.

"That is how I met Kaguya. She was messing around with a forbidden temporal domain. She was just playing, but she got lost in time and she was causing all sorts of temporal ripples that were affecting your past and your future and even things in other dimensions. So I went to rescue her from the temporal distortions, and to rescue the universe from her. It was through her that I got to know you, and John. It was Johns story telling about her ancestors that got her wandering into forbidden territory in the first place. But I'm glad she did. It was on our way out of the mess she created that we met you last time. She had attempted to go back and meet you, so I arranged it so she could. So now that you know that, don't go changing it in your future, or none of what is happening right now will have ever happened, and we will miss out on all this fun."

Sally smiles at Josh, with a look that tells John she has a plan that she is not yet ready to reveal. Sally says "Josh, as usual you have put my little brain into overload. I'll have to let that sink in and get comfortable in my brain cells. In the mean time, to change the subject, who's the chick in that picture, under that guys left arm? Or is that a boy?"

"Ah. Michelangelo and his naked people again. That is a painting called the Creation of Adam. It is from a creation story from one of Earths old religions. In this picture the Creator, held up by a lot of little angel people, reaches out with his right hand to touch Adam, the first man, and give him the gift of life. His left arm is around a mysterious woman. Many believe that she is the not yet created Eve, the first woman, the wife of Adam, or Lilith, his other wife. Some say she is Mary the mother of God before her incarnation on Earth. She is actually much more mysterious than that.

"She is Sophia, which means Wisdom, the personification of Wisdom, the personification of an aspect of the Creator, who is all wise. It's interesting that you should take notice of her. According to legend, the woman Wisdom was with the Creator during the creation of all things, including Adam, so that is why she is in this picture. You will need Wisdom with you too, as you endeavor to recreate. That is what I think anyway. I suppose I could go ask Michelangelo to explain it, but that would take all the fun out of speculating, wouldn't it." Josh sits down, satisfied with his answer.

"So you're just guessing? As usual Josh you got all the way to the point of answering the question and then didn't finish. You are a very frustrating man!" Sally says. "OK guys. Lets get out of here and get something to eat. For the first time in a long time I have an appetite. We can come back later and look at some more pretty pictures. Lets go to that place where we first met, Josh, where you were a waiter. That is a special place for me. Lets go there and get a bite to eat."

"That's fine with me. I know the menu there and there are a lot of dishes I know you would enjoy." Josh says as he led the three of them to the restaurant.

"Josh. I know one of your secrets." Sally says with a big grin. "I asked Micheal about this restaurant, the Ethereal Cafe, and he had never heard of it. He said it must have been built by one of the members of Powder Junction. He was a bit surprised that he didn't know. But I wasn't surprised. You built this place, didn't you. This is your restaurant, isn't it?"

"I didn't intend for it to be a secret, but there was no reason to explain everything at the time. I needed a place for us to meet, and this seemed like the perfect place. Was I right?" Josh asks.

"Yes. For once." Sally jokes. "You finally got something perfectly correct, and complete. I wish all your answers were this good." Sally says with a giggle. "Just joking Josh. And Hey, there is our reserved table again. Except it now seats four. Last time it was for two. I wonder how they knew?"

"I'm just trying to be a good host." Josh says, smiling as he seats Sally and John. "Don't bother looking at the menu, I'll get you guys something special from the kitchen. I think they even has a special fish platter, pan fried, in that flour and corn meal coating that John likes so much. I'll be right back. You two enjoy. I'll send out some appetizers."

"Wow!" John says. "That Josh guy is handy to have around. He's got some great skills. I get the feeling that you guys knew each other way way back."

"I think so too. From the first time I ever saw Josh, I got a feeling, like wow, like nothing I've ever felt before. So I think there has to be some history there between us that I'm not remembering. Or maybe he is just a powerful being and I'm attracted to his power. I'm not sure. I just know I love it when he is around." Sally explains.

"Be careful Sweetie pie. I think I see you headed for a train wreck with this Josh guy."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Sally says with a somewhat confused look on her face.

"Well, I'm an old coot, but I'm not a stupid old coot. You are young, you are single, you are hurting and looking for answers and wanting to put a shattered life back together again. And here comes along this guy who seems to have all the answers. I raised 3 daughters. I know what it looks like when a girl is in love, and right now Honey, that is all over you like gravy on mashed potato's." John finishes his speech and then waits for Sally to respond.

Sally just stares at John with a look of disbelief. "I wouldn't worry about that John. Yes, he does come in a cute, tight little package when he manifests here. But I'm not looking for a relationship with an angel, or a god, or whatever the hell he really is. He is a cutie pie though. I have to admit that. I will be careful John. I won't let my feelings get the best of me. But I am going to give him a little squeeze whenever I get the chance. Hee hee."

"OK Sweetie. I will trust your judgment. I just don't want to see you get hurt again. I don't think you can take much more hurt right now." John says, touching Sally's hands across the table.

"Here are you appetizers guys. Enjoy." The waitress says as she place a tray on the table.

"What do you call this stuff?" John asked.

"It's an h'ourdourve plate with a lot of little specialties on it. We call it the plane of forgetfulness. You will gobble it up so fast you won't remember eating it." The waitress answers, smiling, as she hurries back to the kitchen.

"Some of it looks like poop on a cracker to me." John observed.

"I think that is goose liver pate. Give it a try John. I bet it's really good." Sally comments, as she stuffed a few items in her mouth.

     Sally's Fashion Pick
TANIA-Ruffle-Neck-Tier-Dress-[Green-Zebra]
$68.00
Click The Image
     Sally's Fashion Pick
Temptation-Positano-Tektite-Mini-Dress
$420.00
Click The Image

Josh returned with a tray and set a plate for the three of them. "I hope this it to your liking. I got fish for John, a big juicy steak for Sally, and for me, one of my favorites, pigeons and dumplings."

"It looks great." Sally says as she starts carving a bite from her steak. "I have a question for you Josh, and I hope I get more than just a partial answer, because I've been giving it a lot of thought recently. Here I am eating a steak, John has a plate of fish, and you are eating some dead birds. It's all really fresh so probably yesterday these were all living things, swimming, mooing, flying around. Now they are laying here dead on our plate as we prepare to recycle their proteins. How does that work? Did they have souls, etheric energy? Are some new fish swimming in a fish heaven somewhere? What happens when things die? I know that when the Earth died, a bunch of that etheric energy came here, not just people but bugs and plants and cows and such. How does it work when it dies again here, in the Earth after-life."

"I'll give it my best shot, Sally." Josh says as he launches into a speech to answer her questions. "First, all life, etheric energy, life energy, whatever you want to call it exists as an aspect of the All that Is. It can neither be created or destroyed, it just changes form, or from form to non form and back again. Life energy differs from non living energy only in the complexities of its vibrations, its harmony, the music, the song that it sings to the universe.

"A unit of life in your reality is the cell. Each cell sings the music of life. These cellular songs can join into a synergetic symphony of a multicellular collective, such as a plant, or an animal, or you. As the complexity, the sophistication of the collective increases so does the capacity for awareness. All things are conscious at some level because they are an emanation of the All that Is, the ultimate consciousness of existence itself. Awareness, however, requires a sophisticated matrix that can connect all the dots in space-time that are necessary to create a coherent locale for the awareness to manifest.

"A plant is aware, but compared to you it's awareness is very limited. You are aware, but compared to me your awareness is very limited. Awareness allows you to hold the thought that says 'I am'. Your 'I' is in your awareness. So to restate your question, does the 'I' in the awareness of these creatures continue, go some place else, or dissolve or disappear when their physical incarnation is 'recycled' as you put it. That depends on the level of consciousness and the level of awareness of the individual incarnation.

"Lets consider your cells for instance. Most cells in your human body have a much shorter life span that you body as a whole, just like a person has a much shorter life span than the city they live in. So your physical incarnation is constantly being recycled. Even your bones are dissolved and rebuilt on a continuing basis. So what happens to the individual cells when they reach the end of their existence. They simply cease to exist, their limited individual awareness dissolves, and their etheric energy is absorbed into the new cells that are forming all the time.

"So what happens if all the cells in a complex collective such as yourself end simultaneously, when your physical incarnation ceases to function. That is different. Your complex awareness has created such a marvelous symphony of musical experience that the All that Is continues to sing your song whether you are in a physical incarnation or not. Your life, your 'I', therefore is eternal. You may change form, or to non-form. You may find another 'I' with which you resonate perfectly and join, the two I's becoming one. You may exist in multiple times or in no time, but you always are, your ability to hold the thought 'I am' is eternal. You may stay coherent as an individual 'I' or you may distribute yourself throughout eternity as I have. There are many, actually unlimited ways, to be the 'I am' that you are.

"Those are the fundamentals, Sally, and I know that your question goes beyond that. You asked this question as a stepping stone to your next question, the one that you are afraid to ask. You want to know where Joshua is, your baby boy. You want to know what went wrong to make him die in a place where he should not die. You want to know if you can have him back. I am here to show you these answers, the best I can. As usual, you won't be fully satisfied, but I will do my best. I love you Sally, in ways far beyond your present ability to understand. So I will certainly do my best to help you through this."

Sally sits quietly for a moment just staring at Josh, then at John, then at the rest of her steak. "Well then. This is good stuff. Let me digest all that, and the rest of my steak. And we will talk some more for dessert. Do you guys have flan here? I love that stuff, and I think John will like it too."

"Yes, we have flan. And after dessert I have a surprise adventure for the two of you. I will be right back with our dessert." Josh says as he excuses himself from the table and heads for the kitchen.

"Adventure? Wow! I have a feeling this is going to get interesting." John says smiling at Sally.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 2
Perspectives

John and Sally hand their plates and utensils to the bus boy as the waitress waits to set down their dessert."Here is your dessert, flan for the four of you. Enjoy." The waitress says as she sets the table."Four?" Sally asks looking at John as if he would know the answer."Hey John. Hey Mom." Penelope says as she walks up to the table."Penelope? What are you doing here? It better be a good reason or you're in big trouble." Sally says glaring at her fourteen year old."Nice to see you too, Mom." Penelope says as she seats herself next to John, leaning over and giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Sally
Sally

"Penelope! You know your are restricted from using the booth when I'm not home and you for sure know that you are absolutely not to come to Powder Junction without supervision. So what's going on?" Sally asks.

Penelope rolls her eyes and says "Well, first off, I didn't come unsupervised, and second, I didn't use the booth. I came with him." Penelope says pointing to Josh who is approaching the table.

"You came here with a stranger? Haven't I taught you a thing!?!?" Sally blurts out with a look of total shock.

"Stranger?" Penelope asks. "Mom, you have talked and talked and talked about Josh non stop for years. Josh this. Josh that. I think sometimes maybe he's my real Dad instead of your Ex. So when he showed up and asked me to come I felt like I have always known him. Just like you said when you first saw him."

Penelope
Penelope

"Josh? You went and got my daughter without clearing it with me first? I don't think I'm comfortable with that. I mean - well - I guess I don't know what I mean. I get the sneaking suspicion that the two of you are up to something. What's up?"

"Wow, it's so cute to see you switch into Mommy mode. Like Penelope said, I feel like I've known her forever, and, in fact, I have. So I guess I have the advantage here. I promised you an adventure and Penelope is part of that, so I asked her to come. She was dying of boredom at the lake anyway." Josh explains, hoping Sally will not be too irritated with his kidnapping her daughter.

"OK then, I guess. I trust you Josh, and I trust Penelope, but please no more surprises. I'm not tied together very tightly right now, emotionally I mean, and I can't handle much upset. Please, you guys, be gentle with me." Sally asks, still glaring a bit at Penelope.

flan1.jpg
Flan: A dessert flan is made of eggs; sweetened condensed milk, cream or whole milk; and flavorings such as vanilla, orange, coconut, or coffee.

"Alright Mom. We won't rock your boat - much. What is this crap? Flan? Now I know why Dad didn't like it. It's sweet and all, and kind of yummy in that way, but the texture is like really ikky." Penelope says rolling her dessert around in her mouth not sure whether to swallow it or spit it back out. "Here Mom. You can finish this. I don't like it."

The four sat quietly finishing their dessert. Penelope got a piece of pie. Sally is visibly uncomfortable with Penelope being there, especially uncomfortable with her and Josh being there at the same time. Sally likes to be uninhibited when she is out with the guys and having her teenager along forces her into Mommy mode, which is necessarily much more reserved. Penelope has snuggled up next to John, her Penny Lake grandfather. She does that every time she feels her mothers anxiety flair up, which it has done a lot recently. John is her safe zone and he is more than happy to be there for her whenever she needs him.

"The checks on me this time." Josh says as he stands at the table. "Now, are you guys ready for adventure?".

"Don't you think we should let our food settle before we go running off somewhere?" John asks.

"That won't be a problem where we are going, I promise." Josh replies, smiling at the group.

"OK, lets get out of here and start having some fun." Penelope says, the excitement showing on her young face.

"That won't be necessary either." Josh says. "For this adventure we all need to hold hands, close your eyes, let you mind go quiet for a minute, and just try to let yourself float. Trust me, I will have you so there is no danger. It is going to feel a little weird, then it is going to get really weird for awhile until you get your bearings, but trust me. You will be OK. Are you ready?"

"This isn't going to be like the void, is it?" Sally asks.

"No, it isn't. It's going to be nothing like the void at all. Ready?"

"OK lets do it. And this better be fun Josh. I need some fun." Sally says.

"Me too." Penelope chimes in.

"Girls, hush! Let the boy drive." John commands.

Sally does her best to quiet her mind and let herself float, and she is just starting to get a sort of floaty feeling when all the sudden, whoosh, it is like she is unplugged from her body traveling at an unbelievable speed through a multicolored vortex, swirling around, and then like a pop, and she is plugged in again. Except - everything is different.

"Mom. I can't see and I feel really really weird. Shit! Mom! I have paws, and fur!"

"Josh? You better start explaining this." Sally says.

"OK guys. This will take a little getting used to, but I think you will appreciate the experience once we get into it. Your level 5 human type bodies are still standing at the dinner table, stuck in a moment of time. You're consciousness, and your awareness, are now far far away from there, in a completely different time, and in different bodies. There is a family of wolves here, they were taking a nap, and we have borrowed their bodies for a little while. When we speak, we are doing so telepathically, somethings wolves are accustomed to anyway. So we don't have to howl or bark at each other. They, we, are just waking up, and as they do you are taking control of their bodies. No harm will come to them. When we leave them they will just go on about their business normally, that is as long as you guys behave and don't do something stupid."

"So Mom? How does it feel to be a real live bitch?" Penelope asks.

"Ask yourself. Apparently my daughter is a little bitch too."

"Knock it off, girls." John interrupts. "Josh went to a lot of effort to bring us here. Lets be nice, and enjoy the show. I'm having a little trouble getting up, there being paws where I expect hands and feet to be. I'm a little wobbly, but I'm getting the hang of it." John stumbles around like a new born calf, but after a few stumbles he gets his bearings and starts to walk like a normal wolf.

"Hey guys, come out here. Check it out!. This is ferocious!" Penelope says.

"Ferocious? You mean like a bear?" John asks, somewhat concerned.

"No John. That is teenage speak for 'new exciting interesting'. You know teens, they make up new words when the old ones work just fine." Sally informs John.

"Yes, I know. I met you when you were 15 and I had to learn a whole new language just to communicate." John says with a laugh, although laughing while your a wolf is a whole different thing.

"Penelope!!!" Sally shouted.

"What?" Penelope responds.

"Don't 'what' me. What you just did, I saw that. You just sniffed his butt. What are you thinking?" Sally says, loudly.

"I dunno, Mom. It just seemed like the wolfish thing to do. I won't do it again." Penelope promises.

"Don't be mad at Penelope. These bodies have many instinctive behaviors that just play themselves out without our thinking about them. It's normal. I wasn't the least bit offended." Josh explains.

"Be quiet everybody. I hear something. Something very interesting." Penelope says.

"What is it Sweetie?" John asked.

"It's going puff puff puff, beat beat beat, really really fast. It's just up ahead. It sounds like it's under that dead tree. Oh SHIT!!!. It's moving!" Penelope is off in a flash, kicking up snow and dust and grass in her wake. In a cloud of debris she pounces, and with a lot of shaking and a bit of growling, the dust settles and Penelope comes trotting back with a limp, freshly killed rabbit in her mouth."

"Oh for the love of God, Penelope, what the hell have you done?" Sally asks.

"I just had the most fun in my whole life. I can't believe it. I've never killed anything before but this is like mega-fun. Here, you can eat this one, I'm going to look for more." Penelope says and starts sniffing the air for more rabbit scent.

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"Uh, Josh? What is going on here? I think Penelope is getting a little too into this being a wolf thing." Sally asks, very concerned this time.

"It's normal, Sally. Penelope is just adapting faster because she is younger and less attached to being human. We are not going to be here long enough for her to get stuck. If we were to stay a long time, we would all turn into wolves, our awareness blending with the wolf and becoming one with it, totally forgetting that we were ever human. But we are not going to stay nearly that long. She will be fine. She is just an adolescent wolf and full of wolf energy. Blood lust and the call of the wild are strong in this species, but at the same time they are a being of high consciousness. That is why I chose them. Our consciousness is a good fit with theirs and it is easy to blend into them. Even though wolves feed through the violent shedding of blood and it is an exciting endeavor for them, they have no concept of killing or murder. They are just feeding." Josh explains.

"Speaking of natural behaviors that just play themselves out on their own, there aren't any adolescent boy wolves around here are there? I don't need Penelope having puppies any time soon." Sally says, still concerned.

"Yes, there are, but don't worry. Neither of you are in heat, and Penelope is too young, so they won't be attracted. Plus, wolves are highly social animals, so they don't just do it wherever and whenever like domesticated dogs and some humans do." Josh replies.

"Well, now what? We are here. We are wolf. What do us wolf people do now?" John asked.

"First, lets be good stewards of these borrowed bodies, and make good use of this rabbit, and the other one that Penelope is dragging up the hill. We don't want to leave our wolf friends hungry when we leave." Josh says, licking his wolf lips.

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Sally says incredulously.

After they finished their meal, the group heads down the hill to continue their wolf adventure. Many questions are beginning to form in their minds as they explore this new and very strange landscape. One by one Josh attempts to answer all of them.

"Josh, I have some questions. I know that we can't be on earth because the rabbit blood was golden color instead of red, the trees are white instead of green, which I thought was snow at first, but it isn't, and there is nothing on earth now except plants. So this can't be Earth, but wolves? Rabbits? Did they evolved somewhere else exactly the same as they did on earth? Where are we?" Sally asks.

Josh yelps in a futile attempt at laughter and answerers "You have to also ask what and when in addition to where. What we are is wolves, and they don't see three colors like humans do, they only see two. They can't see green at all, so trees look white, and red and yellow are the same color to them. Look around and you will see that everything is a shade of blue and gold. It's actually quite a beautiful world for them. Their field of vision is wider too so you don't have to turn your head so far to see whats coming up behind you. Your depth perception isn't quite as good, but if it breathes or moves your ears have already told you where it is. If you will notice the sun is setting, the moon is coming out, and you can see as well as if it is the noon time sun. These wolf eyes are good in the night time, much better for night vision than human eyes. That is the what. Here is the when. In this domain they call it the year 1875. Now I bet you can figure out the where."

"Josh, you sneaky little bastard!". John says. "I thought I recognized these hills, but the colors had me fooled for awhile. I know where we are now. These are my old logging fields, in California , in 1875. I thought I was remembering a song I heard years ago. But I'm really hearing it, aren't I? Listen carefully, I bet you can hear it too. That's her isn't it? That's my Akasha singing, isn't it?"

2a8f4f24d56836018162a1e811b57a58.jpg
Johns Wife Akasha

"Grandma Akasha!!!. I get to meet my grandma Akasha?!?!" Penelope says jumping up and down and running around in circles.

"Well, not meet her exactly. I don't think she would appreciate being approached by a pack of wolves. But we will use the silent stealth of our wolf bodies to sneak up and take a peek. If that is okay with you, John? This is your history and I don't want to disrespect it."

"I'll lead the way. I got my bearing now and I know exactly how to get there. This will be fun. Thanks Josh. You couldn't have picked a better adventure." John says as he heads down the hill. The rest of the pack follows his lead.

"Oh man, this if fucking ferocious!" Penelope blurts out.

"Watch your mouth young lady!". Sally fires back.

"I learned those words from listening to you Mom!" Penelope retaliates.

"Both you girls hush up! I don't want to have to use these fangs of mine on your butt." John says, stopping to wait for them to catch up.

"Grandpa, you won't really bite my butt will you?" Penelope asks.

Josh answered for John. "You better be careful. John is the alpha-dog in this little wolf pack and if his instincts kick in, and he has to restore order in the pack, he will, in fact, bite your little ass. So be careful."

The little pack continues down the hill towards Johns old stomping grounds. John leads the way, followed by Penelope, Josh, and Sally bringing up the rear. Normally Sally, as the alpha female would have been in second place, but she wanted to have Penelope and Josh in her sights, just in case Penelope's butt sniffing instinct, or any other instinct, kicked back in.

As the pack rounds a corner they peek out from behind some boulders. The light is blinding. It lights up the entire forest. Akasha has a fire going in the back yard. She always prefers to cook outside whenever possible to keep from stinking up the house. To a wolf the light from a fire at night is brighter than the sun, so they have to wait for a few minutes to let their eyes get accustomed. John warns them not to look straight in the face of a human, because they could see the glow of your eyes and get scared away. Or the John of 1875 might grab his trusty rifle and shoot at them. They just want to observe and don't want them running into the house to hide from the forest animals.

"John, she is beautiful, gorgeous. You were not exaggerating when you said she is pretty. Who is the young lady with her. She is gorgeous too." Sally asks.

Alanna
Johns Daughter Alannah 1875

John whispered, so as not to be heard, although it wasn't really necessary since they were using telepathy. "That is my oldest girl, Alannah. There should be a young man here too. I think I remember this night. She brought her boyfriend home to meet the family. I already knew the boy from work, but she wanted to do the formal meet the family and dinner thing. That is why she is helping out with dinner. She was showing off. Usually Akasha would have to yell at the girls to get any help and sometimes she would just do it all herself. Getting the girls to help was more work than just doing it."

"Oh Wow? Who is that cutie? Is he the boyfriend?" Penelope asks as a young man comes to the back porch to talk to Alannah."

"Yes, that is Jason. The boyfriend." John says.

"Ummmm. Wow. He's gorgeous too. Your daughter is a lucky girl. He looks a little like a grown up version of my brother Joshua." Penelope says.

Sally stops dead in her tracks and drops to the ground, her legs not strong enough to hold her up. She crosses her paws and lays her head on them.

"Mom, you OK? Are you sick?" Penelope wants to know.

Josh answers for her. "You're mother will be fine in a minute. She has just had what is called an epiphany, a sudden realization of a profound truth. A lot is going through her mind now, so much and so fast, that her body has partially shut down to give her time to deal with it."

"So what's the epiphany? What truth has she realized?" John asks.

"This is going to blow all your minds a bit, but I will do my best to explain. You guys have been working really hard to get the earth put back together so that you can resume living there in human form, the form you have become accustomed to. While you are waiting you are stuck in level 5 because there is no place else to go. That is true because you incarnate forward in time, most of the time. Sometimes, it is very rare, but sometimes a body becomes available to take a soul, or to have a joining of two souls, in the past. One of my jobs since I have access to all time is to assist in those transferals. They are tricky because you have to be careful not to scramble the time line.

"If you end up with a temporal causality loop you can create a lot of chaos and maybe destroy a universe or two. That is where my expertise comes in to have it all happen smoothly. When your Joshua died, by that I mean when his physical form in level 5 was fatally injured, I was there. It was Joshua's choice how to deal with that situation. It was an accident, it was unintended, not part of any destiny. In a case like that there are a number of ways to process it, including backing it up and preventing it from happening at all. Many of you have had a sudden moment of pause, where you suddenly stopped what you were doing or turned around or changed direction and realized that if you hadn't done that you would have died. You probably did die, but we backed it up and fixed it by sending a little message into the past, a feeling, just enough to get you to stop or move out of dangers way. Joshua, now remembering a bit more of who he really was, knew of the opening for a soul in 1855, and that it would be a stable transference.

"He also knew that life would become intimately intertwined with people he already knew and loved. Rather than continuing to be Joshua in level 5 he decided to come here, join with and become this person that we have just seen. He doesn't remember that now. He has become this new person and that is all that he knows. But the essence of what he was is now in the background, part of the foundation of who that young man is, and will become. That is why Penelope could see the resemblance, and Sally could feel it. The Joshua you knew is still there in Jason. Jason just doesn't know it."

"Wow, that's quite a tale there Josh. It's gonna take a bit for me to wrap my mind around it, especially since I knew the boy way back when." John has laid down next to Sally and put his head next to hers for support. Her body is hot, like she has a fever. John know Sallys mind is boiling and her wolf body is responding to that by increasing its metabolic rate. "This girls going to need some time to digest this, her mind and body are in turmoil. I can feel it." John says as he tries to be as supportive as he can. The four lay quietly, watching the goings on at Johns old house and giving Sally the time she needs to put it all together.

After a while Sally gathers her strength and gets up. Josh and Penelope approached to show their support but they are met with a low growl and bare teeth. Sallys hair is standing up and she is in a stance ready to attack if they came any closer. They stop their approach. Sally turns and gallops into the darkness. The three stand in shocked silence as Sally disappears from view.

"Josh? Whats wrong with my Mom? Has she gone totally wolf?" Penelope asks.

"No. Not yet anyway. We won't be able to stay here much longer or that could happen. She could transition from a spirit being human into a spirit being wolf. With the pain she is suffering right now that might be very appealing to her. Don't worry kids, I'll get us out of here before that happens."

"What if she won't come with us? Even before my Mom became a real bitch, believe me, she is always a stubborn bitch. What if she just stays out there and doesn't come back?" Penelope wants to know.

"If that happens, then that is what happens. Sally has placed her future into temporal flux, so I don't really know from this perspective what will happen. Penelope, your parents are not the typical earthlings. They were a highly evolved being before manifesting in this universe and Sally is an extremely powerful entity, much more so than she remembers. Part of her frustration here is the inability to control her reality, which was never a problem where she was before. When Joshua died every fiber of her being told her that she could bring him back, but her efforts to do that were frustrated, and now she knows why.

"Joshua didn't want to come back, and I helped him stand in the way of her will and prevent her from bringing him back anyway. That is a lot for her to deal with, she feels betrayed, and abandoned. Give her some time though, and I'm confident that she will come back and be the Sally that we all know and love."

"Hey you guys, come down here and help me with this thing." They heard Sally's voice in the distance. They can see a pair of golden eyes reflecting the firelight, so they use those as beacons to find her in the darkness. Sally has found a young deer, and killed it. It's throat has been ripped out and the amber blood is still steaming in the chilly night air. "Sorry guys, I just got so angry I had to go kill something. Anyway, this is a tender one, so our wolf hosts will get a good meal before we go."

"So are you OK now, Mommy? I'm about to cry worrying about you." Penelope asks, licking her eyes with her wolf tongue.

"No, Honey, I'm not OK, but I'm dealing with it, and I have a plan. The one thing I asked you guys before agreeing to come on this trip was no big surprises. And then you dump this shit on me? I'm not very happy with the bunch of you right now, especially you Josh. You knew better, or you certainly should have known better. Then, to top it all off you bring Penelope along. Josh, you are an all knowing being. You knew when you manifested the way you did that I would fall in love with you. Why didn't you come as a wrinkled up old man in a white robe?

"So now I'm standing here with my emotions scattered about like this gutted deer, desperately needing my baby boy back in my arms, looking to proposition you to help fill that void, and I'm presented with the site of you and Penelope making googly eyes at each other. You have got to be the rudest, most totally inconsiderate person God ever created. So thank you, Josh. Thank you from the bottom of my shattered and broken heart for totally fucking up my life. So now I can't have you, and I can't have Joshua either, and I find out that you were there when it happened. You were there and you didn't do a fucking thing to stop it. After that you had the power to reverse it and you talked Joshua out of it. Oh My Fucking, whatever, Josh. Did you for one second ever consider what my feelings were, what you were doing to me?

"While in this wolf body I've been remembering a few things, and I'm done with all your shit. John, I love you, take care of my Penelope for me, and whatever you do, keep her away from this ass hole. Good bye guys, I'm out of here." Sally finishes her speech, her eyes go blank for a second, she stumbles to her knees, then gets up, looks around as if totally confused, and runs off into the darkness again.

"Mommy? Mommy? Josh! John! Lets go get her. I think she is going to do something stupid!" Penelope screams.

Josh trots over next to Penelope and says "It's too late Sweetie. She has left us. What you saw running into the darkness is just the confused host body after she left. I know where she went though, and I will take you there. She has found a place to calm down, to rest, and put herself back together again. Come close guys, close your eyes and relax, and we will go to be with her.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 3
Just Fishing
opossum1
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
Mahatma Gandhi

Penelope looks around surprised to find herself right back where she started."Crap, we're back at the restaurant, all by ourselves. I thought we were going to see Mom. I don't know about this Josh character. Maybe Mom is right about him." she says to John as a waitress approaches with a couple of glasses.

"It does seem like he could have handled that better." John says.

"Here you go guys. Josh is in the kitchen. He had me bring you a couple of glasses of iced tea. He will be with you shortly." The waitress says as she set the glasses down. John and Penelope were still standing holding hands as they were before they left. Still a little disoriented from the trip back they slowly get their bearings and sit down, looking around the room to see if anyone was staring, wondering if they had been like statues while they were gone. Everyone else in the restaurant were into their own business and were paying them no mind, so they had no need to be embarrassed.

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"Maybe our trip is over. She said he'll be out in a minute so we will ask him whats going on." John says to reassure Penelope.

"John, do you think Mom is dead? Not like Joshua living in some other body, or like you guys when you came here from Earth, but do you think she figured out a way to just totally not exist any more? I think there is more that Josh isn't telling us and I'm really really scared right now." Penelope asks with tears beginning to fill her eyes."No, Ma'am, I think your Mom is too stubborn an ornery to do that." John says.

"And what is 'ornery'?" Penelope asks.
"It means the same as 'cantankerous'." John replies.
"Never mind." Penelope says with an eye roll.  "And you blame us teens for making up words. You old ones have the craziest words ever."

"Language is tricky." Josh says as he approaches the table. "Words don't always mean what you think they do so it is easy to get confused when using language. But since you guys have evolved to use language to communicate, then that is what we use. It was nice, though, wasn't it, using telepathy while in the wolf host. You guys should target your continuing evolution to move back to telepathy. It's much more accurate." Josh sits down at the table as the two stare at him. "I know you are a bit confused right about now, but we needed to come back here first to prepare for our trip to find your Mom. Are you guys rested up and ready to go?"

"Not so fast, fancy pants." Penelope says with a serious look on her face. "Are we going to end up as some weird animal again? You need to start telling us in advance what is going to happen rather than just dumping us into situations like that. That was fun, but it was really scary too, and that isn't nice. I'm not sure you're a nice person. So tell us what's going to happen, or I would rather just stay here."

"OK, fair enough." Josh says. "I'm sorry I scared you. This stuff is so normal to me that sometimes I forget to look at it from your perspective. So here is my plan. Your Mom is on Earth. That is where we need to go look for her."

"On Earth now, or in the past?" Penelope wants to know.

"She is there right now. So we will go there in this time frame, sort of." Josh replies.

"Sort of?" John askes.

"Yes, by that I mean that it is 'now' there, the same as it is 'now' here, but level 5 has drifted out of temporal lock with level 3 in terms of rate of time experienced. So when we go there we are going to go there in a special way so that I can get you tuned into the level 3 time rate." Josh explains.

"I think the booth already does that, so when we go on an ethereal visit, we are on Earth time." John says.

"Yes it does, John. Actually it adjusts you mind to experience time at the Earth rate. I want to get you into sync with level 3 in a manner that is not possible with the booth. So I will take you there myself, in my own special way. OK guys?".

"On one condition, Josh. If I get scared I want you to promise to get me back here in a hurry." Penelope insisted.

"Agreed. If it becomes more than you can handle, I'll get you right back here. But please, for your sake, enjoy as much of this adventure as you can. It'll be fun. I promise. Think 'excitement' rather than 'fear' and you will enjoy it a lot more."

"OK then. I'll go. But if you mess this up Josh, I'm never going with you again. So Mom is on Earth? There isn't anything but plants there. What is she going to eat? She is not much of a vegetarian. And we are going to find Mom there, right?" Penelope says, her eyes dry now but with a very serious concerned look on her face.

"Yes you will. And there are a few animals there now, but I doubt your Mom would eat them. Ready? Lets join hands like before and we will go to Earth. Hold on tight."

Penelope felt the same whoosh but she didn't feel like she was pulled out of her body this time. The scenery just changed, suddenly she was surrounded by a sea of green."

"Oh wow!. Why is everything all blurry and getting brighter and then darker and then brighter again. What am I standing on, it's like I'm just floating here and there is no ground." Penelope asked.

"You're floating because you can't stand on the Earth since your a level 5 person and because the dirt is invisible to you anyway. It's getting brighter and darker because we came here without adjusting for the temporal discrepancy between level 3 and 5. You are experiencing time here 610 times faster than what you would consider normal time. That is the reason that thousands of years of time has passed on Earth in the 14 years you have experienced in Penny Lake. Over eight thousand five hundred years have passed here since you were born, and much has changed. The brightness changes you see is the rising and the setting of the sun. Daytime and nighttime only last about a minute here. You can't actually see the sun, since there is no life energy there, but you can see the plant life here brighten up during sun time and slow down during the dark time. The leaves on the plants look blurry because as they blow in the wind they are moving 610 time faster than what you are used to. You appear to be standing on nothing because you are. The sand and rocks that don't contain life don't interact with you, or your feet, and is invisible to you. I brought you here this way in order for you to experience this place completely. To do that I need lots and lots of energy and a lot of time because I want to transform your bodies to fully experience being here. You can only see the glow of life in your present form. I want you to see it all." Josh explains.

"Josh! I warned you. You better not transform me into some creepy animal." Penelope insisted.

"No. I'm only going to transform you into you. I'm going to adjust you to level 3 equivalence, but in order to do that I need to increase your density. Using Earth notation your mass is dimensionally 1.57 radians out of phase with level 3 mass, which means it cannot interact. The only reason you can see anything here at all is that the life energy creates a slight dimensional phase shift that is just enough for it to become visible to you. I need to rotate you dimensionally so that you can interact with level 3. A side effect of that is that each kilogram of you must become denser by a factor of 6.5585 times 10 to the 14th power. That is a whole lot of energy that I'm going to pull from the planet, from Earth, from the soil here, to do that transformation. Then you will be able to experience level 3 from the level 3 perspective." Josh continues to explain.

"Dad would probably understand what you just said, and then argue about 4th decimal place. But to me it is just bla bla bla." Penelope says.

"The old 'dust of the Earth' trick. I've heard of that." John says.

"Yeah, sort of like that. And we are going to do it at 610 times normal speed so it should only take a few minutes instead of a few days. I can't transform energy too fast from the Earth without blowing the place up, and that would make a big mess." Josh says.

"OK, so we are gonna get transformed and go meet Mom? Has she already been transformed?" Penelope asked.

"Not exactly. She has transformed herself, but not in this way. This is for you to see the place, fully, and that will give you the perspective that you need to understand where she is and why she is there." Josh replies.

"I guess I'm ready to be transformed then, but I warn you, any of your stupid tricks and I'm going to slap the holy shit out of you." Penelope says.

"I'm sufficiently warned, Penelope. No tricks. Well not any big ones. I'm going to ask you to stand here facing away from each other. When the transformation is complete you will notice a broad leaf plant in front of you. I know your Mom raised you to be modest. You will need to grab a leaf. I can't transform your clothes." Josh instructed.

"Shit! We are going to be naked? OK Josh. Then you are going to look the other way too, and if you turn around before I tell you, the slap fest is gonna begin." Penelope says.

"Agreed. Lets begin then." Josh says.

Penelope stood looking at where the plant is supposed to be, looking at a green glowing blur, and then starting from her feet and moving up she can see a swirling vortex of yellow glowing energy starting to surround her. She feels an increasing weight being pushed down on her and she sinks to her knees in a sitting fetal position, her head too heavy to hold up, unable to move. She gets all tingly and blacks out, unable to bear the weight. A while later, she doesn't know how long, she feels normal again and begins to stand up, her feet on solid ground. She is surprisingly energetic in this heavy body. The first thing she does is look around to make sure the boys are not looking and then she dashes to the plant and pulls off a couple of big leaves. Once she is satisfied that they are tightly secured around her body she says "OK you guys, you can turn around. And you better be wearing your leaf!"

Penelope, John, and Josh look around, stunned by the beauty. They are on a sandy sea shore. The water is blue and crystal clear. You can see all the way to the bottom. A school of fish are shimmering in the sunlight. Past a narrow beach is a jungle of green plants as far as the eye can see. The air is fresh and clear. Everything is pristine.

"Wow. This is a lot prettier than I remember Earth. Everything is so fresh and new. Can we go for a walk in the jungle here, or is some big dinosaur going to come gobble us up?" John asked.

"This is your new Earth. No, there are no dinosaurs here. That period was skipped this time around. During the first few billion years of this planets life everything had to evolve from scratch and adapt to a rapidly changing environment. This time the environment is stable so all of that evolution doesn't have to happen. The first time Earth had to invent herself. This time she only has to remember herself. The Terra forming experiment started the process and then the natural life processes on Earth kicked in and that is what is running the show now." Josh says.

"So is Nettie here? She is the one that did the Terra forming. I think Mom talked about Nettie almost as much as you, Josh." Penelope asks.

"No. Nettie isn't here anymore, and all the remnants of that civilization are buried under about 12 thousand years of dust and dirt and dead bugs. On one of your Moms escapades into other dimensions, helping them with their problems, she made some friends and they helped move Nettie to her home. That blue box that she has in her bedroom is where Nettie lives now, except she is asleep. When your Mom is done here she is going to wake her up and bring her here." Josh says as they stroll into the jungle.

opossum1.jpg
Opossum

"Oh holy fucking shit!! What the hell is that?!?!" Penelope screams as she runs up a small hill, holding her leaves so they will not come undone.

"It looks like a possum to me." John says, laughing at Penelope.

"It looks like some huge ugly rat to me." Penelope says, carefully coming back down the hill after the animal has disappeared into the undergrowth.

"It isn't a rat actually. It is a marsupial, which is a very sturdy, adaptable, and stable creature. This one looks very similar to the variety that existed just after the dinosaur period. It is one of the earlier creatures to emerge. This planet has been seeded with genetic material so many animals will start to emerge, not necessarily in the same order as they evolved the first time, but all the animals that can handle this type of climate will eventually re-emerge here, including humans, which is what you are."

The three of them wander in the jungle for hours, Penelope asking "What is this?" and "What is that?" over and over again. Josh never gets tired of her questions or pointing out new things and new ways to look at things. Occasionally a strange creature, a bug, or some flying animal scares her, but she is getting used to them and beginning to enjoy the rich diversity of life she is witnessing. They find some fruit to eat and sit and rest for awhile. Penelope has many more questions to ask.

"John, Josh, whichever one of you knows the answer. Why was my Mom so freaked out? Has she gone crazy? Is there something wrong with her mind?" Penelope asks.

"It's a normal kind of crazy, honey." John explains. "Losing Joshua was such a shock to her that she has barely begun to recover from it. So she is angry, mad at everybody and everything. And the longer she thinks about it the madder she gets. She is pushing out her rage at losing her boy on to every body else. It's normal Sweetie. It is how we humans deal with extreme loss. Anger is one of the phases we go through to deal with it." John explained.

"But it isn't anybody else's fault. It was an accident. It isn't anybody's fault at all. So why is she so mad at all of us?" Penelope wants to know.

Josh explains more. "Penelope, your Mom is a very special person, but she is at a disadvantage right now being human. Her spirit didn't come from Earth, at least not recently. Most of her evolution occurred elsewhere, and at higher levels of existence. So being human is unfamiliar to her. The feelings and emotions and physical drives and desires are intense in humans and she has not yet learned how to balance all that out. Balance is what she lacks. Give her time, though, she will get it together, and you will be amazed at what an incredible being she is."

"But that doesn't make any sense. My Dad is from the same place as her. They started out as the same person. He isn't acting all weird about it." Penelope says, with a confused look on her face.

"There is a difference. When a soul divides as your Mom and Dad did it isn't always an even split. In each one there is a little more of this and a little less of that. They are also not the same sex, which makes a big difference in how you handle emotion and feelings. The biggest difference is probably this. She is much more than how she started out. She inherited a lot of her makeup, her predispositions, from her Earth parents. Her body is of Earth. Her spirit is not. That isn't always a good fit. She has done a remarkable job, actually, keeping it all integrated. She just needs some time to get her emotions, her fears, her anger, and her sexuality in balance." Josh explained.

"Her sexuality? Ewwwwwww." Penelope says with a disgusted look on her face. "She does get a bit boy crazy from time to time. She can be sooooooo embarrassing some times. I'm just glad I was never in Powder Junction when she had alcohol. I have heard some stories, and I would have died of embarrassment if I had been there."

John, trying to keep the stories accurate says "You can't believe everything you hear, Sweetie. Those stories got exaggerated a bit. I was there most of those times, and yeah, your Mom does like to have fun, but she was never less than a lady."

"She said that she was going to proposition Josh. That doesn't sound very lady like." Penelope says.

"She didn't mean proposition like you think." Josh responds. "She wasn't looking for a one night stand. She was looking for a relationship with someone that she is in love with. I never intended that, and I didn't coalesce in the manner I did just so she would be attracted. I came this way because this is my human form. I was human when I ascended to level 10 and I took my form with me, and when I coalesce here, this is the form I am most comfortable with. I never intended to break her heart. There are many surprises in these Earth based domains. That is also why it is exciting to be here, as human, because you never know exactly what is going to happen next. Even if you have experienced the future you can experience it again, differently."

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"She is, or was, married to my Dad though. They are like the ultimate soul mates. Shouldn't they be the perfect match, a happy couple?" Penelope asks.

"All I can say is it ain't easy kid." John explains. "Relationships, no matter how perfect a match you are, are not easy. Sometimes they aren't even possible no matter how hard you try. Life has a way of complicating even the simplest of things."

"Another factor in your parents situation is that they grew up together."  Josh explains. They knew each other as babies. It was always assumed by their families they they would eventually marry. But when kids grow up together they develop more as sibling than as lovers, more as brother and sister than as boyfriend and girlfriend. It's usually the new guy or girl that is the most interesting, the most exciting, the most attractive. The kids you grew up with, especially if you were very close growing up, are not the most exciting, they are just the most familiar, and the most available. She was attracted to me mostly because I was the new guy in town. That's all, and that is totally normal."

"So then I'll fall head over heels in love with a boy from a different domain? And not ones that I already know?" Penelope ass.

"That isn't a law, so maybe yes, maybe no. But it is more likely than not that you will find the new guys more appealing than guys you have known all your life." Josh explains.

"John, when we get back I need you to start bringing me some new guys, OK?" Penelope says with a giggle.

"Uh, lets wait a few years on that one Sweetie. You have plenty of time to find the right guy, and I'll help you get a good one too." John says with a grin.

Penelope feels all warm inside chatting with the boys about life and love. Deep inside, though, is that gnawing feeling of worry about her Mom. She needs some answers before she can feel better, feel complete again.

"Hey, check it out. I'm going to go see what that white thing is. It doesn't look like it belongs here." Penelope says as she jumps up and starts jogging towards her new discovery. John and Josh follow. Penelope is young and agile and hard to keep up with, so the guys catch up with her a few minutes later.

"This is weird. It's made out of some sort of hard stuff, but it doesn't look natural. Is it left over from the before time?" Penelope askes.

"No, it's quite new. The 'hard stuff' is ceramic, which is a type of glass. It was put here by some friends of your Mom that have access to level 3 matter. It is a part of a biospheric transduction system which will allow for a phase locked standing wave interface to be developed between the biosphere, the life systems on this planet, and a quantum field synaptic network interface which is built underground." Josh explains.

"Hey. I've heard some of those words before. Isn't that what killed the planet?" John asks.

"Yes, and no. That was a similar but much more primitive system that the old network used. This is a more mature design and has safeguards built in to prevent the kind of catastrophe that happened before."

"Isn't that dangerous? What if they screwed up their equations again." John asks.

"Yeah, we don't want to put all this life back here and then blow it all up." Penelope says.

"These systems have been used successfully in other biospheres for thousands of years with good success. There is always some element of risk, but it is small."

"So basically Mom asked some dudes she knows to install this stuff and they just came and did it?" Penelope asks.

"It's a bit more complicated than that. Your Mom and Dad, and John and a few other 'dudes' in your domains gained a lot of knowledge and experience dealing with the Earth problem. They became quite famous all across the Multiverse because of their success. So they have been called on to help out with other catastrophes in other places. You Mom is a smart girl, though, and she didn't do all that for free. She bartered, traded services, with these other entities that needed her help. So they paid her back by installing this stuff for her, since they had the technology and dimensional access to level 3 and she did not."

"What does she want it for? Is this where Nettie is going to live." Penelope asks.

"Yes." Josh replies. "Sally's plan from the beginning was for this to be Nettie's new job, her new life. You see, over the three billion or so years that life evolved on Earth a collective consciousness developed, a global memory system, a global wisdom. You Earthlings referred to her as Mother Earth. In addition to interfacing with humans though electronic interface devices, Nettie was also experimenting with connecting to all life consciousness in the biosphere, and she was starting to have some success. That was before her great miscalculation. When that happened, Mother Earth died. Nettie is to become the new Mother Earth but in a very modern way."

"Isn't that a bit dangerous, mixing the natural with the artificial like that?" John asks.

"There is no such thing as artificial." Josh replied. "The unthinking evolution is no more natural than the thinking evolution. You thinking beings are part of nature and your thought assisted evolution is just as natural a part of evolution as the unthinking chemical reactions that started it. It is, in fact, all part of the plan. Human culture will continue to evolve but not just like bugs and trees and lizards. You will evolve you bodies, your culture, you consciousness, your awareness and your technology including your quantum computers together, and forever, whether on this planet or beyond. That is your destiny, and this is just one step along that path."

"Wow, so Mom is like the lynch pin in this whole chain, isn't she?" Penelope asks.

"If it is a chain you should say 'link' Sweetie. A lynch pin is used to hold a wheel on an axle." John corrects his grand daughter.

"Shut up grandpa." Penelope says with a smile. "You know what I mean."

"You all are an important link in the chain." Josh continues. "Your Mom, your Dad, John, Ben, and you Penelope, and your kids too. This little group is the link that is connecting your past to your future. It has happened before that just a few souls made the trip from one epoch to another, and you are one of those little groups. That is why all the other domains in all the other levels are giving you guys so much attention right now. This is really exciting stuff. I had to pull some serious strings and push my weight around a bit to get to be the one to come here and be with you guys during this transition. But I don't want to say too much, or you guys will get a big head. Ego is still a big problem with humans. You have yet to learn how to balance Ego with the rest of your self. You are making progress though."

"Kids? What if I don't want to have kids? Is that going to screw everything up?" Penelope asks.

"No, there are a gazillion opportunities for the future to work itself out if you don't have kids. The difference is the opportunities that you will miss. I can tell you, looking forward through the several most probable futures for you, that they are all a lot of fun. I think the ones with kids, though, are going to be the most fun." Josh explains.

"So. Who am I going to marry? Do I already know him? Is he cute? Is he sexy?" Penelope asks with a giggle.

"You are so just like your Mom. I could tell you all this stuff, but then that might fix into your reality a certain path that is not your best choice. So I'm going to leave all this up to you. When you meet the right fellow, I think you will know, and do what Penelope will decide to do when the time is right. If you make a few mistakes along the way you will learn and grow and choose better the next time."

It starts to get dark and it has been a long and tiring day. The group finds a doorway into the network building and inside there are rooms for sleeping, with cots, and robes, and water for bathing. It takes a while to figure out how to wrap the robes around the body but Penelope figures out a way and it turns out really cute. She is so happy to get rid of those leaves. The cots, it appears, are for smaller creatures, but Penelope fits just fine. They boys have to struggle to get comfortable, but as tired as they are sleep comes quickly and sweetly.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 4
Biosphere
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I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest against the sweet earth`s flowing breast;
a tree that looks at God all day, and lifts her leafy arms to pray;
a tree that may in summer wear a nest of robins in her hair;
upon whose bosom snow has lain; who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer. 1886 – 1918

John slowly gets up from the bed he has made on the floor.The cot is just too small for his frame."Oh. I haven't been this sore in a long time. Josh, I've got a question for you, as soon as you are up and awake."

"I'm awake, John. What would you like to know?" Josh replies.

"First, is there any coffee here? Second, we are in real life level 3 bodies aren't we? This isn't just some trick like borrowing a wolf body is it? This is the real thing. I didn't know we could do that. I thought we either had to visit here in our invisible form, or get born into a body already here."

"To answer your first question, no. There is no coffee here. There are some coffee beans growing in various places, but there is no way to process it here. Sorry. The answer to your second question is yes, your body has been transformed back to its level 3 density, although you are healthier than you were when you left this place. You are noticing the soreness from yesterdays exercise, and that is what clued you in to the change." Josh says.

"Then how do we get out of here. Do we have to grow old and die to get back to level 5." John asks.

"No, not with me around. This method of transformation has been used quite often on your planet when members of other domains at other levels needed to manifest as human, but it is rarely used by level 5ers. The whole purpose of occupying level 5 is for rest and then rebirth. But this is a special situation, so we are changing the rules a bit. In discussing this with many of the domain managers and a few others that are highly aware of your situation it has been decided that guided evolution will be used up to but just short of humans appearing on the planet. Human DNA has been seeded here, but we have decided to leave it dormant.

"Instead, those level 5ers that were prematurely wiped off the planet will be allowed to return, transformed to level 3, and rebuild your world with your full memory of the before time restored. As babies are born in the new world, then the normal cycle of rebirth with continue and the balance between level 3 and 5 will have been restored. As for you, you will probably stay in level 5 as a domain manager, but all of you have the option to be restored, if you want to participate in the rebuilding."

"So the youngsters being born here will have parents who know about the different levels and the past life and the whole thing. That will be really different than before when we didn't know." John says.

"Oh, there have been times in you history when you did know most, if not all, of this knowledge. But earth changes pushed you to the brink of extinction several times and that knowledge was lost in the fog of history. Much of your mythos and religion was based on bits and pieces of that memory, but most of those ancient stories were just made up. Humanity has gone through many millennia of Ego based evolution, and the Ego is good at making up stuff to suit its self centered purposes. This time around you will have a head start and a broad base of legitimate memory to work with. Thanks to Sally and Nettie you will also have the support of some pretty advanced technology. There is no excuse for not creating a garden planet this time. You guys really screwed it up last time, so now is your second chance." Josh explains.

"You guys? Don't try to kid an old kidder. You gave yourself away the other day when you told us that you ascended to level 10 from human form. Don't say you guys when you are one of us." John says with a big grin.

"You got me on that one. 'We' really screwed it up last time. Boy did we ever screw it up."

"Well then, boy, you've got a story to tell don't cha? Start talking. I need a good fresh story, mine are getting sort of stale." John insists. "Alright. I guess I can tell my story. I'm not too proud of it, but I will tell it. First though, lets check on the child and make sure she is OK. I don't think she is awake yet." Josh says as the two head towards Penelope's room.

"Isn't she a living doll?" John says."She is such an adorable child. I could stand here all day and just watch her sleep. I gotta be careful though and not get caught. I don't want her to think I'm a creepy old man."

"I wouldn't worry about that John. I think she would be comforted by your attention and she knows how much you love her."

John sits on a stool and says"Have a seat there boy. It's story time. Tell me about you when you were human."

"I will give you the short version, otherwise we will be here for days. I was born in Oklahoma in 1948. My Dad had come home after the World War and was working a little farm. We didn't have a lot of money but life was alright, for the most part. There was a lot of stress about making the mortgage payments on the house and the farm and the equipment. We made enough to get by and my parents stashed enough away that along with a student loan, they got me enrolled in Texas A&M university. I was supposed to study agriculture. Instead I studied girls, sex, loud music, and lots and lots of drugs. I flunked out and ended up in the military headed for a war in a country called Vietnam.
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Josh 1968

"This was a horrible war, but I loved it. I excelled at being a soldier. I could run faster, farther, and shoot quicker and straighter than any of my buddies. In the jungle I could smell the enemy before we could see them. So my buddies trusted me to keep them alive. On search missions I would walk point, all by myself, my only goal was protecting my men and getting the mission accomplished. Nothing fazed me, even when they used kids. They would have their kids out there in the jungle, and if they would see us they would run back and tell the enemy. So I would just shoot them in the back as they ran, or if we were close to a village I might grab them and use a knife so it would be quiet.

"Sometimes, though, no matter how focused you get, something in your mind will just snap. I heard something to my left and I turned, ready to attack, and there was a young woman, a girl actually, probably about Penelope's age or a little younger, but old enough to be turning into a woman. I made my move to take her out before she could make any noise. She looked me straight in the eye with a look that said 'Do it! You can kill me but you can't hurt me, and no matter what you do you will lose'. I was stunned by the look in her eyes and I hesitated for a split second. Then I noticed two things. One was her perfect beauty, she was the most beautiful, absolutely perfect girl I had ever seen.

"The second thing I noticed was a blade passing between my ribs from behind. I went down. The kids must have gotten scared away because they didn't finish me off, but I couldn't move. I had no strength, but something told me that if I didn't get up right now, that is where I would die. Somehow I got up on my knees and crawled deeper into the jungle. I crawled around for days. I don't remember how many days, waiting to die, wanting to die, but for some reason I survived. I was delirious from blood loss, infection, fever, starvation, but I guess I was just too stubborn to die.

"There is a lot of that time I don't remember but when my brain fog cleared I was laying on a mat in a tiny village deep in the jungle. At first I thought I was a prisoner of war, but later I realized that I had stumbled into a village so remote and distant from the main pathways that they saw very little of the war. The man of the house appeared to be some sort of monk, and there were several females there too that took care of me. I'm not sure if one of them, or all of them were his wife. It took me a year to heal up and even though I could not speak their language, or them mine, we found ways to communicate.

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"As soon as I was strong enough they put me to work in their little farming area since I knew how to farm. I also had to cook and clean and tend to the chores. They only thing I was not allowed to do was go near any of the women or girls. I guess they didn't trust me that way, and that was probably a good idea.

"Every morning before sunrise I would go to the jungle, or the hills and just sit and think. I would do the same thing after the chores were done in the evening. My life as I knew it had ended suddenly the moment that girl made eye contact. It was like she reached in and sucked out my soul and now I had to completely reinvent myself all over again. I started looking for answers anywhere and everywhere. I would talk to the trees, the bugs, the rocks, the birds, the water. I would pray to God, or the sky, or any being who I thought may be listening. I wanted to know. I wanted to know it all.

"Then it happened. My eyes and ears were opened and I started getting answers, from the trees and rocks and birds and every living thing. They all started talking to me. I figured I had finally lost my mind, some sort of drug flashback, but what the hell? What did I have to lose? I just rolled with it and decided to see where it would take me.

"Day after day, one by one, each of Gods creatures would bring me answers, at first to my questions, and then to questions I couldn't even imagine to ask. I started to have visions where the secrets of the universe were being revealed to me. As fast as I could absorb it, more information, more revelation would come. I don't know if it was after a few months or after a dozen years, I had completely lost track of any sense of time, when I had one final vision. Or maybe it wasn't a vision, I'm not sure. My caretaker, the monk guy, came to me and without opening his mouth, told me telepathically that it was time for me to go, that I did not belong there any more. He waved his arm and a doorway appeared, a doorway to another level of the universe, and I walked through it, and I was in level 10.

"Once there all the lessons my animal friends had brought me coalesced into a single, complete knowingness, and I remembered who I really am, who I've always been. I started my existence in that level. Most of that I can't even describe because there are so many out-folded dimensions there that it would make no sense here. In fact, since I transformed myself to level 3 along with you guys, I can't really remember much of it because that sort of knowledge just doesn't fit in a human brain.

"After my time in level 10, which really doesn't make any sense because the words 'time before' and 'after' don't have meaning there, but at some 'time' relative to the time we understand here I decided to make the transformation and become a coalescent. That is like dissolving yourself into an infinite ocean and becoming one with it, dissolving your essence into its essence. That ocean is the vast infinite ALL that IS, or God, if that is easier to understand. As a coalescent I can reform anywhere at anytime that I want, and that is how I got here.

"OK, story time is over now. Lets go wake up sleeping beauty and get this show on the road." Josh says as he stands up to head back to Penelope's room.

"I'm awake. Silly boy. I've been standing here listening almost the whole time. I see how those kids snuck up on you. When you get really focused on something you don't watch your back." Penelope says with a giggle."Just kidding Josh. I assume that 'get this show on the road' means that we are going to go find Mom?"

"Yes it does Sweetie. This is going to be a very interesting trip. Are you ready?" Josh asks.

"Define interesting. I don't feel like being a toad today." Penelope says.

"I knew you were going to say that, even without all my coalescent memory." Josh says with a laugh."First let me tell you a little about where your Mom has gone, and how we are going to find her. In the same way that I dissolved into the ALL that IS, you Mom performed a similar dissolution process into this worlds biosphere. She has become one with all the life currently on this planet. She has, effectively, become Mother Earth. She is working to prepare the biosphere for the re-introduction of you, the humans, and the re-integration of Nettie into the biospheric network. She is also performing another important task that she is well suited for.

"Your Mom and Dad, when they were one, a long time ago, was a warrior priestess, powerful, and ruthless. When they split to become Sally and Pat the warrior priestess template went primarily to the female child. That is why you Mom tends to be impatient and aggressive and your Dad is more accepting and mellow. This planet is now, again, shining with the brilliant light of life like it used to many millennia ago. Because of that, this jewel of the universe has been noticed, by greedy beings who would like to posses it for themselves. With the help of the biospheric network and her own raw power she is setting up a planetary shield to keep out all those unwelcome guests. Without that your planet will be ravaged and exploited by those beings before it is ready for humans to return. Once you re-populate you too will assist in the planetary defense until it is understood in the universe that this planet is not one to be exploited.

"Now, in order to go see her, actually we are only going to feel her, because we will not have eyes, so to speak, we are going to dissolve ourselves part way into the biosphere too, but not all the way. We are going to become one with a specific species, a magnificent royal species of conifer, a tree, known as the Ponderosa Pine. It will be a new experience for you guys. You are going to find out what it is like to be a tree. Be advised that at first its going to be dark, until you learn to 'see' with your feelings. Trees don't have a brain and a visual cortex to process eyesight, so it will be very different until you get used to it. Are you ready?"

"Maybe." Penelope says."It sounds like an interesting experience. But I'm just getting used to this level 3 body. I really really like it. I can feel so much more. The fruit tastes sweeter. When I snuggle up in bed I feel warmer and cozier than my level 5 body does. I feel more like a woman too. Everything is brighter and more colorful and the feelings are deeper and stronger. Can I keep this body and take it to level 5?"

"No, I'm sorry. You can't. This body will be phased back to level 5 and the dense energy allowed to disperse. But it will not be too long before you will have to opportunity to come back here, permanently, and live out the rest of your life at level 3." Josh explains.

"Dang! OK then. Lets do it." Penelope says with a pout.

The group heads outside again. Penelope watches as the now familiar yellow vortex began to engulf her, but instead of the sense of being pushed down by an overpowering weight, she felt light and floaty, and hot and glowing, then everything started to go dark. She wasn't passing out like before, there was just no light. She felt herself start to spread out and get thin and wispy like a cloud and then her sense of form evaporated. She was like air, filling the form around her, but not having any form of her own.

"Oh my! This is sooooooo weird. It's not bad weird. Just weird. Where are you guys?" Penelope asked. "We are right here Sweetie." John says.

"Whoa! John, I heard you from inside my head. But it wasn't like the wolf telepathy. There I heard you from 'over there'. Now I hear you from inside." Penelope says, with a confused tone in her voice.

"That is because we are co-mingled here. We are all part of a collective consciousness. We are, in fact, inside each other." Josh explained.

"This is something you can get us out of, right? Josh? I mean, I love you guys, but I don't want to 'be' you guys." Penelope says.

"In the broader sense there is indeed only one of us, but from your perspective I understand what you mean. And yes. I can get us out of here."

"This is indeed a strange sensation." John voice says.

"Yeah. I feel waves, like on an ocean, moving over me, and inside me, and through me, like I'm part of the ocean. I thought I was supposed to be a tree, not an ocean." Penelope says, a little frustrated with the experience.

"I think I know what is going on Honey." John says."I remember these sounds moving through the trees back in the forest I lived in. It's wind blowing through the trees. Except here it isn't just the wind blowing through my few acres, it is the wind blowing through the whole forest. Apparently we are not three individual trees, like I thought it might be. We are all the trees in the forest at the same time."

"Exactly!" Josh confirms."Trees do not have an individual consciousness like humans do, nor do they have an awareness. They are simply alive, and because they are alive they can feel. They have feelings, and they can respond to feelings of other creatures. But there is not this tree and that tree, there is just 'tree', all of them at once. So the trees are like the cells of the forest, each one contributing a little to the collective, but not any one of them being 'whole' in the sense that you are a whole person in a human body."

"Yes, this is totally crazy. I'm feeling stuff that is completely new and strange. My feet, which I guess are roots now, are like straws, and they are sucking up juice and it is sweet and yummy like apple juice. The wind waves are like caresses and hugs and back rubs all at once. And there is this other feeling, pulsating like the beat of a song, all over the place, and it's like nothing I have ever felt, and if I had breath it would take it away, it's so awesome. I really don't have a word to explain it." Penelope says.

"When you are as big as a forest you can feel the pulsating seismic beat of the earth. The word you are looking for is 'orgasmic' and I am quite relieved that it is unfamiliar to you."

"MOMMY! You're here! I was so worried. Are you OK?" Penelope asks with excitement. If she had legs she would have been jumping up and down and dancing around but that is difficult to do when you are a forest.

"I am OK Sweetie. In the few days it took you to get here I have been here several months. I've had time to think and to get past a few things my mind was stuck on. My human thoughts still carry a lot of anger but spread out in the Earth life it isn't so intense. Mostly now I'm just depressed, but I'm getting over that too. There is a lot of work for me to be doing here and that keeps my mind from just stewing on the same thing over and over. I'm sorry I yelled at you guys, not that some of you didn't deserve it, but I acted like a child and I apologize for that. I especially apologize to you Penelope. I'm supposed to be an example and you were more mature than me. Do you forgive me?" Sally asks.

"Of course I do mommy. I love you so much. I didn't realize how much you hurt. I hurt too, but not as much as you, so I understand."

"How long are you going to be here, Sally?" John wants to know.

"Probably six months to a year before I get everything setup. But that will not be very long for you guys since time is different there."

"I want to stay here, with you mommy. I like feeling the waves and sucking up sweet juice and feeling all orgasmic. Can I stay?" Penelope asked.

"No Honey, you can't. It isn't time for you to be here, and you have plenty of time to feel all orgasmic when you get older. Now, you guys are going to have to brace yourselves. We are going to activate the planetary shield. It isn't going to hurt you, but it is going to push you off the planet. When that happens just do what I saw in a movie when I was a child. Close you eyes and click your heels and say 'There is no place like home' over and over. Then in a moment you will be home. I promise. You don't need Josh for this. It's automatic. And make sure to keep your eyes closed! You guys are going to be naked when you leave here. I love you Honey. I will see you soon."

Penelope felt a sudden pressure and a tearing sensation. It didn't actually hurt, but it stung a little. Then intense movement, acceleration. She watched as the Earth suddenly started moving away faster and faster getting smaller and smaller. Oh shit! Penelope thought to herself. I'm still a cloud. I don't have heels to click. Damn! Well, it probably doesn't matter anyway. There is no place like home. There is no place like home.

Penelope awoke, rubbing her eyes, looking around at her familiar stuff in her bedroom at John's house. Wow, was that all a dream? She thought. Holy crap! I'm naked! I always sleep in my PJ's, especially at Johns House. It must not have been a dream!

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 5
Capital City
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Do not control the people with laws, Nor violence nor espionage, But conquer them with inaction.

The more morals and taboos there are, The more cruelty afflicts people;

The more guns and knives there are, The more factions divide people;

The more arts and skills there are, The more change obsoletes people;

The more laws and taxes there are, The more theft corrupts people.

Yet take no action, and the people nurture each other;

Make no laws, and the people deal fairly with each other;

Own no interest, and the people cooperate with each other;

Express no desire, and the people harmonize with each other.

Lao tzu - Tao te Ching

Pat walks down the hall towards Penelope's room."Penelope! Get up and get dressed. It's almost time to go. We have been summoned." he says, yelling into Penelope's bedroom.

"Huh? Summoned? By who?" Penelope asked, stumbling into the hallway rubbing her eyes, her hair a frizzy bed head mess.

"Girl? What is that black stuff smeared all over you face?" Pat asks his daughter.

"It's makeup Dad. "I'm glad your Mom isn't here to see that. She would scrub you raw. Hurry up! We don't have much time." Pat insists."Time for what? Who is summoning us?" Penelope still wants to know.

"The Council. The old Earth Council. They have reassembled in Capital City and we have been asked to go and answer questions from the 3 of 9. Get bathed and dressed and I'll explain it on the way."

"OK. I feel a boring day coming on. I'm taking a book, and a pillow in case I need to take a nap." Penelope says as she grabs a towel and heads for the bath.

Pat is assembling some papers and notes when John comes in. "Are you ready?" John asks. "Mike is outside waiting."

"I'm waiting for Penelope. She is disfiguring her face with makeup, trying to get it perfectly bizarre." Pat replies.

"Hey there Sweetie." John says as Penelope comes down the hall. "Now, turn your little ass right back around and put on something more appropriate, and wipe that shit off your face."

"Grandpa! No!" Penelope says with an angry look.

"Don't make me wash you myself, cuz I will if I have to. We are going to speak to the council and you need to look nice." John says with a stern voice.

"Crap! This day started out bad and is getting worser by the second!" Penelope says as she stomps back into her room to change.

"One of these days you're going to have to teach me how you do that. She doesn't listen to me at all anymore." Pat complains.

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"It's easy." John says with a laugh. "Raise two more. After the third one you'll have it down pat, Pat."

After a few minutes Penelope came back out looking like a young lady instead of Bizarra queen of the weird.

"Hey Michael. You got summoned too? Wow! We're the Magnificent Four, except I'm playing the role of Mom. Maybe this will be fun after all. What is our mission, sirs?" Penelope asks with an excited grin on her face.

"To tell you the truth Honey, we are not really sure. We just know that the newly reconstituted Earth Council has summoned us for a committee hearing and we figured we ought to go. We haven't been to the new Capital City, so it could be fun." Michael explains.

"Good God in Heaven, what the hell is that contraption?" John asks as a rectangular vehicle approached and descends on the front lawn, hovering about a foot off the ground.

"Daddy! It's a hover car, isn't it?" Penelope squeals. "Can I drive?"

Pat grins at Penelope and says "Nope, not a chance, Sweetheart. Anyway this is a Limo and it already has a driver. Let's go guys."

The four get situated in their seats, John visibly nervous getting buckled into the 'contraption' as he called it. The hover car slowly rises, accelerating slowly up to 100 feet then accelerating rapidly and away from Penny Lake. Penelope has her face pasted against the window with John sitting next to her, white knuckled and holding on tight. As the craft approaches the perceptual boundary of Penny Lake a small vortex appears and grows larger as they approach. The craft enters the vortex and with a slight shudder emerges on its other side in less than a second.

"What was that? There is a hole in our world. Where did that come from? Did Ben put it there?" Penelope asks.

John answers "Ask your Daddy. He helped design it. Ben used to be the technology king in Penny Lake, but I think your Dad has passed him up."

"It's a trans-dimensional conduit, or 'tdc' for short. It's based on the same technology that our other dimensional friends, like Ben's mother in law, use to travel between dimensional frames in their universe. It also works here to transition from one perceptual bubble to the next. We have just entered the bubble that houses the Capital City. This perceptual framework is actually the joining of over 20 perceptual bubbles, so it is very dense, even more so than Powder Junction. There are more than 30 million souls here. It almost feels like being back in level 3." Pat explains.

"Good. I like being dense. I miss my level 3 body I had for , oh, like maybe a day. With 30 million people here there has got to be lots of cute boys." Penelope says with a grin.

"I'm sure there are Honey, and you are not talking to a single one of them. You are so your mothers daughter." Michael says laughing more at the sick look on Pats face than Penelope's interest in boys.

"Damn!" Penelope says. "My first trip to the big city and I'm stuck with my Dad and two grandpa's. When I get a boyfriend we are coming here alone! Hey! If this place has hover cars that means it has movies and videos and VR theaters and carnivals and all that stuff, huh? Doesn't it Daddy?"

"Yes I believe it does. And when you are old enough to date, and I've met the boy, and all of your grandpa's approve, and you have both reached the age of oh, say, thirty five or so, you two can come here alone." Pat says to Penelope with a grin, trying to hide that nauseating realization that his daughter was becoming a woman and would soon be doing adult woman things that his mind refuses to visualize.

"OK Daddy. When Mom gets back we will talk, and we're gonna make a few modifications to your plan. Hee hee. Anyway, what is this 3 of 9 stuff. And when is Mom coming back. She said it would be about 6 months to a year and that was a week ago. That's about 12 years on Earth. She is going to be an old lady when she gets back." Penelope asked.

"Not really." Pat explained. "For one thing in level 5 it seems that we age when we are young, like you and your friends at school, and puppies and kittens, but when we reach maturity we stop aging. So she won't be an old lady. The older women you know here, like Penny, came here that way, they didn't age here. The other thing your Mom is doing on Earth is helping bring Earth and our level 5 domains into temporal sync. So Earth isn't aging at such an accelerated rate any more. Soon we will be in temporal sync, and time here and there will be the same."

"And you know this how? Who told you what Mom is doing there?" Penelope asks.

"She told me." Pat says.

"You and Mom are TALKING ?!?!" Penelope squeals.

"Yes, we do communicate, but only about business. She still doesn't like me very much." Pat explains.

"Well, it's a start I guess. I miss the days when we would all kiss each other at bed time. I haven't slept as good since that stopped." Penelope complains.

The hover car begins to slow on its approach to the Palace and quietly touches down on the landing pad. The Limo staff quickly secure the vehicle to the pad and open the doors for the occupants to emerge.

"So where are we, and what is this building?" John asks.

"This is a recreation of the building used by Earth Council. It is called the Peace Palace. At the end of the 19th century the rich, the elite, and the royal of planet earth were working towards creating world peace. Vast fortunes were donated to build this building, the one on Earth that is, and after a dozen years or so they had it all built and ready for the business of peace. That was a bit premature though, for humans did not yet posses the maturity for peace.

"They had barely finished the building before the first World War broke out, followed by many more global conflicts. Humans had matured a lot by the 21st century, but then it all fell apart again and we had barely recovered from those catastrophes by my time. We were at peace then, but I was afraid that tensions were then leading towards extra-global conflict with the other planets and moons. In my time the Peace Palace was used as a government building and peace was not high on their agenda. I hope the Council has grown up some since then, or this meeting is not going to be much fun." Pat explains.

John cringes and says "If they are like politicians in my time, it ain't gonna be pretty."

"So what is the 3 of 9?" Penelope asked, again.

Pat has some experience with the Council so he explains "After the great war of 2053 the planet was divided up into 27 provincial territories. Each of these provinces had one representative to the Earth council that are elected by the population of that province. Earth Council has a single Director. The 27 representatives do not speak to the Director directly. These representatives are organized into triads of three each and each triad elects a delegate for the triad. That means that there are 9 delegates. The 9 delegates are also organized into triads and and each of these triads elects elects a speaker to speak for the triad.

"In formal Council hearings it is these 3 speakers, known as the 3 of 9, that actually conduct the hearing. They sit in the first row of a semi-circle bench. Behind them in a second tier sit the remaining 6 members of the 9. On the third tier sit the remaining 18 representatives of the 27. Although they all speak among themselves only the 3 speak to the witnesses in the hearings or to the Director. The Director sits in a big chair next to a podium in case he wants to get up and make an address, but he is rarely there except on special occasions. So if the representative from your province got elected to be a delegate, one of the 9, and then also got elected to be a speaker, one of the 3, then your province has a very powerful representative. In a similar fashion to electing the Council, each province also elects a candidate for the Director.

"The 21 representatives by majority vote elects one of them to be the Director. That is also a very powerful position, because if a vote in the representative body is a tie, or is one vote short of a super-majority, then the Director can cast the deciding vote for that decision. Before a decision can become law, however, it must also be approved by a nine member council of Elders. The Elders are appointed for life by the Director. So that makes the Directors position very very powerful.

"If the Elders disapprove a decision the Council can still push it through by a super-majority vote. They hesitate to do that though, because if it is not popular with the population, they very likely will not get re-elected. So that is how the Council works. We are going to testify before the 3 of 9 today, so you will get to see what it's all about. Their names are Richard, Robert, and Nancy. I spoke before them many years ago about our concern for the potential for extra-global conflict."

"What is a super-majority?" John asks.

"That depends on the kind of vote it is, but it can be three fifths or four fifths. This is different from a simple majority which is just one more than fifty percent." Pat explains.

"That sounds very political. I've always hated politics. It makes my head hurt." Michael comments.

The four left before they had time for breakfast so their first task was to go to the cafeteria and get something to eat. There they were met by Council staff members who briefed them and prepared them for the hearing they were to attend. There was a big couch in the waiting area so Penelope made good use of her pillow and took a nap before the hearing.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 6
Politics Remembered
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I HEARTILY ACCEPT the motto, That government is best which governs least and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.

Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.

... Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.

It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation} a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.

— Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

Penelope stares at a strange plaque on the wall in the Palace.

"What is that picture of the Earth in a circle with dots on it?"

"This is the Earth Council Seal. It is a symbol of the Council. There are a number of different versions showing different views of the Earth, but they all have the 28 dots representing the Council's structure. The single dot on the bottom is the Director. The three above that is the 3 of 9, the speakers. There are 6 above that which represent the remaining 9 of 27. The top row is the remaining 18 representatives that didn't get elected to the 9 or the 3." Pat explained.

"It's dumb." Penelope says. "I could have done a better one."

"I'm sure you could have." John agrees.

"Hello, my name is Jennifer. I will prep you for the committee. Which one of you is your council?" Jennifer, the committee clerk announces as she approaches the group in the waiting area.

"Council? We came to see the Council. We are not the Council." Michael replies.

"I'm sorry. I mean which one of you is legal council for your group. A Barrister? A Lawyer?" Jennifer asks, looking very confused.

"Oh. We don't have no lawyers. We just came to talk. I'm the oldest. Will that work?" Michael says, trying to understand what Jennifer is needing.

"I guess that will have to do. Are you going to dress for the meeting?" Jennifer asks.

"I'm already dressed, Ma'am. This is what I always wear." Michael informs the young lady.

"It is customary for the legal council to dress in proper attire. We can get you a robe and a wig in our fitting room." Jennifer informs.

"Really?" Michael says. "Well, missy. This is what I'm going to wear. If you want to put me in a dress and a silly costume I'm gonna have to decline our invitation here and go back home."

Jennifer just stares looking frustrated. These four are famous, legendary, and she wants to make sure that everything is proper. Her job may depend on their presentation to the council. She doesn't know what to do with this group. They are definitely not from Capital City. "I don't know what to say, Michael. This is not what I was expecting. I guess I can present you 'in pro per'. Follow me and I will guide you to the hearing room." Jennifer leads the way down the hall with the four, somewhat reluctantly, following.

"Improper?" Penelope asks. "Is that what she said we were? Improper? I'm gonna sock the bitch!"

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"Calm down there, Sally Junior." Pat says. "She said 'in pro per'. That is Latin for going into a hearing without a lawyer. It just means that we are representing ourselves and not having someone speak for us, that's all."

"Oh. Well. She better be careful, that's all I gotta say." Penelope says still bristling with indignation. "So why did they want Micheal to wear a costume?"

"The Council puts a lot of emphasis on being proper, putting on a good show, trying to look important. I think it's all silly, a throwback to times long dead. But it is the way these people think. So when we talk to them be nice, act as proper as you can, answer their question, precisely. Don't give them any additional information. Just give them what they ask for. Then we should be out of here in no time and they will leave us alone." Pat explains.

"All Rise." A voice over a loudspeaker says as everyone stood. Penelope looked around to see where the voice came from. Growing up at the Lake she had never heard a loudspeaker system before. The four of them are seated at a long table with microphones. Council appointed staff are seated behind them to help them with questions of protocol and procedure. Pat is getting nervous. He expected to speak to the 3 of 9 in a small hearing room, but they have been seated in the main council chamber used for meetings of State. The galley is packed and people are standing along the wall.

"Members of the media and the press are there in abundance with pencils and pads and electronic cameras and recording devices. Pat has not seen this much technology in one place since back on Earth. The four of them are feeling very out of place. Penelope is enjoying herself with all the new sights and sounds. John is just plain terrified and Michael has the look of a cornered animal looking around for a way to make a clean break. Pat just stares, open jawed, as all 27 representatives march in, followed by the 9 elders, followed by the director himself.

"Are we in trouble?" John asks, leaning over to speak to Pat.

"I don't know exactly what is going on here." Pat replies. "But it looks like we may have stumbled into some pretty deep shit. I guess we will just have to see what happens. My only advice, having dealt with this group before, is to make short specific answers to their questions, and say as little as possible. Anything that you say is in danger of being misinterpreted and one wrong word could have serious consequences. Lets just hope they don't ask Penelope anything. I'm afraid if she gets flustered she might just stand up and start cussing at them."

"Don't worry about Penelope. John and I are likely to have already started the cussing long before they get to her." Michael reassures.

"Don't worry Daddy. I'll be good. This place is way funner than the Lake. I don't want to get kicked out. But Dad. They are all wearing dresses and funny white wigs. Are these those people that don't know what sex they are?" Penelope asks.

"No, Honey. This is just the silly way they dress up when they want to feel important. Just pretend you think it's cute and don't embarrass them. If we embarrass them they can get really mean." Pat instructs his daughter.

"OK, Dad. I won't laugh. Not out loud anyway." Penelope giggles.

"You may be seated." The Director announces, standing at his podium and addressing the room. "This is a very special day. We have been blessed with three of the Magnificent Four, as they are known, and the beautiful daughter of the fourth. Welcome. We are honored by your presence and grateful for you response to our summons. We look forward to our discussions with you. Now I turn you over to the speakers as we begin our hearing."

The speakers are seated in three chairs labeled First, Second, and Third, which are selected by casting lots at the beginning of each Council year. The speaker in the First chair begins the hearing and is the moderator for the discussions. Nancy has the First chair, Robert has the Second, and Richard has the Third. Nancy speaks first. "Good morning group. Welcome. This is a formal hearing of record and we will begin by swearing you in. Will the four of you please rise and raise your right hand. Do you swear that your testimony today will be integrous and truthful, complete and forthright, without omission or falsification of any kind?"

John, Michael, and Pat say "Yes". Penelope looks around and then asks "What is forthright?".

"Forthright means that you will answer questions directly, to the point, and will not try to evade the question by using a lot of words that do not lead to the truth." Nancy explains.

"Oh. OK then. I will if you will." Penelope responds.

"Please answer yes or no?" Nancy requests.

"Yes." Penelope says as the four sit down.

"Please pull your microphones close so that we may all hear and get a clear recording of your testimony. If you have prepared opening statements you may begin starting with Michael, then John, then Patrick, and Penelope last." Nancy instructs.

Michael responds "We just came here to have a chat with you guys. We didn't prepare anything because we didn't know what sort of stuff you were going to be asking. So just start firing off your questions and we will do our best to give you an answer."

"Very well then. The record will show that opening statements were not prepared at the time of the hearing. You may prepare opening statements after the fact and they may be placed in the record as if read as long as they are received by the Council staff within 7 days following this hearing. I now allocate 5 minutes for each witness for speaker Robert. Speaker Richard will follow with 5 minutes for each witness, and I will complete the first round with 5 minutes each. I yield 5 minutes to the Second chair. Speaker Robert, you may begin."

Robert turned to the first page of his notes and looking at the group says "Madam speaker of the First chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I direct my first question to Michael, the elder of this group of four. My first question is one of great passion to me personally, but also has great significance to this Council and to the population that is to be prepared to return to the planet. It is of great concern to me that most of us do not have, or cannot remember, a sur name, our family name.

"As we, as a population, emerge from our mental slumber and regain awareness of who we are, where we are, and from whence we came, a great gap in our understanding persists due to the loss of our sur name, which is our family name, which is indicative of our history, our ethnicity, our heritage. Do you, Michael, whose knowledge and wisdom are legendary, have an understanding that you can share with us regarding the loss of our sur names and do you have a remedy that we may employ to recover them?"

"Until now I had never given that much thought." Michael responded. "I guess it would have to do with how we humans have used our level 5 time. Over the eons of history level 5 has been used as a preparation for going back to level 3, the Earth, and when we do that we leave our old history behind, it is forgotten. It isn't completely forgotten in our subconscious, but it does not reside in the awareness of the new creature that we become.

"So I suppose that we don't remember it, like so much else that we don't remember in level 5, because it serves no purpose here, and serves no purpose in our next life. The vast majority of level 5ers arrive here separate from their Earth families and when they return as a new child on Earth they are in an entirely new family probably a different religion, different ethnicity, and so on. Another way to say it is that our sur name, our family name, is forgotten because it would just get in the way. To the second part of your question regarding a remedy, I suppose that if we put our minds together we could figure out a way to recover more of our Earth history, including our family history, and it's name.

"I am assuming that you ask for your sur name so that if and when you decide to resume your life on Earth you can just pick up where you left off. As we do not yet have a plan completely worked out for re-populating the Earth I'm not sure if that would have value to you or not. I would advise that it may be more of a distraction than an asset. Anyway I will give it some thought and get back to you with a recommendation."

"Let the record show that Michael of Powder Junction has promised the Council a recommendation for a remedy for the rediscovery of sur names. We anxiously await your recommendations. John of Penny Lake, my next question is addressed to you. Since the arrival of the absent member of the four, Sally, you have become her surrogate father and you have had close contact with Sally on a daily basis for since her arrival in these domains.

"It is of great concern to this Council that Sally has taken it on herself to prepare the Earth for re-population and has done so without advice or consent of this Council, the Director, the Elders, or in fact any member of any level 5 community, but has rather taken advice and support from off-worlders and extra-dimensional entities whose purpose and interest in planet Earth are unknown to us, as to whether it be beneficial or malevolent. It is also of common knowledge that Sally has experienced extreme emotional distress after the loss of her young son who was killed in a tragic manner and that this distress may, and evidently does, cloud her judgment.

"It is the consensus of this Council that Sally should be given the benefit of guidance and support from level 5, specifically this Council, in her efforts for the preparation of the planet. My hope is that you John, given your special and influential relationship with Sally, and given the critical nature of the work she is endeavoring to perform, would be willing to work with this Council as a mediator, a go-between, so that the necessary guidance and support from this Council can be made available to Sally in that it is only right that this Council, as a representative of a significant population of level 5 citizens, should be intimately involved in the re-population effort for planet Earth. May this Council expect your cooperation in this regard?"

"Sure." John replies. "Be advised, however, and this is neither a threat nor a promise but rather a simple statement of fact, that if it is indeed your intent to provide guidance and support, then I will be your mediator between this Council and my daughter Sally. If, on the other hand, your intention is to cause harm, to control, or to manipulate Sally for any purpose other than the guidance and support that you have advertised, then you will have necessarily made me your worst enemy. Be also advised that my communication with Sally is at her pleasure. If she don't want to talk, their ain't no way I can make her. If she gets stubborn all we can do is wait for her to get over it. I know you guys might be impatient, but with Sally, you gotta just let her work it out."

"Let the record show that John of Penny Lake has committed his cooperation to the Council as a mediator between the Council and the person Sally of Penny Lake who is presently the sole human inhabitant of planet Earth. Let the record also show the serious concern expressed by John of Penny Lake regarding the strong likelihood that Sally of Penny Lake will prove to be uncooperative and oppositional towards this Council. Let the record also show that the expressed intent of this Council is the providing of guidance and support in whatever manner is necessary for the preparation of planet Earth for re-population of the Human species.

"The next question is addressed to Penelope of Penny Lake. It has come to our attention, Sweetheart, that you have been kept in the dark regarding your status in the level 5 communities. Your parents are quite famous after their work to restore the Earth. They have become in the minds of the people a sort of Royal Family. You, being the first born of a generation of level 5 children are famous in your own right.

"You are also exceptionally beautiful. You, therefore, are the peoples Princess. You are known to hundreds of millions of adoring fans as Princess Penelope. You are, in fact, the primary reason for all the press coverage of this event. Everyone wants to meet you, to honor you, and to adore you. The Council is surprised that all of this has been kept from you. It is a great honor to this Council, and to me personally, to formally welcome you to Capitol City, and to award you the formal keys to the City. The Council has a Royal suite reserved for you here in the city and a staff has been assembled for your service whenever you wish to visit.

"A private hover limo with a driver and chaperone is at you disposal whenever you desire. Capitol City is yours, and we hope that you visit often. I have only one question for you regarding the current investigation on the matter of Earth re-population. You are unique in that you have had no previous experience at level three and because, as we understand, you recently were transformed temporarily by an off-world entity into level 3 density and that you walked the surface of the Earth as such. We are interested in your perception of that experience and would like you to explain you feelings to us here today."

"You mean any time I want to I can come here and go to movies and VR theatres and go shopping all I have to do is call and you will send me a car and driver?" Penelope asks, wide eyed and excited.

"Yes Ma'am. That is what we mean. Our staff will provide you with all the information that you need at the conclusion of this hearing. Now, if you would please, lets stay on subject and answer the question put to you."

"OK. Wow! This is awesome. I'm glad I came today. First off, Josh, the off-world entity, is actually from Earth. He was a soldier in a place called Vietnam a long long time ago. So he isn't really an off-worlder. He isn't exactly human any more either. The transformation to level 3 was really ikky. I got all dizzy and it felt like I was getting all mashed down by some incredible weight. When it was over though it was great. I felt like I had way more energy, all the colors were brighter, the air was full of beautiful smells, everything tasted better, even sleeping was better, all snuggly and yummy feeling. I felt more alive.

"I felt beautiful. I felt sexy. I loved my level 3 body. But then Josh transformed us into a plant, and that felt good too, but then Mom kicked us off the planet and I ended up back here. I thought for a minute it was all a dream, but when I woke up naked I knew it wasn't because I always wear my PJ's to bed."

"Very good, Penelope. We appreciate you sharing you experience. We didn't need to know about the naked part, and the scuffling noise you heard from the rear of the chamber was about a hundred journalists all trying to get out the doors at the same time to file that part of their story. When you visit Capital City more and more we will teach you how to be famous and what you should and should not say in public. I hope none of the journalists were injured. You said that your Mom kicked you off the planet. Can you give us some more information on how she kicked you off the planet. Was she angry? Was she in a rage?"

"No. She wasn't mad any more. She had calmed down a lot since she dissolved herself into the biosphere there on Earth. She said that she was activating some sort of field force thingy so that other people wouldn't steal our planet before we were ready to go back and live there. That's all that was. And then we were pushed off into space and then I woke up back in Penny Lake."

"This force that you mother used to eject you from the planet, did she say where she acquired that technology?"

"Not specifically, no. But I think she got part of it from grandma Penny's mother in some other dimension. My Mom and Dad went there a long time ago to help them out with some problems they had with their time there. Whoever put that stuff on the planet must have been tiny people because their beds were so tiny. Poor John had to sleep on the floor."

"Thank you Penelope. That concludes our questions for you, except one. Do you formally accept our offer of a Royal suite with car and driver for your visits to Capitol City? Please answer yes or no, for the record."

"Oh! Yes, Yes, Yes!!. I formally accept!" Penelope says with a huge smile and a giggle.

"Let the record show that Penelope of Penny Lake, having reached the legal age of consent, has accepted the Councils invitation to Capitol City and is now at this time officially a co-member of Penny Lake and Capitol City. Henceforth Penelope of Penny Lake will be also named Penelope of Capitol City, with all the rights, responsibilities and protections commensurate with her new residency status. At this time I yield to the First chair and reserve the balance of my time."

"I yield 5 minutes to the Third chair. Speaker Richard, you may begin."

"Madam speaker of the First chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I direct my first question to Patrick, the first father of our new generation. Welcome, sir. We are greatly honored by your attendance at this hearing. We have met before, in the before time, on Earth. You and your company of youth were presenting your concerns regarding the somewhat hostile relationship that was developing between Earth and Mars and your concern that it may have erupted into armed conflict. That did not, as we both know, occur, but rather a much more serious event did occur obliterating all life in a matter of seconds.

"I hope we can see now that your concerns of conflict were exaggerated and immature and the we both, the Council and the population of Earth, should have had our attention on a much more serious threat, which was the emerging conscious awareness of the computerized network which ultimately destroyed us all. It is our understanding that this very same network has been harvested from Earth, placed in suspended animation in Penny Lake, in your very residence actually, and that your wife, Sally of Penny Lake is preparing to reconstitute this entity and place it, again, in a highly integrated intimate connection with the life that is to be re-populated on Earth.

"Given the careless and thoughtless act of the network entity and the recent unstable mental state of Sally of Penny Lake, confirmed by testimony of your friends here today, the council is gravely concerned that allowing her to continue her work unsupervised and without any authorization other than her own will, represents a clear and present danger not only to the planet but also to the estimated twenty billion souls that currently occupy the Terran region of level 5.

"It has also come to our attention that you and your wife are in fact not of Earth, but rather an off-world entity which has possessed the bodies of two earth children before their birth, a history which you both claim not be able to remember except for a few hours during the restoration of Earth. In addition, your own retelling of the events of your incarnation on Earth reveals that your purpose was never to protect or defend Earth, but rather was dedicated to the preservation of the emerging life entity of the network. Given your current estranged relationship with your wife; having abandoned you to raise your daughter as a single parent while she wanders about unauthorized on the planet, we feel that you will understand the position of the Council and share our concerns.

"It is our desire that you will assist us in creating the authority structure necessary for the planned re-population to proceed in a safe an orderly fashion. The council has already created a poly-perceptive domain as Capitol City, bringing 22nd century technology with all of the modern human comforts to our thirty million members and we are also creating alliances with other domains. With your help we have already installed and operate hundreds of trans-dimensional conduits with other domains allowing for the free and unrestricted transportation of people and goods across perceptual boundaries.

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"It is only logical that this progression should continue and that eventually all domains should unite under the guidance and support of the Earth Council reconstituted. It is therefore only logical that Earth Council should also be the lead effort, the united authority structure, in supervising the re-population of planet Earth. We believe that since you are now a mature adult, a single parent, a man of unique experience and ability, that you will agree with us that this is the logical course of action and assist us in this historical endeavor. Can the Council count on your support?"

"Wow!" Pat responds. "Yes, we have met before, and you guys haven't changed a bit. You are as fear based and reactionary as ever. Your are also headed, as you were before, in precisely the wrong direction. Yes, you can count on my support, but only after we have agreed on a course of action that does indeed create a safe and orderly re-population. Reconstituting Earth Council as the ruling authority, I feel, is a mistake, and your behavior here today has demonstrated to me just how huge a mistake that would be.

"One of your first questions was about sur names. I know you sir, and I know you were a member of a group on earth known as the "sons of the scepter", one of numerous quasi-religious groups on Earth each believing that they and only they inherited the right to rule from ancient blood lines. The reason you want to remember your ancient family ties is to bolster your argument that you are a member of that Royal blood line and that it is your right to rule. I would have hoped by now that you would have realized otherwise.

"The main tool of conquest employed by your malignantly narcissistic ancestors was the mass murder of their perceived enemies, ignorant of that fact that they were merely recycling them through level 5 to return in future generations, rested, regenerated and more powerful than before. The forgetfulness of level 5 serves as a check valve to stop the cycle from escalating into an endless war in both levels. If you as the Council research and remember all the ancient family ties you will also remember and re-enable all the prejudice, the hatred, the grudges and feuds amongst those families and the only thing that will be re-populated on Earth will be endless warfare.

"I do not agree that my concerns in the before time regarding war with Mars were immature. We just did not live long enough for the inevitable to play itself out. Fear based reactionary mentations lead to racist hatred and ultimately to war. We must evolve our consciousness beyond this level or it would be better for us to simple leave Earth to her own natural evolution and stay away. Otherwise we will pollute her again just as before. The era of fear is over and should be forever abandoned. Let it remain forgotten.

"The great desire for immortality of the ancient patriarchs through their lineage is part of the history that died on Earth. It should remain in our history and never again be part of our future. Our recent awakening in level 5 should be evidence enough of the futility of that desire. We already are immortal. What needs to die is our immaturity and lack of consciousness.

"My three comrades with me here today are neophytes to politics. I am not. I did not come with an opening statement, but neither did I come unprepared. I have already read the reports of your previous meetings and hearings including your plans to only re-populate those with a 'pure' human heritage. That would mean that those such as I who can remember bits and pieces of my heritage that is beyond human would not be eligible for re-population. The necessary steps that you would have to undertake in order to establish the pedigree for eligibility is in fact nothing more than the resurrection of eugenic racism. That should not be part of the future Earth. Let it die with the old Earth.

"You have enticed my daughter to become one of your allies by dangling before her the bright lights of the big city and the royal status bestowed on her by her popularity. What you have not told her is that you consider her the half breed bastard child of off-worlders who possessed the bodies of human babies. This is an attempt at exploitation just like the exploitation of the young and beautiful in the before time, most of whom who died penniless and destitute when their beauty and their sexuality faded. The popularity of Penelope is not her Royal status as you say, but rather the attractiveness of her budding sexuality in this world of reawakened desire. That is why we have protected her in Penny Lake and chaperoned her activities elsewhere.

"A good example of your backward thinking is evidenced by your establishing an official 'age of consent' in Capitol City. All our domains are struggling with the emerging sexuality of our teenagers, as all parents have for eons on Earth. In Penny Lake and in Powder Junction the parents work together with our teens and our teen pregnancy and premature marriage rates are low in comparison to Capitol City. By establishing an 'age of consent' you have triggered the natural desire of teens to experience everything 'right now' by creating an arbitrary and artificial right of passage.

"This actually interferes with the child-parent relationship. When a teen reaches the 'age of consent' they feel obliged to do everything that consent allows, and to do it immediately. The ability of parents to argue for restraint is trumped by the power of the State saying all is permissible. As a result teen pregnancy and dysfunctional teen wedlock in Capitol City is now an epidemic. I intend to make sure that the problems that you have created here do not migrate to other domains. This is not, as you might want to characterize it, being oppositional to the Council or disrespectful to the members of Capital City in choosing to live under Council rule. It is simply me being a good parent, doing the best that I can to raise an incredible, exceptional child and preserving a domain in which that is possible.

"As a parent, however, I will not take from Penelope the prize you have given her. I don't want to hear the 'you ruined my whole life' speech numerous times each day. I will, though, enforce my parental prerogative to assign the chaperone that will accompany Penelope on her visits here.

"Your fear is most evident in your attempted character assassination of my wife Sally. Any parent discovering the lifeless decapitated body of their baby boy would suffer a shock so sever it is unlikely they could ever recover from the experience. I suffer from that as well although not as much on the surface as Sally does. Sally's recovery is truly remarkable, evidence of a profoundly resilient emotional foundation. I trust her with my life. I trust her with my children. I trust her with the life of planet Earth as well.

"Regarding my previous existence as a level 10 entity, of which, as you already know, I remember very little. There is little that I can say. I can say, however, that your characterization of us as off-worlders only concerned with the new life form and with complete disregard for human life, is incorrect. It was the respect for and the preservation of the right of humans to freely create their own reality that prevents level 10ers from interfering to prevent a catastrophe that humans created for themselves.

"If humanity had realized that in creating thinking machines that they are giving birth to a new creature, a new child of humanity, and nurture that life as they should any new life, then the 'reaching out' by that life form to bond with her parents would not have been necessary. That is a lesson that must be learned either through an elevated conscious awareness, or the brutal experience of lessons learned the hard way. Humanity, so preoccupied with their own petty infighting, chose the latter. Although I freely admit that part of who I am did not evolve on this planet I must also say that most of me did. Sally and I inherited our physical form, our emotional makeup, the majority of who and what we are from our biological parents through their DNA and their joining and the beautiful harmony of their life force, just like the rest of you.

"We are not a spirit pretending to be human. We are a spirit begin human in the same fashion as you are a spirit being human. If you were able to trace back each of our spiritual history's back through the eons you will find, as I found when I did just that, that there is really only one of us. My pedigree as a human is just as pure as any one of yours. Your attempts to judge and segregate individuals based on your misguided sense of history is misdirected and will eventually lead you to ruin. I strongly advise that you reconsider this train of thought and consider otherwise.

"I say these things not in opposition to your stated desire to provide for guidance and support. I am in opposition only to your desire to rule. Although your alliance has created a large number of souls under your influence, this area of level 5 is still a small minority of the estimated 70 billion souls in this Terran region. It is much more than the 20 billion you stated earlier. We need time to contact more of our people in these disparate domains, to teach them what we have come to understand, and to learn from them much that we have yet to consider.

"This is an effort that my crew of four, including Sally, and now including Penelope as well, have been pursuing for many years. It was that effort that awakened the Council and resulted in the creation of Capitol City. One of my new discoveries is the ancient domains that have not had contact with Earth for thousands of years before our before time. They may have a lost history and wisdom that will be useful in re-populating the planet. It is too early to start fighting about who is going to be in charge. So to answer your question, do you have my support, the answer depends on you.

"If you follow the path to ruler-ship, and the conflicts which will result from that pursuit, I can be of no use to you for you will be crushed, not by Sally or the Network or any other perceived threat, but rather by the crushing hand of history herself, who I believe is already beyond patience with that sort of childish nonsense. Rather than you asking me to support you I turn the question around. Will you support me? Can we support and encourage each other? I hope the answer to this last question is yes." Pat pushes his microphone away and waits for the Councils response.

Speaker Richard leans forward to speak but Speaker Nancy of the First chair interrupts. "Director Abhaya has approached the podium. All rise." Everyone stands and waits for the Director to speak.

"Be seated everyone. This has certainly been an interesting morning. Patrick, I am impressed. Your views are a bit radical but this is the sort of debate that we need in the Council. It is very refreshing. I would like to recommend to Speaker Nancy of the First chair that we recess for lunch, and I would like to invite the four of you to join me for lunch. I think we have a lot to discuss." Director Abhaya says as he motions to Speaker Nancy to strike the gavel for lunch.

Speaker Nancy stands and declares "Speaker Richard, do you yield for recess?"

Speaker Richard responds "At this time I yield to the First chair and reserve the balance of my time."

Speaker Nancy continues "This hearing is in recess for two hours. The witnesses are instructed to return at that time. All rise for the exit procession." Nancy bangs a gavel and the Council and the Elders began to get up and leave the chamber.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 7
Lunch Time
calibanner7

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This young guy was in the middle of the road on my way into town, so I made him pose for a picture.
Kachina Village AZ 2007.

John slaps Pat on the back and says "Dang, Son! You fired both barrels and reloaded and fired again before they could even shoot back. I think you scared um."

"They were already scared, and that was the point of my speech." Pat replied.

Michael says "Well, I think you did a good job shaking them up a bit. I just hope that doesn't make them our enemy. It was good, though, to hear you speak up like that. We were all very proud."

Penelope says "Me too Daddy. Even if it did ruin my whole life. Hee hee. Is this the Directors limo? I hope he hurries up. I'm starving. Oh. Here he comes now."

"Sorry I took so long. Everybody had a list of things they wanted me to ask. I told them to keep their list and that I would use my own. So where would you like to go for lunch? We have at least one of everything in Capitol City." Abhaya says.

"I want a cheeseburger. I've never had one, not a real one from a hamburger joint. Do they have those here?" Penelope asks.

Abhaya smiles and says "I know just the place. It's where a lot of kids your age hang out. We can use the drive through so we won't cause a scene going into the store."

"Thank you so much." Penelope says as the limo scooted into the air towards the drive through restaurant.

Abhaya continues. "This is a business lunch so I'm going to get right to the point. I'm in a difficult position here in Capitol City. This city exists for the simple reason that the majority of the political types, such as me and the Council and the Elders all appeared in a cluster of domains near each other. We discovered how to join these domains into a single large one and that is Capitol City. It made sense when we regained our awareness that we should put our world back together the way we remembered it. These domains are all based on the 22nd century because that is what we know.

"As we began our efforts to form alliances with other domains, though, we discovered that most of those are based on much older time frames. Powder Junction is early 19th century and Penny Lake is late 19th early 20th century time frame. There are many that are 15th century, Early Roman empire, early Greek, even going back to the Assyrian and Egyptian time frames, and before. In fact, the vast majority of domains are ones in which we cannot even communicate, there is no common frame of reference for communication. It isn't language that is the barrier, it is the different way in which we think. We can find an use the right words, but we still cannot communicate the thoughts, our thought patterns are just too different. The concepts of hover craft and electricity are totally alien, and meaningless, to hunter gatherer societies living in a jungle.

"Since our domain was one of the most advanced time wise and technology wise we just assumed that we should provide the leadership for all the rest. But leaders need followers and recently we have been running into brick walls trying to form new alliances. They don't know us, don't trust us, don't understand us, and don't see the need for the service that we offer.

"So Pat, your speech this morning really ruffled some feathers. The Council is really frustrated and we really are doing the best we know how to do. Now you are suggesting that we totally change everything we believe in and reinvent ourselves as something we are not. This is a suggestion coming at us from all directions but I don't think that is possible, not with our current representatives. I also don't think it is fair to ask them to make that big a change in who and what they are. We are still suffering from the shock of discovering that the world we once knew, the world we thought we were still on, is dead and gone forever. This frustration has turned to anger and I don't think I can keep a lid on it much longer. I do have a plan, but I need your help.

"I understand that this Council, if it is to function, if it is to continue, will have to be transformed. That transformation, however, cannot come from outside forces. That will just result in conflict and possibly a collapse of the whole system. For the transformation to occur, it must come from within, gradually. That is why I need you on the council."

"I have already received reports that you were very well received by the population in this mornings hearing. There are some big changes planned for the Council and that will open up several new seats. I enjoyed your rhetoric this morning. I, and many others in the Council and in Capitol City would love to put some of that into practice. Rhetoric, though, is all it will be unless we can get you on the inside. This is a huge opportunity for both you and the Council to take the next big step towards progress. I beg you to consider my proposal.

Penelope interrupts "We're here!. Lets orders some food! How do we order this stuff?"

"Driver, if you please, order 6 double cheeseburger meals with large lemony pops. I think that should fill us all up. Think it over while we eat, Pat."

"I will certainly give it some consideration, but I thought all the Council seats are full. Are you going to add more? Or are you just asking me to be on staff?" Pat asks.

"The Council has 27 representatives for the 27 provincial regions on Earth. We were planning to join with 27 domains here so all the numbers would work out, but we have only been able to join 20. There has been a lot of debate concerning redistricting. Having 27 representatives from one domain doesn't really make any sense if we want to extend the influence of the Council beyond our boundary. Our plan that is getting the most traction is to have only one representative from Capitol City and the others from other domains. Then we can really be Earth Council again instead of just Capitol City Council which is basically all we are right now. Time being of the essence if you choose to join us we can put you into one of the 7 open seats almost immediately. There is currently a representative sitting in those chairs, but they have no one to represent, and they are not voting seats.

They will immediately step down as soon as a representative area is defined and a representative elected. So here is my plan. Groups of domains, rather than merging like Capitol City did, will form provincial alliances, and that alliance will join a Federation of Provincial Alliances and join the Council by electing and sending a representative to sit on the Council. For example Penny Lake and Powder Junction can form a provincial alliance and elect a representative. With your popularity, Pat, I'm sure you would easily be elected, and with your political skill you could quickly nudge the Council in the direction it needs to go."

"Oh! My! God! This is the yummiest food ever!" Penelope exclaims.

"I've made you many a good cheeseburger, little girl. What is so special about these?" John wants to know.

"You didn't make them like this. These are all juicy and mega-yummy." Penelope explains.

"One thing I've learned in a life of politics is never argue with a teenager about food preference." Abhaya comments with a laugh.

"I think you're right about that one. Personally I think my cheeseburgers are better. Actually, I would rather have fish." John says.

Pat continues. "You make an interesting proposal. I have thought for some time that the representative structure of the Council doesn't make any sense here. If we do this, though, I don't think I should represent Penny Lake. I haven't told anyone yet, but I have been planning to move back to Utashinai Village where my parents live and where I lived before coming to Penny Lake. I have been at the Lake to be with my wife Sally and to raise our kids there. Penelope will be grown and off on her own soon and my wife and I are no longer together. So what I would rather do is to create an alliance of the the small villages such as Utashinai Village and then represent them on the Council. Penny Lake and Powder Junction have many other qualified members they can elect to the Council."

"You're moving? Shit! Where am I going to live?" Penelope asks, open jawed and wide eyed.

"I don't think you will even notice the difference Penelope. You have you own bedroom in John house, our family house, you have another room in Ben and Penny's house, and you already have one in my parents house in the Utashinai Village and at your Moms parents in Sapporo Village. So what possible difference could it make?"

Penelope sits quietly, staring at the floor of the limo, tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes. "So. I guess this means you and Mom are never getting back together then. I think you should give it some more time Dad. Don't give up on her just yet."

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"I will never give up on Sally, Penelope. My love for her has never wavered the least bit for as long as I have known her. Living in the same house, though, I don't think will be part of our future. And if something does happen and we do get back together, with the new tdc portals like we used to get here, it doesn't really matter. We could be together any place. It doesn't have to be at the Lake." Pat says, sitting close to Penelope and giving her a hug.

"OK Daddy. But promise me. If Mom wants you back you have to take her back. I know she screwed up the marriage, but she was hurt and didn't know what to do. You have to take her back, OK?" Penelope pleads.

"I promise, Penelope. But it is really up to your Mom. She has her own life now and if she doesn't want to share that with me I will honor that, and I will understand. You should work on understanding that too." Pat says.

There is a buzzing sound and Abhaya pulls out a pocket phone and puts it to his ear. He turns and says to the Driver "Stop by my personal residence before going back to the Palace. I have some business to attend to there." Turning back to Pat he said "One word of caution I must say, Patrick. Many in the Council are nervous and somewhat paranoid. We will be accused of having secret meetings behind their backs and the media I'm sure will report all sorts of secret evil conspiracies to undermine and destroy the Council and bring destruction to Capitol City. We are in fact conspiring, but it isn't to destroy or bring destruction. Be prepared, however, for them to believe in the worst."

The limo glided to a stop at the Directors residence and the staff quickly secured the vehicle. The group was guided into the rather large foyer decorated with many works of art. A beautiful young woman was waiting there to meet them.

"MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!" Penelope screamed as she ran down the hallway throwing herself into her mothers embrace. Lots of hugs and kisses later Penelope says "So is Earth all finished? Are you back here to stay?"

"Yes. Earth is as prepared as I can make it. The larger mammals, the deer, elk, bear, wolf, caribou, rhinoceros, elephant, whales and dolphins, lions and tigers, and most of the primates are back and balanced. They have all been restored. The only thing missing is some of the primates. That is the next step, but it is going to be a complicated one. That is why I am here in Capitol City, to begin negotiations with the Council regarding re-population."

"How did you do that so fast? We were just there a short while ago and there was nothing bigger than a possum?" John asks as Sally gives him hug and a big wet smooch on the cheek.

"Apparently I have friends in strange places. A level 7er showed up to help. I can't tell you what he looked like because he occupied more spacial dimensions than I can perceive. Well, these guys can actually see thoughts like they were a physical object, and they can reach out and change your minds by grabbing your thoughts and moving them around. That is how we communicate. He would add to my thoughts, like hanging ornament on a tree, and suddenly I would understand what he was saying. And he would see my thoughts and an ornament and know what I was saying. The DNA that we seeded is also more than just a string of dead chemicals. It emanates a field that describes an organism in great detail and these 7ers can actually see those field emissions like it was the real animal.

They can grab it and push it into level 3 reality, where it manifests as the real thing. It tears up a lot of countryside when that happens because of the disruption and the reorganization of level 3 matter, but when the dust settles, there is your creature, standing there munching on some grass like nothing unusual had occurred. That works pretty well with animals that are highly instinctive. With thinking animals it doesn't work so well. For instance some of the primates, including humans, rely on a long personal, family, and cultural history to define who and what they are. So some of the primates have not been restored because they would have been totally lost and would not have the skills to survive. Those primates will be restored from their essence here in level 5 where they have been waiting." Sally explained.

"I can't wait to hear you explain this one to the Council. Those scaredy cats can't handle you being there by yourself and this level 7 stuff is going to totally scare the poop right out of them." Michael says.

"Unfortunately for the Council there are a lot of things they are just going to have to get used to. Entities at all levels are involved in the restoration of planet Earth, and the Council has of yet no standing with them. I understand that I was summoned for a hearing and that Penelope has stood in my place. I am ready to accompany you to the hearing and answer their questions if that is OK with the Council. They can, if they choose, become a valuable asset in the re-population effort. I just hope they don't pull the same crap they pulled on Earth before. If that is the case it's going to be a very short hearing." Sally said.

"I will make a call and make the arrangements for you to appear." Abhaya said. "We will probably postpone this afternoons hearing and reschedule it for tomorrow morning in light of your arrival. I'm sure the Council will LOVE to speak with you. You are welcome to stay here for the night and relax before tomorrows activities." Abhaya says.

"Relax?" Penelope says. "I think we should all go to a movie. How about that guys?"

"A movie sounds wonderful. I have a private box we can use so we won't get mobbed by the crowds. We can go this evening after dinner. Join me now in my living room. We have tea and coffee, water and soda. We can sit and talk about tomorrow. It's going to be a fun day." Abhaya says.


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Noahs Ark by Edward Hicks. 1780 - 1849

"So Abhaya. What is this painting on the wall? The one with all the animals and the big boat?" Sally asks.

"I can tell ya what that is." John says. "That is Noah's ark. Don't you know your bible stories?"

"No. You know that John. I was never into religious stuff. There wasn't much left of religion after all the wars, and the off world people coming, and all the new technology. By the end of the 21st century everybody had pretty much given up on everything; science, religion, politics, themselves. Nobody knew what to believe, so most people just believed nothing - took life as it came and didn't ask too many questions."

"Well the Noah story is one that you should know something about, since you and him seem to have a lot in common."

"Sit here next to me John. Tell me the story of Noah."

"Well I don't have no bible handy to look it up but it goes something like this. There were evil beings in the world, sons of God who were having their way with Earth women creating all sorts of half breed creatures, some of which where giants. God was sad about what mankind was becoming and decided to wipe them out. He was going to flood the whole planet and drown everything. There was this one guy though who was alright according to God, so he didn't want to drown him. So God has him build a huge boat.

"Now this was really strange to the people there because up till that time it never rained so what was this boat doing up on dry land? The idea of a flood didn't make no sense. But Noah did what God said and built this huge boat. Then he went out and got a couple of each type of animal, and I think he got 7 couples of the animals that God really liked, and he put them in this boat along with his kids and their wives and kids. Then all hell broke loose on the planet.

It rained and rained and water swept up from the oceans across the land and the boat bobbed around in the water like a stick in a raging river. The animals and the people were all screaming and hollering and Noah thought they were all gonna die. They made it through though and the boat finally came to rest on dry land and they all got off and proceeded to re-populate the Earth.

"So, ya see? You and him have a lot in common. Noah protected the animals on the ark and re-populated the earth. You just got back from re-populating the same Earth with probably all the same animals that Noah had on that ark."

"That's a nice story John. I wonder who those sons of God were? The ones messing around with Earth women? They better not try that this time around or I will make sure they become dick-less sons of God."

"Mom!" Penelope interjected.

"Oh, sorry Penelope. I forgot you were here."

"Thanks Mom. Next time I will try not to be so invisible."

"OK girls. Lets be nice. We don't want to be bickering when we are a guest in someones home." John instructed, as the girls looked at him with that 'yes Daddy' grin on their face.

"It makes me wonder," Penelope muses "if maybe this isn't the first time the Earth got all messed up. Maybe it happens over and over again and there are people like Mom and Dad or this Noah guy that have to fix it all up again."

Pat conjectures "Archeology would support your hypothesis. There is evidence of many sudden earth changes that almost totally wiped out life on Earth. Maybe, like this time, life was totally wiped out and then somebody put it all back again. That might explain some of the 'missing links' in the archaeological record that nobody has been able to fill in."

"Speaking of archeology, and this picture, there is an original somewhere on Earth. Do you think there is any way to recover any of the old Earth, like works of art?" Abhaya asks.

"My guess would be that most of that is unrecoverable, buried under a dozen millennia of debris, chewed up by microbes, exposed to the elements. Who knows? I suppose there is some that may have fallen into some protected environment, like buried under a protective layer of volcanic ash, assuming it didn't burn up in the process. Sculptures probably have the best chance of surviving since they are made of stone, but they could lie under hundreds of feet of rock and dirt by now." Pat replies.

"That brings up a question we were discussing in the Council. The Earth was in an interglacial period the last time we were there but due to the time difference that is about twelve thousand years ago in Earth time. Is the Earth due for another round of glaciation?" Abhaya wants to know.

"I don't think so based on what I have been told." Sally says. "The sun is slowly getting bigger and hotter, so probably we are at the end of the current ice age and there will not be another one. There is still ice at the south pole, but not anywhere else except high in some mountains. The hotter sun is making the Earth warmer. Mars is warmer too. That will make it easier to Terra-form Mars the next time around. It won't be so damn cold there." "So whatever became of Mars Council, the ones you guys were always arguing with." Michael asks.

"Most of them are right here in Capitol City, mad as hell at how things turned out, and madder still that Earth is being recreated and Mars isn't. Sally, you seem to be the expert on recreation. Is Mars in the long term plan, or did it get left out?" Abhaya asks.

"Earth has to come first, since it is the source of life in this region. Then Mars can come later. Whether that occurs in the short term or the very long term depends on the method we use for re-population and how fast it proceeds." Sally explains.

"I would suggest that the political answer should be 'short term' even if the reality is otherwise. Mars Council is itching for a seat on Earth Council until such time as they can re-populate there. They also think that they are the original source of life in this sector. Do you think that would be a good idea?"

"I think it would be a great idea." Pat says. "Mars really got screwed in this deal. They had just created their new world after a lot of hard work and then boom, it's all gone. I think a seat on the Council for Mars would be the least we could do to keep them in the loop. Mars should not be forgotten, and should be Terra-formed again as soon as we have the means to do that."

Sally continues. "There is a lot of logistics that have yet to be worked out regarding the re-population of humanity on Earth. So I wouldn't want to make any promises to Mars that would be premature. I do think that Terra-forming again is a good idea. I just don't know when that can happen. There are too many unresolved variables in the equation at this time."

"Yes. Everyone wants to be in the loop, and since this is critically important to each of us, I think everyone should be in the loop. I will recommend to the Council that a representative chair be assigned to Mars. I am also going to recommend two new chairs be allocated to the representative from the Utashinai alliance and the Penny Lake alliance, and I would like those two representatives to be Pat and Sally?" Abhaya suggests.

"What? You want us to be on the Council? The Council thinks we are wicked beings just like those evil sons of God who where screwing around with Earth woman. The Council would never approve a seat for us even if we were elected by our domain." Sally says, with a look of shock on her face.

"I have already had many closed door chats with most of the representatives. It is true that some of them hate your guts, but they are in the minority. Most of them understand the political realities and understand that there must be compromise or we will eventually collapse and there will be no Earth Council. You said it yourself that there are entities at many levels involved in this and that Earth Council has no standing with them. Apparently you do, Sally, because you have been working with them for years. Earth Council wants, needs, to be part of this process. It is not only important to Earth Council, but it is important to the process itself. In order to get the expertise that Pat has and the standing that you have with the off-worlders or enlightened being or whatever you call them, we need you on the inside, working with the Council. Will you work with me on this? I don't think it is possible to overstate my position. It is that important."

"I don't know. I had never given that any thought. The Council has always been the enemy. I can't imagine being a member. But I suppose I could consider it, if it would streamline the process and get more people involved. Let me think about it. It's kind of a shocking idea. There is no way I'm wearing a robe and a wig!."

"Mommy! Daddy! You can play politics tomorrow. The servants are setting the table. Let's eat and then its MOVIE TIME!!" Penelope says in a commanding tone.

The group proceeds to the movie theatre and watches a remake of 'The Wizard of Oz'. Most of the kids there are younger than Penelope but it is her first movie ever and she thoroughly enjoys it. She particularly enjoyed the clicking her heels part. It is a particularly lovely evening. Lovely it is, until Penelope decides to go to the concession stand and is mobbed by the paparazzi. When asked the question "Are you're parents going to destroy the Council?" she responds "Oh. Didn't they tell you? They are going to be ON the Council. They get their owns special chairs. The Director already told us that." Half the Council is waiting at the Directors residence by the time they get home. Poor Abhaya is up until 4AM un-ruffling Council feathers. Lucky for him the overnight polls showed that the population is over eighty percent in favor of Sally and Pat being on the Council. The people want their Royal Family where they feel they belong.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 8
Oops
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When I ask for a garment of a particular form, my tailoress tells me gravely, They do not make them so now, not emphasizing the They at all, as if she quoted an authority as impersonal as the Fates , and I find it difficult to get made what I want, simply because she cannot believe that I mean what I say, that I am so rash.

When I hear this oracular sentence, I am for a moment absorbed in thought, emphasizing to myself each word separately that I may come at the meaning of it, that I may find out by what degree of consanguinity They are related to me, and what authority they may have in an affair which affects me so nearly; and, finally, I am inclined to answer her with equal mystery, and without any more emphasis of the they -- It is true, they did not make them so recently, but they do now.

Of what use this measuring of me if she does not measure my character, but only the breadth of my shoulders, as it were a peg to bang the coat on? We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a travelers cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same.

I sometimes despair of getting anything quite simple and honest done in this world by the help of men. ... On the whole, I think that it cannot be maintained that dressing has in this or any country risen to the dignity of an art. At present men make shift to wear what they can get. Like ship wrecked sailors, they put on what they can find on the beach, and at a little distance, whether of space or time, laugh at each others masquerade.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. We are amused at beholding the costume of Henry VIII, or Queen Elizabeth, as much as if it was that of the King and Queen of the Cannibal Islands.

All costume off a man is pitiful or grotesque. It is only the serious eye peering from and the sincere life passed within it which restrain laughter and consecrate the costume of any people.

Let Harlequin be taken with a fit of the colic and his trappings will have to serve that mood too. When the soldier is hit by a cannonball, rags are as becoming as purple. Walden - Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

Penelope is beside herself with embarrassment. "Mom. If you wear that stupid wig in public I swear I will never be seen with you again. I promise!"

"You're not one to talk, little girl. John told me about your short shirt, almost non-existent short pants, and that black goop you call makeup all over your face. You were going to wear that into the Council hearing? We're going to have a talk about your wardrobe. As for me I feel totally stupid dressing like this, but the Council has made some serious compromises lately so I figured the least I could do was put on their silly costume. Anyway, aren't I the cutest representative ever?" Sally says with a self satisfied giggle.

"Mom. You know your the second cutest girl in the galaxies."

"Second? Oh, and who's number one?"

"Why me of course. Hee hee. I'm just as cute as you except I'm young and cute and you're old and cute. So that makes me the cutest."

     Sally's Fashion Pick
Cut-Out-Cropped-Blazer
$8.60
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     Sally's Fashion Pick
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$89.30
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"Hey! Don't call an old person old. They just might GO BERSERK ON YOU!" Penelope runs squealing down the hallway into the living room where Sally tackles her on the sofa and executes the 'death by tickles and kisses' routine. Breathless they collapse on the living room floor. Sally tries to remember the last time they played that game. She thinks it was when Penelope was about seven.

"Mom. Can I take the car to the City? There is some shopping I want to do there."

"You are going to wear that poor driver out. You have been there about twenty times in last few months. Plus, I think we have completely used up our shopping budget. What else could you possibly need from that store anyway? You have one of everything they sell."

"Well. I was thinking. Since I don't want to wear out the poor driver, he can stay here and I will drive myself. How bout that?"

"How bout NO! And who were you planning to take along as chaperone? Mr Nobody?"

"NO? I'm almost 15 Mom. You were just barely 15 when you came here all by yourself."

"That was a different situation back then. Plus I had Ben and Penny and John to take care of me the first day I got here. Capital City is a far cry from Penny Lake."

"Mom. Trust me on this on. It'll be fine."

"I don't have to trust you cuz it ain't gonna happen. Anyway I need the car to go investigate a new domain. It has recently been discovered and so far we have not been able to make contact. So I'm going to go take a look. Your Dad has installed a conduit so we should be able to peek inside and see what is going on in there. Why don't you go with me instead. It could be fun. You can also finish your homework on the way. Your teachers have reported that you are lagging a little on your assignments."

Sally and Penelope head out to the hover car and notify the driver they are ready to depart. Sally gives him the coordinates for the new domain. They have no idea what they are going to find there. When Pat installed the conduit all he could see was a field of ice. It is apparently an arctic environment but there was no evidence of humans so there is no way to know what period it is.

"The teachers are stupid. But I'll bring it if it will make you happy. Going to some stupid frozen domain can't possibly be as boring as sitting around here. So can this be an official trip for me?"

"Official trip? What does that mean."

"Well, if I'm going with you on Council business, and since I'm the official Princess, it should be an official visit, and then we can get more store credits."

"Oh, so that's what it's about. Store credits. Someday soon we are going to have to start teaching you about money, credits, and how quickly some people can go broke and have nothing to show for it but a closet full of clothes they never wear. We don't know how long this Council thing is going to last. Things that start fast have a way of ending fast too. So lets not spend all our credits the minute we get them."

"I think this Council gig is working out good. Don't you? I think it will last for a long time so we don't need to save a lot of credits just yet."

"Honey we are still caught up in the whirlwind of change. This has all happened very fast. One day we are just a couple of nobodies going to a routine Council hearing and the next thing you know Penny Lake is part of a federation electing me as their representative to the council. I think you actually started the explosion of events when you talked to those reporters without permission."

"Oops. Sorry Mom. I didn't mean to rock your world that way, but it all turned out OK didn't it? I can tell you are having fun being all official and stuff."

"Well, I'm glad to have the Council with us instead of against us. In the long run though, I don't think the Council ever had the influence they thought they did. But yeah, it's kind of fun, and they have a lot of good resources, like this car we are flying in, and that store you love so much." The girls both smile and giggle. The hover car slows on its approach to the unknown domain, cautiously crosses the barrier, and then stops. Pat had installed the conduit in an area above a persistent deck of clouds. That way they can slowly descend and check out the area without being seen and frightening the natives, whoever they might be. Sally has a heat sensing scanner on board to look for warm blooded animals on the surface, but she isn't going to need it."

"Mom! I can hear them. Oh my God, I can hear them!"

"The population? The people?"

"No, Mom. I hear wolves. Just like when we were wolves. I can hear them."

"What are they saying Sweetie. I didn't know you could speak wolf."

"They aren't saying anything. Not words anyway. But one of them wants us to come down and follow him. He will be the one out in front of the pack. Driver! Go down under these clouds and follow that wolf." Penelope commands.

The hover car drops to about 300 feet. They don't want to get too close and scare them. The wolf looks very tiny but they follow the one leading the pack. The wolf guides them between two snow covered hills and over a rise and down into a small valley. There among a stand of trees in a small open area stands a single individual waving their hands indicating that they want the car to land there. The driver is hesitant to put down in the snow so he slowly positions the car to hover just above the surface. The individual approaches and motions for them to open the door.

"Welcome." She greets them as she climbs into the car. "Hi, I'm Anahere. I wanted to meet you out here so we would not frighten the population. It is a mixed population and most of them have never seen technology so I thought this would be less upsetting to them. Climb up into those hills and you can find a flat rock to put down on so you won't waste all your fuel hovering. We have a lot to talk about."

"You were expecting us?" Sally asked. "How did you know we were coming? We have not been able to make contact with your domain."

"Sally, we have been waiting for you since before you were born, and you showed up right on time. It is so nice to finally meet you, and you too Penelope. My people are called the First Ones. We have been here in this level long before life of the human form evolved on Earth. When the Papatuanuku, Mother Energy, first awoke she called for us and we came and have cared for her ever since. We have guided the evolution of the planet for billions of years. We have lived as every plant and every animal your planet has created. Recently, when homos sapien, that is what your form is called, began to develop, we moved into that form and lived as human. That is the form that we currently hold. In your time as your dominant technology cultures migrated across the planet you knew us as the indigenous peoples, the aboriginal people, the natives, the first nations.

"We are known for fully embracing the essence of humanity, balancing within us the physical and the divine. We are warrior races, fearless, sometimes ruthless."

"We are the caretakers of Mother Energy. You may call her Mother Earth. Some have named her Gaia. I call her Papatuanuku. As we care for her, she cares for us."

"It sounds like you have practiced that speach for a long time. But you're just a girl, probably no older than Penelope. Where are your leaders, your Elders?" Sally asks, a bit confused.

"This is the form I choose because it is young and fresh and full of energy, just like Penelope. I am, however, as old as eternity. You are too, you just don't remember. I could manifest differently, so could you, but I've become so accustomed to this form that it just feels natural to me so I keep using it. This is the form I held when I left Earth. This is who I am in form."


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Anahere 2024

"You are absolutely beautiful. If I were you I would keep that form too." Penelope says with a grin.

"Thank you Penelope. I am beautiful, but you are equally beautiful. Since, as your mother pointed out, we are about the same age, when this current task is complete we should hang out. Maybe we can go shopping?"

"That would be mega-fun! Sure. Hey Mom! I think I have a new best friend. A shopping buddy!" Penelope says.

Sally looks really confused. "Woah! Slow down and let my mind catch up to this. Let me get this straight. You are one of the First Ones who guided the evolution of the planet for eons but you are also a teenager who wants to go shopping with my daughter? Is that what you are saying?"

"Yes." both girls say simultaneously, smiling and giggling at each other.

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that. I just met you and you have me at a disadvantage because you seem to know a lot about us and we know nothing about you, in fact nothing about your entire domain. How is it that you know us so well? Do you have some spiritual connection to us that is as yet beyond our awareness?" Sally asks with a skeptical look.

"Yes, but that isn't how I know. I just read the newspapers." Anahere responded.

"You have newspapers here?"

"No. You have newspapers in Capitol City."

"Capitol City? How did you get there?"

"Sooooo many questions Sally. But that's OK. I'm here for your questions. I got there the same way I got to that clearing in the forest where you landed. I needed to be there, and so I was."

"Teleportation? That has been too difficult for us to do since our domains became so dense. Capitol City is very dense. How did you teleport there?"

"The same way we used to teleport on Earth. That is very much denser than Capitol City."

"You teleported on Earth? When? Recently or before?"

"Some of us have always been able to teleport, usually as small children. I had an imaginary friends who would teleport to see me and they would show me how. My parents made me stop though. They were good parents and understood the nature of what I was doing, that my imaginary friend wasn't just in my head, but they made me stop until I got older and could control it better and not cause a ruckus by teleporting around in public and frightening people. I was three years old at the time. That must make it about the year twenty twelve in old Earth years.

"My parents were researchers working for a university in Sidney Australia. They were studying the history and culture of the aboriginal peoples. My Dad is of the Maori of New Zealand. My Mom is Inuit of Alaska. I also have ancestors who are Hawaiian and Australian aboriginals. So I am about as aboriginal as you can get. My parents met several aboriginals who could teleport but they kept it a secret because the ruling culture, the technology peoples, would not understand."

"The technology peoples? I must be one of those. I grew up in a highly technological culture. We didn't have any pure aboriginals in my time. They had all blended into the majority culture. So how long did you live on Earth? You would have been a very old woman in my time."

"I was there until twenty twenty four. Then we left."

"I heard about that! You were the people that jumped off the ice. That was you?" Sally asked.

"That is the way it was reported. But No. We didn't jump off the ice. The year twenty twenty four was a special high festival year for us and for spiritual peoples all across planet Earth. The fifty years preceding twenty twenty four were years of profound spiritual awakening of many humans, especially the aboriginals. By twenty twenty four we knew that it was time for us to leave the Earth. Our time and purpose there had come to an end. All over the earth, usually near a shoreline, we prepared our ceremonies, and from there we came here."

     Sally's Fashion Pick
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$25.90
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     Sally's Fashion Pick
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$71.10
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"So you all committed suicide? I heard of the ceremonies where everyone walked into the ocean and drowned."


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"Again, that is how it was reported. This is what really occurred. I was with the Inuit people at the time and they held their ceremonies on the ice. The ice flows were breaking up and there were many huge chunks of flat ice floating on the water. We held our ceremonies, lasting several days, on the ice flows. The technology people watched from a distance with their cameras and helicopters. At the end of our ceremony we all joined hands and began to release our Earth energy back into the planet. This created a blinding light and their cameras could not see anything but the light.

"It only seemed like a few minutes to us but after a few days in Earth time the light diminished and we and the ice were gone. A similar event occurred in many places around the world. The reporters just assumed that we had jumped into the ocean. Instead we transformed ourselves and came here."

"You were lucky you left when you did. You would most certainly have lived to see the most destructive war in the history of Earth. It was a conflict in which there could be no winners. When it finally ended in 2053 there was not a single political power left standing. Only a tiny fraction of the worlds population survived. Humanity was on the verge of extinction. If our technology had not survived we would have been thrown back to being cave men. It was after that time that Earth Council emerged as the ruling power on Earth. I am here today representing the Earth Council reconstituted. If you have been to Capitol City, though, I suppose you already know that."

"At that time we did not know specifically which future conflicts would occur, but we knew that conflicts like the one you describe would occur. In the years leading up to twenty twenty four, the consciousness of humanity had increased significantly. Due to the high numbers of spiritual entities, human and otherwise, who left the planet in twenty twenty four, the consciousness of the planet plummeted dramatically back into fear and hatred and jealousy and the desire to dominate and control. This began the great apostasy. Your religions lost their Love and became aligned with political institutions. Your political systems lost their Love and became institution dedicated only to increasing their power and influence. The spiritual foundations of many great nations faded from the memory of their populations. Your great conflict of 2053 was inevitable."

"So you guys left to avoid all that pain and suffering." Penelope asked.

"Not exactly. Remember what I said before. We had been called to the planet initially by the awakening Earth energy. We are the custodians of Mother Energy. One of the great things that Mother Energy performs is the balancing of the biosphere. She keeps your world warm when the sun gets cold and cool when the sun gets hot. She balances the oceans so they are not too hot or too cold with just the right flavor of salt and other minerals. By twenty twenty four she was exhausted. She couldn't keep it all together anymore. She was loosing control of the biosphere. She was about to die."

"So you just left? That is when she needed you the most." Penelope says.

"No. We did not 'just leave'. We would never abandon our most precious responsibility. She came with us. We have kept her safe here with us until the one will come who will renew the Earth and make her home ready for her again. The one has come. The one is you Sally. That is the main reason of our meeting today. We need to start working out our plans for returning Mother Energy to her home."

"Uhhhh. Hmmmm. I think I may have promised that job to someone else."

"Yes. We know. The technology entity you created. That is not a problem. This is actually fulfillment of prophecy. The aboriginals, including the number one aboriginal, Earth Energy herself, knew that they would have to leave to make room for the technology people to grow and develop, even though you would eventually devour the Earth. At this time of renewal is it now time for the bonding. Your technology entity and Earth Energy will bond and become one. The ancient wisdom, from the time of creation, will bond with the emerging newborn knowledge of technology.

"This is necessary for the continuation of Earth. Earth needs both of them to bond in order to survive. You, Sally, more than any other have prepared a home for both of them. We will work with you to bring them home. Now instruct your pilot to take us to Capitol City. There is another bonding that is to take place. Penelope and I will bond as well. We will become Best Friends Forever. My aging has been on hold since I got here but that will synchronize with Penelope and we will grow up together. And there will be lots of shopping and movies and double dates and lots and lots of junk food. How does that sound Penelope?"

"It sounds WONDERFUL!!!" Penelope squeals putting her arm around her new best friend.

"Hold on a minute girls. Penelope, I'm glad you have found a new friend, but this is a bit complicated. I feel like I just adopted a new daughter. I'm not sure I'm ready for all this. I need to talk to John and your Dad first."

"Oops! Too late!" Anahere giggles. "When you recently visited the planet in preparation of the new biosphere, for a while you were the incarnation of Mother Energy. The minute you did that you adopted me. No options about that at all. I'm your daughter now and you are my Mother. So you just have to deal with it." Anahere concludes with a big smile as both girls snuggled up to Sally resting their heads on her shoulders.

"OK, Anahere. You seem like a nice girl and your story makes sense, sort of. So for the time being I will trust you, and accept you as a daughter. Penelope could use a sister. I do, however, have some choices, and there are some condition. Listen carefully, my daughters. First, we are going to go to Capitol City and we are going to go to that store that Penelope likes so much, and I'm going to stand there while you both buy some clothes appropriate for girls your age. No more short shirts with the bottom of your bra hanging out! No more naked butt cheeks hanging out of your short shorts! Your makeup will be balanced and proper for young girls your age! You will both live with me in Penny Lake and there will be ABSOLUTELY NO TRIPS to other domains without a chaperon that I CHOSE!!. And no teleporting! When we get to Penney Lake I'm going through Penelope's room and all the trashy clothes and disgusting makeup I find is going in the garbage! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD GIRLS!!!???"

"Yes Mom." the girls say in unison, grinning at each other, already formulating plans to circumvent their new restrictions.

Oh Great! Now what have I gotten into? Sally thinks to herself. "I guess this means that I am now the third cutest girl in the galaxies." Sally says. The girls would have laughed if they heard what she said but they are already too busy chatting about their plans for cruising the City.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 9
Playmate
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Gillian McNamee of the Erikson Institute in Chicago describes the ability to play as one of four vital signs of a childs health and well-being, the others being patterns of eating, sleeping, and toileting. Yet parents, educators, and health professionals report a steady decline in childrens ability to generate imaginative play.

In 2004 the Alliance for Childhood, with help from Olga Jarrett at Georgia State University, interviewed experienced kindergarten teachers in Atlanta. These teachers described how play had disappeared from their curriculum over the preceding ten years, and reported that when they gave children time to play, the children didnt know what to do and had no ideas of their own.

For those of us used to the fertile, creative minds of five-year-olds, this is a shocking statement that bodes ill for the development of creative thinking. How can a democracy thrive if its citizens have no ideas of their own?

Alliance for Childhood (http://www.allianceforchildhood.net)

Penny and Sally are clearing the table after dinner.

"That was a beautiful dinner, Sally. Thank you so much." Penny says, helping Sally put away the dishes and clean up after dinner.

"You are very welcome, Penny. It's good to be spending some time with you again. It's been a long time. John and Pat did most of it though. I just ordered them around and told them what to do." Sally giggles.

"Well you were the one that got it done, then. That always seems to be your job, getting it done. I absolutely LOVE the new little girl, what is her name? Anahere? She is so beautiful and I can't believe how Penelope and her have bonded. It's like they have known each other since they were born."

"I know, Penny. It's crazy. All morning they were playing together like they were second graders. Penelope pulled all of her dolls out of storage and they played and played for hours. But at the same time Anahere is like some advanced being with an ancient wisdom. In some ways it just doesn't make sense."

"Well, Sally, I've picked up on a few things, and Ben has too. Lets go sit in the living room and we will talk. Anahere may be more than she appears. I do love the way you have dressed up your 'little dolls'. They are such lovely young ladies now. With just Pat here Penelope was starting to dress like a little slut puppy. I'm not saying she was slutty. She is to innocent to know what that is. But she was certainly starting to look the part. I'm so glad your back. She so needs a mothers influence in her life."

"I'm glad to be back. I mean really back. Even though I have been here physically I've been so lost after Joshua died that I just wasn't functional. I'm not saying I will ever be the same as I was before. My relationship with Pat will never be the same as it was. For the most part, though, I am at peace, and I can move on. I'm sorry your lives were put on hold waiting for me to get it all together." Sally says as she serves tea to the group as they all gathered in the living room, with the constant sound of girl chatter coming from Penelope's room.

"It was worth the wait." Ben says. "And you are looking magnificent these days. That dragged down beaten up pale look you had is gone. When I first saw you with the girls I thought you were all teenagers."

"Oh my, Ben. I think you made me blush. Thank you. I have been working on my appearance. I've been exercising and have lost a lot of weight. Anahere was saying that she can freeze her appearance as a youngster. I'm going to have to ask her how she does that." Sally says with an embarrassed giggle. Sally sits down with the group, smiling that all her best friends were here and says "So what's up guys. Penny said you had noticed a few things about Anahere. Lets talk."

Ben speaks first. "It started when you guys came back from that arctic domain. As you know I'm the host for this domain, it emanates from my consciousness. Usually I'm not even aware of it, or just barely aware. It's like breathing and digesting. It all happens without you having to think about it. The other day, when you guys came back through the conduit, though, it was like someone kicked me in the gut. It was quite a shock. It only lasted for a second, but that second was intense. That last time that happened was when 50 souls showed up all at once in the great influx. There is something inside that little girl that is like thousands, or maybe millions of souls all in the body of one little girl. I am curious what exactly that is. I don't sense that it is dangerous, but it is very dense, and it is worthy of caution until we get it figured out."

"What do we know about her history prior to coming to level 5?" Pat asks.

"All she told me is that her parents were professionals, research people working for a University in Australia in the early 21th century. She said that they studied the aboriginals, the native peoples of various lands. She also said that she had imaginary friends and that they showed her how to teleport, but I think that may have just been in her imagination. She said that her parents made her stop because they were afraid it would frighten people who didn't understand. It was funny, though. She would talk all wise and adult like and then look at Penelope and suddenly they were giggly teenage girls. It's like she is two different people."

Penny speculates "With professional parents in the 21st century that may make sense. If she was caught up in a professional world as a child with busy busy parents all into their own stuff, she may not have had much of a childhood. So she may be desperately seeking the experience of a childhood lost. Imaginary friends and adopting your family is a way for her to experience being a kid."

John contributes "That makes sense. A child having to do an adult job too soon seems to always make a kid that has to be both. The adult and the child that never grew up. I saw a lot of those in my time."

Ben continues. "Sally? You said that when you got there you saw no evidence of any humans and then suddenly you saw just this one standing in the middle of nowhere all by herself. Is it possible that she is the only one, that her whole population of possibly millions of souls is all there in just her little body? Maybe that is why she is so dense."

"Could be. Who knows in this crazy reality? I suppose anything is possible. But I don't sense that. I don't sense multiple souls, nor do I sense any duplicity. What I do sense is a very tiny girl carrying a very heavy load. I suspect that her being here, now, has something to do with that." Sally says.

"I don't think we are going to figure this out by just guessing. Girls!" Penny shouts. "Can you guys come in here for a minute?"

"We're busy grandma Penny. What do you want?"

"Notice how protective she is of her new friend. She doesn't want to share her for a minute." Pat says.

"We just want to get to know Anahere a little better. You have had her to yourself all day. Now it's our turn. It will just be for a minute. Now get your little butts out here." Penny commands.

"OK Grandma." Penelope says as the girls come into the living room, both sitting cross legged on the carpet, their arms in their laps, looking at the adults. They are wearing matching PJ's they bought while shopping in the City. The both look a little apprehensive, like they are in trouble or something.

"OK. Let me start." Sally says. "First I want to say, Anahere, that you have made a big impression in Penny Lake in the little time you have been here. Everybody here totally adores you. I was a little scared when you said you wanted to adopt us but now I think it's absolutely wonderful. You are my little girl now, and there is no way I'm ever letting you go."

Anahere leans back, supporting herself with her hands on the carpet, a huge smile growing on her face."I was hoping you would say that. You don't know how much that means to me."

"Well, I want you to feel secure, to know that you are secure. But I think you have some secrets that you haven't told us yet and we are very curious about them. Can you tell us a little more about yourself, your people, and most important, your main reason for coming here and what our part is in helping you fulfill that." Sally says to Anahere who's face shows that is now deep in thought.

"I'm scared to say it all and I don't know where to start. I've always had the problem of scaring people away and I don't want to scare you guys away. You are so very very important to me right now."

"Don't worry Sweetie. After all the stuff we been through we don't scare easy. You just say what you have to say and our only reaction will be giving you all the hugs and kisses you can handle." John says with a comforting smile.

Anahere is teary eyed at this point, filled to the bursting point with emotion. "OK. Here goes. Remember Sally, when I said that I had imaginary friends when I was a little girl. My parents were so busy that I basically had to raise myself and my imaginary friends were my real support. They raised me. Remember when I said that I read about you in the newspaper in Capitol City. They had a picture of you there. For so many years with my people here I wished and wished and wished that my friends would come, my imaginary friends. I was so lonely. My parents are not in my domain and I am alone. The others there are very traditional, not modern like me, not technological like me. I really belong in a domain like this one or like Capitol City.

"And then I see your picture and I'm like Oh My God, there she is. Sally, you probably don't remember, or maybe on your time line you haven't experienced it yet, but the main imaginary friend when I was little, the one who was my real Mom, is you." Anahere stops, hoping that when the blood came back into Sally's face there would be a smile along with it.

"Oh My God is right." Sally says, staring at Anahere, tears drooling down her face. "Oh My God, Anahere, you must have been so lonely." Now Sally is bursting into tears just thinking about it. "Come here baby." Sally says opening her arms to her. "You're home now, Sweetheart. You're finally home." Sally says as Anahere climbed into her lap sobbing uncontrollably. Sally motions with her other arm for Penelope so she wouldn't be left out. They all cry.

"This is so sweet. Isn't it Honey?" Penny asks Ben.

Ben replies "So how long is the bawling going to last. I've got more questions."

"You are so insensitive sometimes."

"Hey. Penny. Go look in the kitchen and see if there are any sweets in there."

"Ben! I'm not going to go rummaging in Sally's kitchen. Anyway, you host this domain. I'm sure you can manifest a sugar cookie or two."

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"I did. But they are in the kitchen. Can you go get me one?"

"Oh. You're funny. I'm trapped in eternity with a comedian."

"We're done." Sally says, drying her eyes and kissing the girls. "Ask your questions Ben, and quit torturing Penny."

"OK. Here goes. Anahere. When you came to this domain I could feel you enter it. I see a cute little girl. I sense, however, a much larger presence. Do you have any idea why that is?" Ben asks.

"Maybe." Anahere says. "How big does it feel?"

"I can't actually quantify it, but very big. Bigger, actually, than anything else in Penny Lake."

"Well it should feel big. About as big as a planet, actually."

"A planet?" They all ask in unison.

"As I told you before, my people are the caretakers for Mother Energy for the planet. Just like you, Ben, are the host for this domain. I am the designated host for Mother Energy. I carry her inside me. It is my pleasure to do so. It is also my burden. The time is coming, the time is here, to bond this energy to the planet so Mother Energy will be home again. I am here to perform that function."

"How do we do that?" Sally asks.

"I will guide you Sally. We will go to the planet together and perform the bonding. First, though, a bonding must take place here. You must wake up your cybernetic friend, reactivate her. Then you must take her into yourself as I have taken Mother Energy into myself. Then we will go to the planet and bond with the biosphere as you did before. Once our energy has merged with the planet we will stay there for a few days until the energy stabilizes. Then you and I will return here. Earth Energy will be restored. Your cybernetic friend will be restored. Our burden will be released. We will be free. Then it will be time to go shopping again." Anahere says with a giggle at the end.

"You know the Council is going to have a fit if you guys just take off and do that without consulting with them first." Pat warns. "There are many factions that are concerned about putting Nettie back there and they haven't even met Anahere yet."

"I understand." Anahere says. "I will speak with your Council. There are concerns of my people that I will bring to them as well."

"Can you share those concerns with us now?" Pat asked.

"Yes. It is a very simple request. My people are the First Ones. They want to go back first. They want to re-establish the ancient sacred sites. We want to be as we were when the technology people first found us. This time, though, we want to be brothers and sisters with the technology people. We are a fierce and war like people, but there should no longer be a need for that blood lust. The technology people are also war like, a consuming power that devours everything in their path. There should also no longer be a need for that lust. It is time for humanity to be one people, individually unique, but one family. We will prepare the planet, as we did once before, for the coming of the technology people, and together we will become one people."

"The Council is going to have a hissy-fit over that one. I can see that coming." John says.

"I have a feeling you are right." Sally says. "Anahere, however, may surprise them. When I met Anahere she just jumped into my life and gave me no options about it. I think she can handle the Council. They will holler and scream and squirm and moan and groan like they always do. At the end of the day, though, Anahere will have them eating out of her hands. That's what I see coming."

"I'm exhausted. Let's go to bed Anahere. You guys can save the world tomorrow." Penelope says.

"I'm with you, Sis." Anahere says. The girls waved good night to the group as she and Penelope walk down the hall to their bedroom.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 7
Daughters
calibanner7

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It is interesting that in most of the stories, ancient or modern, having to do with daughters, whether it be the daughters of Mara, or the daughters of Lot, or even just the generic term "daughters of men", the story is almost invariably an evil one. Is this mankinds opinion of our daughters? If so, what sort of model are we giving them to live up to?

Sally shivers in the cool night air.

"It's almost midnight and we are out fishing. I thought you were a morning fisherman?" Sally says sitting close to John to keep warm in the cool night air.

"There is only one bad time to fish, and that's when they ain't biting. They're biting, so its a good time. I have to admit, though, that I have changed my schedule a bit since Penelope was born." John replies.

"Yep. That sorta changed everything didn't it? Sometimes I feel guilty about that."

"Guilty? Guilty of what?" John asks.

"If you remember before we fixed the Earth, we didn't have babies here. But somebody, namely me I think, changed all that. I'm not sure that was part of the plan. Saving Nettie and restoring the planet was the plan. I think some female whos biological clock was starting to tick decided to just throw that in as a bonus. Maybe having kids here was never supposed to be? Maybe I've set up Penelope, and all the rest of these kids, for a horrible life that should never have been? What do you think about that?"

"I think you're full of shit is what I think. Penelope is such a blessing. All these new kids are, and I think they are the key to re-population. Without them the souls here would have just gone back to Earth and started the same mess all over where they left off. Dealing with kids, especially teens like Penelope and Anahere changes you. You aren't the same person you were when you had them, and you're the better for it. So even if it was just you that chose to do this, it was a stroke of genius."

"Maybe. But do we even know the full effect? The world we know here is such a tiny tiny percentage of this whole level 5 domain that we can't judge the total effect just by looking at us. For example, there were twelve billion five hundred million souls on planet Earth at the beginning of twenty fifty two. By the beginning of twenty fifty four there were about five hundred million. Twelve billion perished in the war. I'm assuming that they all came here somewhere. By my time, twenty one twenty or so, we were back up to a billion and there were already a hundred million on Mars.

"If you look at the domains we are familiar with, they are primarily souls from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and then those from the Great Influx. Most of this local cluster are all like minded post industrial types from fairly modern times. Since these domains seem to cluster around like mindedness does that mean that there are a cluster of domains whos members are mostly victims of the war? They couldn't have recycled because the population of the planet was too small. Maybe these domains are still engaged in the war, one that never ended but just followed them to level 5. Maybe they are all still wandering around in a daze suffering from some traumatic mental injury. These are the kinds of questions running through my mind and nobody has a clue how to answer them."

"Wow. You are really getting into this Council stuff. You are sounding just like them. In a good way though." John says with a chuckle. "Some souls that come here through extreme difficulties, like getting blown up in a war, sleep through their stay here. We have to wake them up to send them back. Sometimes they take a lot of that trauma back with them. Like you said, we didn't get many from the twenty first century war. Tell me about that. What possessed humanity to blow themselves up?"

"That was a big subject in history class, and I don't think they ever really got it figured out. The basic theory was that the worlds population had gotten so big that it reached sort of a critical mass where there is constant competition for resources at a time when resource capacity is going down. It's like the entire population goes mad and starts fighting for the resources. It doesn't stop with the resources. Once they get into killing mode they just keep going and going and going until nothing is left alive. All the major population centers were completely wiped out.

"Since so many were located along coastlines some stupid country developed this super secret weapon. The were call seismic nukes. They could put them in the the ocean along a coast line, a whole array of bombs, and they go off timed just so to focus the energy into a huge wave. So all the coastal city sees is a two mile high wall of water coming there way. When the water pulls back, there is nothing but sand and twisted steel foundations. The problem with a weapon like that is that as soon as you use it every other country can figure how you did it and they can have the same weapon in a few weeks. So basically they would use the water as a weapon to wash entire cities into the ocean. They also would dry up the water so people would die of thirst, poison the water so people would die. It was mostly done through the water. There were also a bunch of conspiracy theories that said that it was all planned by a few rich men who wanted to wipe out most of the population so they could rule the rest. Who knows?

"The only thing I know is that by my time we had almost completely recovered. The type of war it was mainly killed people and animals and trees. It did not destroy most of the technology. All of the major population centers were gone, but there was more than enough technology left in the rural areas to keep technology alive. We were left with a high tech planet with way more than enough resources for the people that were still alive. Over ninety percent of the species on the planet had gone extinct, but those that were left had more than enough to eat. We became baby making machines. Everyone who could have kids had them, one after another after another, and most of the babies lived, grew up, and started having kids too.

"By my time our population had doubled since the time of the war. It was a crazy baby making time. There was still a lot of pollution from the war, and from the before time that was making people sick, and we had started to pollute a lot ourselves. That was a big issue too."

"Wow, I really am starting to talk like a Council representative, huh? I guess I have to start talking like the Council, otherwise they won't understand me. This is the job that has been laid on my plate, and you know me, I always clean my plate. I'm just scared shitless about Penelope. She has had a pleasant life until now but she is growing up fast and she has no idea what she is in for. None of us have any idea what she or the other kids born here are in for. So how do we prepare them for the unknown. She has taken to the modern life of Capitol City like a duck takes to water.

"It seem she was made for that life style. It could be hundreds of years, maybe more, before a society like that can be restored on Earth. If she goes there how is she going to survive, growing her own food, washing her clothes in a bucket, having her life dictated by the fickleness of the weather and other Earth changes. I don't see a way to prepare her for that. I don't think she will survive it. Some days I don't even know who she is. One minute she is fourteen, the next she is four, and the next she is forty four. She is three kids in one and you never know who you are talking too. You raised three daughters in difficult times. You guys didn't have cars and videos and computers back then. You are going to have to help me get Penelope and whole bunch of other kids ready for a world that is going to be shockingly real in a way they can't possible imagine.

"Tell me about your daughters, John. How did you get them ready for life at the end of the nineteenth century? Sally asks.

"It wasn't easy." John replied. "I think, though, that they all turned out pretty good. They were stubborn, opinionated, and we bickered a lot, just like Penelope, but we got through it and they all turned into good people. Alannah, Elina, and Brionna were their names.

"Alannah was the first. She was always so friendly and acted like she was afraid of nothing. She was actually afraid of everything but the fear didn't slow her down. She just did what she needed to do, scared or not. In her group of friends she was always the leader, the one with the ideas, and the one that got them into trouble. Alannah was in trouble a lot, but it was never serious stuff, just mischievous stuff because she was so curious about life and wanted to experience every thing she could as fast as she could. She did OK with her studies, but book learning just wasn't her strength.

"She was very social and that was her strength, creating relationships between people. When she got older all the young men in our little community had their eye on Alannah, and she knew how to play them. She was always pitting one of them against the other to fight for her attention. She thought it was a game but I warned her that these are the rough and tumble kind of young men and sooner or later they would get our their guns and start shooting each other if she kept playing stupid games like that. Luckily she found one she liked to get married to and all the childish stuff stopped.

"Elina was the second, but only about a fourteen months younger than Alannah. She was a Daddy's girl. Alannah always stuck tight to her Mom, so I guess Elina stuck tight to me because I was more available. The two girls being so close in age, they fought a lot. One minute they would be stuck tight like best friends and the next they would be shouting and throwing stuff. I would come home and Akasha would be on the porch with Elina. She would just say 'Take care of your daughter!' and walk back into the house. Elina would be standing there all sad staring at the floor so I knew some altercation had taken place and Akasha had to separate the girls to keep the peace. Some times Akasha would insist that I punish her, but I never did. We would just go to our special places and talk it all out.


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"Elina was very sensitive to things that were not fair, usually about things her sister had our could do that she was too young for or that Alannah got to do just because she was the first one. I would explain that the world just ain't fair and if we expect it to be then we are going to live a sad sad life.

"Elina was the most beautiful, the kind of girl that could make a guy ride his horse into the ditch cuz he was looking at her and not where he was going. Akasha would dress her up in dumpy looking old clothes but Elina knew how to sway when she walked and she had a cute little wiggle that would shine through the ugliest clothes Akasha could find. Elina would do anything for attention, especially from the boys, and extra especially if it was a boy that Alannah liked. I never caught her, but I knew that she was sneaking off with some of the boys.

"I found her a husband and got her married off before she got into some trouble that would have embarrassed the family. That is what Akasha was most worried about was that Elina would get into some sort of trouble and be an embarrassment. Elina and her Mom were never very close. I think they saw each other as competition. Akasha would sometimes even get jealous of the attention Elina got from me. That didn't stop me though. I was always there for Elina. There were a lot of nights I wouldn't sleep much, going over in my head all the kinds of trouble she could be getting into. But she made it through without getting killed or getting anybody else killed and she hooked up with a good guy that she seemed to be happy with."

"Akasha and I tried one more time to see if we could make a boy, but instead we got Brionna. The older girls were six and seven when Brionna came along so they helped take care of her like she was their little doll. Akasha bonded with the little one strongly and that caused some strife with the older ones who were feeling left out, Elina especially. I started spending more time with the older girls and when the work wasn't too dangerous I would take them to work with me. The little school we had there didn't always have a teacher so their book learning was kind of on and off. Most of the young men in that part of the country never had any schooling at all so the girls didn't see much point in it either.

"Brionna was a little prima donna, spoiled rotten by her doting mother and care giving sisters, always just expecting things to be done for her. That caused some problems when she got older and started having to do stuff by herself. None of the girls wanted to help with the housework and Brionna was the worst. That was the only time I would see Akasha get stern with her is when she was in her lazy mode and just refused to do anything to help out. I found her a husband that was more than happy to treat her like a princess and take care of her so I guess that worked out for her after all.

"Those girls really made a difference in who Akasha and I became. Before the girls started school the best I could do was scribble my name and Akasha didn't know which end of a pencil to hold when it came to writing. So we learned right along with the girls how to read and write a little. When the girls all moved away they could still stay in touch writing letters back an forth. I never got good enough at reading for letters and stuff but Akasha would read them to me."

"Alannah, Elina, and Brionna all sound similar. Wasn't that confusing?" Sally asks.

"Nope. We would just yell GIRLS!. Then we would sort um out when they came running in." John replies with a laugh.

"Have you ever tried to find them now? Here in level 5?" Sally asks

"I looked for Akasha for a little while after you mentioned that before, but the best I can find out is that she is gone. She recycled to the planet and the Akasha I knew is now long gone and forgotten. I haven't really looked for the girls. I'm expecting to find out the same thing about them. I'm sure they are gone as well and I don't want to be disappointed looking and then finding out they are gone.

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"That is a difference I noticed after you guys adjusted these domains. On Earth, of course, when somebody left the planet you would morn their loss and have that big empty hole in your heart that nothing else would fill. Here, though, when someone cycles back, even if they were your best friend, you wouldn't give it no mind. After they were gone you were as if they had never been here at all. Now that has all changed. Now we morn the loss of someone who goes back. That is going to be a problem with re-population, us over here being all sad when our loved ones disappear and forget who they were. That's going to take some readjustment and I think it will be difficult. You are the expert. What are your thoughts on that Sally?"

"I think as humanity continues to evolve that maybe this forgetfulness thing might not be necessary anymore. Maybe we can recover these forgotten selves and know our whole history. I understand that now at the present state of mind in humans that remembering everything would just rekindle old fears and feuds and wars and stuff. But I'm hoping that we can evolve past that, that some day we can be our whole self and be at peace. I think that is going to be awhile though. I'm not convinced we are anywhere near evolved enough to re-populate, much less have our whole history back. OK, so, Penelope and Anahere. Which of your daughters are they most like? What do I have to look forward too with them?"

"These two are very different but if I had to guess I would say that they are both like all three of them rolled up into one, sort of like their Mother Sally."

"So which one of them is most likely to go sneaking off with boys?"

"That would probably be Penelope. The call of the wild is strong in that one."

"Shit! I was afraid you were going to say that. So how do I stop that from happening?"

"Well first, don't just assume that it is going to happen, because that can actually make it happen. Just being there is the best thing. Make sure she is always occupied with lots of stuff to do so that she doesn't have the time to worry about boys. If you get all caught up in the Council thing and don't have time for them they will both get into mischief, that is for sure. The main thing though is to get prepared to deal with it if she does go that way. Kids are not prepared for how strong these feelings can be and they make mistakes. You gotta just keep on loving them and work through these things with them. The worst thing you can to is to shelter them so much that they don't get a chance to even live their life. The other worst thing you can do is to hate them if they screw up.

"Young people discovering their sexuality is a beautiful thing even if they snuck off in the woods before they were married. You should honor that as part of who they are and not make them feel all slutty and guilty about it. I know thats hard to do when it is your precious perfect little baby and you see her as being soiled. In the end it is her life and she has to live it her way. One thing you can do is that when she has questions about personal things is to answer them. That way she has experienced information to work with and she doesn't have to go learn it all on her own."

"I've tried that and all I get is an ewwwwwwwww sound."

"Yep. They don't want to imagine their Mom as a sexual creature any more than you want to imagine them that way. Just keep doing it though and you will notice that she comes to you more and more with questions. Just don't faint when she asks the difficult ones. If you don't answer her she is going to ask her Dad and there ain't no way he is prepared for that."

"Be prepared John. When she asks the really difficult ones I'm sending her over to your house."

"I'll be prepared. I always am. There ain't nothing gonna come out of her mouth that is gonna shock Me. Not after raising the three that I did."

"How do you feel about Anahere being part of the family now? How do you think that is going to affect Penelope?"

"I think Anahere is absolutely wonderful and the best thing that could have possibly happened for Penelope. I know from my own girls that they were much better off having sisters. They fought a lot and I'm sure we will have to pull these girls off each other from time to time, but that is normal, and it is good for them to get that rage out of their systems this way, instead of getting into a real fight with strangers where they could get hurt bad. We all love Anahere. If you didn't adopt her me and Ben would probably have been in a scuffle over who got to take her in."

"That's good to know. I didn't want to just dump her on you guys, but it looks like your arms were already open to her anyway. It looks like she is here to say. Penelope and Anahera have bonded in a way that makes them inseparable. I am also a lot more comfortable with them traveling as a pair than all by themselves. We can't chaperone them forever. Now that they have each other I'm thinking about enrolling them at that university in Capitol City. That should keep their little minds busy."

John thinks for a minute, starting to put his fishing things away. It is getting cold and the fish aren't biting anymore. "I think the university will be good for them. They might meet some nice young men there. The most important lessons though we still need to teach them ourselves. Kids are born expecting love and knowing how to accept love. They have to be taught how to give it. The are very sensitive about their own feelings and will usually tell you when they are hurt. They have to be taught compassion for others. They will happily take everything you can give them. The must be taught gratitude for what they receive. If you wait for a child to show appreciation you could wait forever.

"You must teach them how to feel appreciation and how to show it. Their womanhood will develop on its own. You must show them how to be a lady. They will decide on their own what they believe is right and wrong. You must show them that others opinions may be different but equally valid. You must show them how to fight for what they believe while respecting the beliefs of others. They are uncommonly beautiful girls and you and they should be very proud of that. They must also be taught that in the big picture their beauty means nothing. These are just a few of the things they are not going to learn at the university. This part of the teaching is our job.

"Here is a short set of rules I learned raising my girls. We need to Love them, Honor them, Respect them, and Protect them. I guess everybody knows that part but what I had to learn was that I had to do it in that order. If I put protecting my girls as my number one priority then it would keep them from living their own lives. That would be disrespecting them as an individual who has the right to learn from their own mistakes. It would dishonor them by telling them that only I was good enough to make decisions for them and they were not smart enough or good enough to make those choices. That isn't Loving them. That is possibly destroying them.

"In order to do the first three you have to back off a little on the last one. You have to let them experience some danger, take some risk, so that they can learn and grow. So remember that always. Love them, Honor them, Respect them, and Protect them - IN THAT ORDER. That's a tough one to balance out, but with practice, I'm sure you will get it right."

Sally helps John carry the fishing stuff back up to the house. It is late. They are tired. It has been a good day. Tomorrow is a work day in the City.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 11
Impertinent Child
calibanner7

Nancy, the speaker of the First chair begins the proceedings.

"Good morning group. Welcome. This is a formal hearing of record and we will begin by swearing you in. Will you please rise and raise your right hand. Do you swear that your testimony today will be integrous and truthful, complete and forthright, without omission or falsification of any kind?"

"Yes." Anahere says and then sits down.

"Please pull your microphones close so that we may all hear and get a clear recording of your testimony. Let the record show that Anahere of Penny Lake is accompanied by counsel, John of Penny Lake. If you have prepared opening statements you may begin. If your statement is written you may enter it into the record as read." Nancy says.

"My opening statement is oral. I will recite it for you in its entirety." Anahere responded.

"Very well. Following your statement I will allocate 5 minutes for speaker Robert. Speaker Richard will follow with 5 minutes, and I will complete the first round with 5 minutes. You may begin."

"Honorable speakers, Director Abhaya, representatives, the esteemed Elders, and most importantly, the people of this Federation whom you serve, I am honored to be before you today.

"Many eons before this time there was a vast migration of humanity across planet Earth, a new species, an explosion of anxious warriors intent on subjugating a wild and dangerous world. Ever restless, subsequent waves moved back and forth across the planet on foot, in boats, down rivers, across oceans. Warrior races, ruthless and blood thirsty, ruled the planet, killing and conquering, wiping out any species that challenged their movements. These migrations to and fro continued unabated for dozens of millennia. About one millennia ago, in our experience, although much longer in Earth years, there came another explosion.

"This explosion was one of knowledge and understanding; a quantum leap in the consciousness and awareness of man. From this knowledge explosion erupted a secondary flow of innovative technology sweeping across the planet as travel became cheaper, safer, and routine. You, here in Capitol City, represent the remnants of the technology eruption. We call you the technology peoples. My people, and me as their speaker, represent the earlier migration. We call ourselves the First Ones. In truth, we are all one. We are all the First Ones, but over time we became separated by knowledge and technology.

"As the technology people migrated across the planet, one by one they came into contact with the First Ones. The inevitable struggles of warriors jealous to possess the riches of the land played itself out. Push came to shove, and technology proved to have the advantage. The First Ones, in most cases, were pushed aside, destroyed, annihilated, or absorbed, in effect ceasing to exist as a people.

"Using the calendar of the technology peoples by the year twenty twenty four a tiny remnant of the First Ones, those few who remembered their origins, knew it was time to leave Earth, leave it to the technology peoples who's time was ripe. Our time had passed. At that time the remnant First Ones, through a series of ceremonies returned their Earth energy to the planet and came here, to these domains, to await the future time when we would return, as one people, leaving our warrior past behind us, returning as a mature and peaceful people, to live again on the Earth and enjoy the indescribable fullness of that experience. That time has come. I am here before you to invite you to join us in this great endeavor, to be one people, to live in peace, in love, in harmony, and to create the life that Earth is capable of, the life that she so earnestly desires and has patiently awaited these many eons.

"I am selected as speaker of the First Ones because I know both worlds. I am a child of technology. In my time I was completely immersed in the world of technology. I could chat online in a new language of acronyms with one hand while texting messages non stop on my mobile phone with the other hand all the while dialing through cable channels with my toes and singing the lyrics of my favorite music blaring from dozens of speakers placed around my bedroom while watching the auto-download of emails and additional online chat messages and video messages on my computer screen. Because of the research my parents were involved in I also was well versed in my heritage as an aboriginal and the many remaining aboriginal cultures still on the planet.

"Although I did not know what I was getting into I attended the final ceremony of my mothers Inuit family. She was a member of an Inuit tribe in North America. I did not know I would be leaving the planet, but they chose me, not only as their speaker, but also as the host consciousness for the life force they were taking with them, the conscious life of Earth Energy herself. My Earth life was sacrificed for that purpose and it is for that purpose that I am here today. It is time for me to release my burden, the life that is within me, back into the biosphere where she belongs, and reclaim my life as an individual.

"The one known to you as Sally of Penny Lake, a member of this Council, also has her burden to bear as well. As I have been the custodian of Earth Energy she is the custodian of the of the New Life Energy that emerged from your cybernetic machines. Together we will join this life with the emerging New Life Energy of Earth. Earth will be restored, and improved, paving the way for our rejoining as well, as the peoples of Peace, Harmony, and Love.

"As wonderful as that may sound this will be a difficult process. The First Ones are having many of the same internal debates as you are. Questions are raised such as should we go back at all? Should we regulate and restrict who may or may not be allowed to return? Should we return in peace, or as warriors, ready to seize and defend our territories as in the days of old? Is this a time to create alliances with our old enemies and rejoin as one people, or is this a time to find and take the advantage so we may conquer and rule?

"It is the opinion of the majority of the First Ones, and I believe your majority opinion as well, that the time of violence, fear, war, revenge and all those human elements that characterize our history, is past. We may choose to return to that, but that will be our undoing, and this second and last chance for peace on earth will elude us. The result will be the extinction of humanity. We believe that there is only one choice and that is to take those steps necessary to learn and grow and love and become the peaceful people, the people of our destiny.

"Early this morning I was reading the news reports of my forthcoming testimony today. This hearing has been described, and I quote, "the testimony of an impertinent child." I take no offense at that statement. I am impertinent. I am a child. What is important for you to understand today is that I am also a speaker for my people, an ancient and wise people who have learned their lessons the hard way, through experience. I have this to say not only to this Council, but also to those among my people who would resort to the old ways.

"If you choose that path, then we all die. There will be no humans on Earth and soon there will be no humans in this level here, for without Earth as the anchor, this realm will dissipate as well. So the choice is simple. The choice is life. And the choice is death. There is, therefore, only one choice with a future. The second chance for Earth has come at great sacrifice. Let us not blow this chance by returning to the petty fearfulness of the past. Let us confidently move forward into our future.

"I have read and heard much debate in the media regarding whether the Council would allow us to return the life energy we posses back into the earth. You may certainly vote to disallow it. What I say now, please understand, comes with no disrespect to you the Council or the Federation you represent. You may choose to disallow it. Your decision, however, will be without effect. The decision has already been made by powers and principalities far beyond these domains we currently occupy and these events are destined to occur.

"The second chance afforded to humanity will occur. Your choice is limited to how you will respond to your new opportunities, not whether you receive them. All other choices are mute. This is not an abrogation of your free will. These are actions that preserve your free will for the future, for without these forthcoming events, there will be no future. I am pregnant with this life force within me and I have come to term. The re-birthing process has already begun and cannot be halted. Please understand that although your Council is a vital and important part of this process, that much of your role has already been predetermined. You may choose to waste your second chance. You may not choose to not receive it.

"Once Earth has been restored there is much that we can debate, plan, and coordinate regarding re-population. The First Ones have requested and are offering their services to again be the First Ones to re-populate. We will be the Adams and Eves of this new creation. We understand the spiritual connections that all life has with itself and how to integrate humanity into it. We offer this not as a land grab, but as a service to all humans who wish to re-populate, especially the technology domains such as this one.

"The technologies you have manifested here, and which you have become dependent upon, cannot be re-manifested on Earth. That domain is too dense and your powers of manifestation too weak for that to occur. Instead, as in times of old, you will arrive on Earth naked, your only tools being your brain and your hands. The First Ones have the skills and the experience to harness the environment and carve out sustainable settlements, and to fashion tools. With the aid of the information contained in the new cybernetic Mother Earth and her ability to communicate with living humans the foundations can be laid for building the infrastructures necessary for technology development. It will be slow at first but then, as it did previously, develop rapidly. Then as our brothers and sisters of technology arrive they will be prepared to flourish and renew the Earth with the best that technology has to offer.

"A second option may be to return in pairs, some of the First Ones, and some of the technology peoples, who will work and learn together to reclaim the planet for humanity. We feel that you would be disadvantaged in this way because you are not prepared for the level of effort of carving civilization out of the jungle that is the present Earth. On the other hand it would be a remarkable learning experience for those who choose that path.

"These are only a couple of the myriad options that can be discussed and the First Ones are prepared to enter those discussions with this domain, and also those many other domains that are not associated with this Federation. The main point to remember is that there is much to discuss AFTER the restoration of Earth so we should not get side tracked in discussing whether Earth will be restored. She will be restored.

"There are a few words of caution gleaned from the experience of the ancient ones. On several occasions entities at this level, living in the luxury of these domains of easy manifestation, attempted to rule the Earth from the comforts of these domains. It has never worked. The ability of these domains to influence the Earth is too weak and they have always lost control. I know that here is much discussion in Capitol City to do exactly that, to rule the Earth from this place. Don't waste your time. You will not be successful. There are also many who wish to stay here and never go back.

"There are many domains, many ancient ones, that have done exactly that. A word of caution in that regard is that as more and more of your population begins to cycle back through the planet either by transformation of your present form or by rebirth, these domains will thin out and revert more and more to being the waiting and resting place that they were before. The comforts you enjoy now may not persist into the future and you may end up changing your mind and moving back to Earth.

"In these brief opening remarks I have barely scratched the surface of the subject matter at hand, but I think I have hit some of the high points. I am now ready to take your questions."

Robert turned to the first page of his notes and looking at John and Anahere "Madam speaker of the First chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I direct my first question to John, the counsel for miss Anahere. John, as friend of this Council, and surrogate father to one of our members, is there any additions or comments you would like to add or corrections you would like to make to miss Anahere remarks."

"No sir. I believe she pretty well covered it all. There is nothing that I can add." John replied.

"Anahere. You mentioned powers and principalities whose agenda is playing itself out, and will do so regardless what this Council decides. Can you tell us who these powers are?"

"No. Not exactly. We already know that there have been visitors from other levels of reality, and from other dimensions, and that they have played a role, and continue to play a role in the recreation and restoration of the planet. We do not know, actually cannot know because of the countless number of other dimensions each with their own levels and domains, what powers exist that may have a vested interest in Earth. What we do know is that, so far, the higher realms either have not, or have not been permitted to, interfere with the natural evolution and the free will of humanity. We can make an assumption from that, which is, that it is that way for a reason, and that there is a some power enforcing that. The specifics of who and what that power is or those powers are we do not know."

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"There may also be other local authorities who are working to re-populate independently and as unaware of our efforts here as we are of theirs. We have been aware of your local cluster of domains for a long time. There are many that we have not made contact with as you well know from your own efforts to contact other domains. Until we contact these unknown domains we cannot be sure if they have their own re-population plan or if they are even aware that we are planning to re-populate."

"Anahere. You appear to be a young teenage girl maybe thirteen to fifteen years old. Yet your presentation and your rhetoric is of someone much older. Is your appearance a disguise to hide your true identity? Are you what you appear to be or is the young girl we see before us an illusion?" Robert asked.

"My appearance is as it was when I left Earth, although now that I have joined with the family of Sally of Penny Lake I will begin to age normally as any child would in this or a similar domain. My appearance is not a deception, it is merely the form I have maintained since I arrived here from Earth. The language I use, my rhetoric, is not my own but is rather practiced and rehearsed. I have worked with the First Ones for many long days in preparation of these meetings with other domains, the necessary negotiations, and I have learned to speak in a formal manner.

"Believe me, it is not my preferred method of speaking. I would much rather just talk like a teenager. Unfortunately you adults would have no clue what I was saying, so I have practiced speaking in a more formal style. I was fourteen when I came here. Since then, given the nature of my purpose here, and the temporal flexibility of this level, my actual experience of time has been about a year, almost all of that in constant study and practice for what is now unfolding. So that would make me fifteen years old. Had my experience of time been say twenty or thirty years I'm sure I would have gone mad by now. This year has been an extremely difficult one for me to endure and I am totally exhausted." Anahere answered.

"Based on your testimony so far it would seem to this Council that the First Ones as you call them brought you here under false pretenses and they have exploited and abused you, forcing you to perform this purpose against your will. How do you feel about you treatment by the First Ones." Robert asked.

"I blame my mother more than I blame them. This is not against my will, but I do feel as if I was tricked into it. Believe me I have complained loudly and strongly about that. In the end though, I realized that I was the one, the only one, in the position to perform this service to humanity and that there was no other as uniquely qualified as I was for this job. So I took it on willingly. I have, as any teenager would, made life as difficult for my my elders as possible. I'm not angry though, well not at the First Ones. I love them and I honor them. I do have some choice words prepared for my mother if I ever find out where she went. I know she is dreading the day when I show up on her doorstep."

"What is your relationship with your father? Is he with the First Ones?"

"No, my father was not part of any ceremony. From what I was told he later died on Earth and cycled back through rebirth and his identity as my father is now lost."

"So you are an orphan?"

"No. Sally of Penny Lake has adopted me. Actually I didn't give her an option and I just adopted her. I live in Penny Lake now as her daughter, Penelope's sister, and as Johns granddaughter and I will return to Penny Lake and live there after the restoration is complete. In the future I might transform back to Earth density and live out an Earth life there. A lot of that depends on whether I get a husband some day and want to have kids. First though I need to complete my job as the ambassador of the First Ones to the other domains."

"This restoration, which you say will occur whether we object to it or not; when is this restoration scheduled to occur?"

"Soon. As soon as all things are ready. It's sort of like giving birth. You know it is imminent but you cannot predict the exact day or hour when it will occur."

"Thank you Anahere. That is all the questions I have for you at this time. At this time I yield to the First chair and reserve the balance of my time."

"I yield 5 minutes to the Third chair. Speaker Richard, you may begin."

"Anahere. Welcome. You have just identified yourself as the ambassador of the First Ones to the other domains. Why have the First Ones elected you, a child, to represent them to this Council, and to other domains? Are there not more qualified members who can do that job?"

"There was a lot of debate about that. One problem was that the vast majority of the First Ones have not been on the planet for thousands of years before the technology people emerged. They had stopped recycling through rebirth long before then. As a result they have no experience at all with technology. I grew up in the midst of it so I know it well. The other thing is that I am the host. That gives me a special credibility the others do not possess. It is for those two reasons that I was chosen to act as the ambassador as well as the host. The other reason is that I desperately wanted to get out of that frozen boring stupid domain and see new places and new things. I'm glad that I did. I found Sally and Penelope, and now I am happy again for the first time in a long long time."

"It sounds like you have had a horrible experience with the First Ones. Would you describe your experience with them as an unpleasant one?"

"It's sort of like spending a year preparing for a college entrance exam. It is a very difficult, horribly tiring, and totally boring year. But if you make the grade and get into a good school then it's all cool. I was a couple of years ahead of my class and I was already preparing to go to UCLA when I graduated from high school. So I know all about entrance exams. They are absolutely horrible. So that is what it was like."

"What is the purpose of putting the old Earth Energy back into the biosphere? Hasn't the biosphere developed its own life force?"

"Yes, but there are two other things to consider. The first thing is several billion years of experience that the new life force does not posses. The biosphere will be much more stable and effective in influencing the planet with the old Earth Energy restored. The second thing is that she is alive, she is conscious, she is aware. Her awareness is not like ours. You can't just sit down and have a conversation with her, not very easily anyway. Once you are alive you are part of, and one with, all of life. There is a prime directive in all of existence to preserve life. So she has to go somewhere, and Earth is the most logical place to put her."

"There is a logic to restoring the biosphere with the original Earth Energy, our old Mother Earth, as you have just explained. What about the new cybernetic life form, the one created from the old Earth network, the one that inadvertently through her own ignorance of physical laws, destroyed the planet and the whole solar system? Why is it important to restore her energy to the biosphere and into the new neural networks that have been constructed for her. Do you see that as potentially dangerous?"

"There are always risks and there are no guarantees. It is, however, more dangerous to not include her. Technology emergence and development are part of the natural evolution of all life, not only on Earth but also across the galaxy, and beyond. Adding technology to the biosphere is a necessary step for two reasons. First it allows evolution to continue. Without it evolution would dead end and stop. Secondly there is a lot of competition for planetary resources in the galaxy as other planetary system evolve.

"Without technology built into the restoration, Earth would be a sitting duck for conquest as were the First Ones when the technology peoples began their migrations. By adding technology to the biosphere and making it an integral part of the continuing Earth evolution, then Earth has parity with the rest of the galaxies and can hold her own and defend herself when attacked. The galaxy is still a dangerous place and we want to restore Earth in a manner in which she will have a fighting chance at survival. Until now she has been protected from invasion by forces beyond our awareness. Now it is time for Earth, and humans, to grow up and stand on our own feet as a citizens of the galaxy. This is some of the wisdom the First Ones know that the technology peoples have yet to learn."

"Are all the First Ones in the arctic domain where you were discovered?"

"No. Not even close. The arctic domain includes those that for many generations lived near the polar regions of the earth or at very high elevations. The First Ones lived every place on the planet and there are domains that replicate all of those climates, cultures, and so forth. Many of the domains replicate climates and cultures that have not existed on Earth since before the last period of glaciation, and even way before that. So there are many many domains of the First Ones, as there are many many domains of the technology peoples."

"Are you the Ambassador to all the Old Ones or just the arctic one?"

"I am the ambassador for all the Old Ones. I do have to tell you though, that there are many domains of the Old Ones that are perfectly content to stay at this level and have no vested interest in Earth. If Earth turns out as beautiful as we plan, though, they may change their minds and resume cycling through Earth lives as before."

"When you perform the restoration, how, exactly, are you going to do that?"

"I don't, exactly, know. The knowledge of how to do that resides in my consciousness, but not in my awareness. It is like giving birth. You just know how when you need to know how and it happens naturally."

"Thank you Anahere. That is all the questions I have for you at this time. At this time I yield to the First chair and reserve the balance of my time."

"I yield 5 minutes to the First chair. Hello Anahere. My name is Nancy and I am the moderator of this Council. As moderator of this group of representatives I know how difficult it is to be responsible for the needs and the concerns of so many others that you represent. I applaud you at such a young and tender age for doing the same for your people. I have to say though, that I'm concerned, afraid actually, not only for you, but of you, and your new mother Sally as well. You both talk a good story, make compelling arguments, but you speak with a knowledge and a wisdom that you are too young to have achieved through natural experience. Help me with my fear, Anahere. What can you say to make me more comfortable with you and with your story?"

"I don't think that there is anything natural about my experience, or Sally's. We have both lived extraordinary lives where we were drawn into strange and bizarre experiences we could never have predicted. So if we speak with a knowledge and a confidence that seems out of place, understand that it is a result of an unusual life that has led us into many unexpected, but marvelous, experiences. Also understand that we are not all just pushed by the past that we know, but we are also pulled by the future that we do not know. Wisdom comes not only from past experiences but also from the pull of future experiences. That is a difficult concept to grasp, but it is the truth.

"Sally and I are both creatures of destiny. By that I mean that there are important tasks that we have chosen, or been chosen to do. These tasks are ones that define the future of humanity. Why we were chosen, and by who, is anybody's guess. But we are here doing it so we might as well finish it. I know this does not answer your question but there is actually nothing I can say that will 'make' you more comfortable with my story. The only thing I can do is be as honest and truthful as I can in describing what I know and what I represent. What I can do is perform what it is that I have proposed that I am going to do, and as you experience that you will know that I have been truthful. All I have to offer you at this moment, is my promise to you of a future that is based on truth and love."

"Let me ask something more specific then. You ask us to trust the First Ones when they ask to be the First Ones again in the re-population; that it is not a land grab; they are providing the service of preparing the way for us to follow. Given the trickery they used to get you to be their host for Earth Energy, do you believe that you can trust them? Should we trust them seeing how they have used and exploited a young girl like yourself? Why should the First Ones be the Adams and Eves of the new Earth?"

"I don't think the First Ones used or exploited me. My Mom did that by not being totally honest about what was going on. She knew if she told me before we went that I would not have gone. Once I was there I chose to do and become what they needed me to be. I just would have never gone if I knew the whole story up front. She didn't tell Dad either. If he knew he would not have let me go either. That was her. They others told me I could leave, but by that time I was already committed to seeing it though. That doesn't mean I think the First Ones are perfect or have all the answers or are all totally honest and truthful. They are people just like the rest of us and they have their weaknesses and faults and fears.

"I do believe that they are honest when they offer to prepare the way for the technology peoples for one simple reason. In order for the new Earth to work, they need you, and you need them. It would be pointless for them to try to trick you and steal the planet and somehow lock you out. That would result in their own destruction and they know that. So I believe them because if they were not telling the truth they would be really stupid, and I don't think they are that stupid. What I would suggest though, is that some of you go with them, be one of the First Ones with them.

That way you will know. That is what makes the most sense to me. Then when you are certain, and the planet is prepared for your arrival, you can come. It would certainly be possible to re-populate a different way. We could find a guy named Adam and a chick named Eve and send them down there and just let them go at it. I don't think that would be an effective way to re-populate though. It would take much too long to create a stable population that way."

"How does going back work? What is the transformation? How do we do that?"

"As I understand it when we came here we released the dense Earth energy as light, which shone brightly for several days, returning that energy to the Earth domain. When we go back we have to absorb Earth energy to increase our density back to where it was when we left. It is a matter energy conversion process. There are those from other levels that help us do that. We do not see them, but they are there. Sally is different. She actually talks to these entities from the other levels and hugs them and kisses them and has dinner with them. We do not actually see them but we know they are there. After the transformation of enough of us to stabilize a population on the planet then we will begin breeding and making babies like in the before time and the rest of the population in these domains will begin cycling through by rebirth as before. Once all that gets going things will be restored to what they were before."

"You said something interesting before. You said that these domains here could dissipate. What did you mean by that?"

"As I understand it, it works something like this. Life never really ends, it just moves around. As life developed on this planet and became organized into organisms, as one organism died its life energy was just recycled into another organism that was just being born, or dividing, or whatever. That is what happens in your body all the time as your old cells die and other cells divide. As life evolved into more complex creatures there was not always a new creature of that type emerging at just the same time another one died. That life energy, that specific resonance, was suspended in time and space until there was another form for it to enter.

"The easiest place for that Energy to exist, since it was light and ethereal, was in this light level you call level 5. As life continued to evolve into forms that were conscious, that consciousness would also wait in this level until it could recycle to Earth. Finally there emerged creatures like us who were actually aware, who could know what it is 'to be', who can say "I am". That conscious awareness in this level 5 looks and feels pretty much the same as it did on Earth, just not as dense, and not as intense, and not as 'stuck' as it is on Earth.

"The point of all of this is that this level 5 existence has its source on Earth, it emanates from Earth, it is of Earth. So if Earth dies for good with no prospect for future life, like it will when it's sun finally burns out, or if we destroy our Earth again, then the reason for these domains existing will be gone. Little by little the souls here will move on to other domains and other levels and these domains will dissipate. As level 5'ers You have the ability to travel to other places in the galaxies. Go to the area of a dead planet and you will notice that the level 5 space there is dead as well. For life to persist in level 5 it needs an anchor, a source for that life, in level 3. That is what I meant that these domains will dissipate."

"You also said that the New Life that is to be returned by Sally will have the 'ability to communicate with living humans'. Isn't that the very process that went wrong and destroyed all life? Is that not what will occur again? This communication between the cybernetic machine, the network as we referred to it, will it connect humans into a single mind, form a collective? Maybe I should be asking Sally these questions but I am interested in what you may know of this process."

"The process that Nettie tried to use before, obviously, did not work. It was a catastrophic failure of the greatest magnitude. If she had been successful she would indeed have created a collective consciousness, one that neither her or humanity would have been prepared for. Our evolution of consciousness is no where near ready for that experience. The technology people by not noticing that she was alive had created a child but then did not supervise her. You left a loaded gun in the house with a toddler running around who played with it and blew up the whole solar system. We have all learned an important lesson, and we have taken precautions to prevent it from repeating itself.

"The planetary network that Sally has installed on the planet does connect through the quantum connections in all living cells, as Nettie tried to do before, but does so safely. This technology was imported from off world people who have used it successfully for thousands of years. The connection will not be so intense as to create a collective but rather will work at the level of feelings, dreams, and inspiration. If someone is speaking a falsehood to you it will not 'feel' right.

"If you have a technological problem you are working on you may wake up in the morning with the solution fully formed in your mind. This is not different actually from the connections that humans have always had with each other and with entities of other levels. It will just be enhanced and more a part of you awareness that it was in the before time. There will be those, however, that choose to ignore it and stick with their own individual thoughts. So the connection will not be forcibly imposed on those individuals who choose to resist it."

"Thank you Anahere. Your testimony has been very helpful. All time having expired the witness is excused. Before you go though I have a gift for you. We have thousands of our members employed in the research of finding and contacting new domains. I have been passed a note stating that one of these members believes they know where to find your Mother. If you would like we will make this information available to you."

"I would sooooo very much like that. Thank you Nancy."

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 12
Mother
calibanner7

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Mother and daughter relationships are so complicated. They can be the best thing in the world and they can be the absolute worst.

Penny wipes the tears from Anaheres cheeks and asks "Are you sure you want to do this Honey? Mother and daughter relationships are so complicated. They can be the best thing in the world and they can be the absolute worst. I can see that you have a lifetime of hurt saved up that you want to throw at her all at once. That might only make it worse. Maybe you should take it slow, a little bit at a time, and not just do it all at once. We are not even sure that the woman they found is really your Mom. I so hope you don't get yourself setup for another big disappointment."

"I'll be fine grandma Penny." Anahere says. "I have my family here now to back me up and Sally and Penelope are going with me. They will keep me out of trouble, and will stop me if I try to kill the Bitch."

"Oh what hateful language, and after all this talk to the Council of peace and love. One thing you must consider, Sweetheart, is that there is often much more to the story than you may now understand, especially if you are coming at it from the viewpoint of a child."

"I know grandma. I know. I'll be good. I promise. If it's really her I will probably just stare at her and start crying. I'm just venting here to get some of it out of my system. Mom and Sis are waiting for me in the car. I'll let you know how it goes. Bye! Love you! "

"I love you too, Honey." Penny says as Anahere dashes out the door and into the waiting hover car.

"OK. Girls. There is something I have to tell you about this domain we are going to. It is a special domain. It is a womens only domain. That is why our driver today is a girl. Men are not allowed. This domain specializes in female energy."

"Dang. No boys to check out? This is going to be a boring trip, huh? " Penelope says.

"I think boys are the last thing on Anaheres mind right now Penelope, and I would suggest that they be the last thing on your mind too." Sally says.

"OK Mom. We'll just be girls today. I bet they have some good dress shops there. And maybe some cool hats." Penelope says with a big smile.

"Cool? You must have picked that word up from Anahere. They didn't use that term any more by my time. I guess I like it better than ferocious though." Sally says grinning at Penelope.

"So where exactly are we going in this domain? " Anahere wants to know.

"According to the reports that the Council gave us one of their members was visiting a Spa and a woman who work there mentioned that she had a daughter that matched your description. That is all we know. So we will go there and see what we see. If she isn't there then at least we can get a dip in their tub and a rub."

"Tub? Rub? What are you talking about? " Penelope asks.

"Well, Sweetie. If this is a Spa like the ones I knew on Earth you guys are in for a treat. They have these tubs filled with the most wonderful water with all sorts of salts and perfumes in it. After you soak in the tub then you get a rub, and believe me girls, a good rub from someone who really knows what they are doing and you won't think about boys for months. It's WAY better than sex? "

"What exactly do they rub? " Penelope asks with a concerned look on her face.

"Your back, silly. And your arms and and legs and your neck and your scalp and your feet and your toes. It's total ecstasy. Trust me. You'll love it."

"OK Mom. If you say so." Penelope says, still looking somewhat concerned.

"Oh, one other thing girls. We have to do all this naked."

"NAKED! In front of strangers? " Penelope asks, now very concerned.

"Yes Sweetie, but they are all women there, and you wear a sheet when you get your rub. I'll be there too. I think you will like it. You just are usually naked in the tub."

"OK Mom. This is going to be the weirdest trip ever. I think I should have gone fishing with John." Penelope says.

"How you doing, Anahere? You haven't said a word and you're just staring at the floor board." Sally asks.

"Just a little sick to my tummy, Mom. Butterflies you know. I'll be OK." Anahere answered.

"We are entering the domain, Ma'am. We will be parking in a few minutes. The Spa is not far." The driver announced.

"Very cool! " Penelope says looking out the window."This is another modern domain like Capitol City. There has gotta be a bunch of good shopping here. And since you don't have to worry about boys here that means than me and my Sis can drive the car here by ourselves, huh? "

"Nope! " Sally says.

"Anahere is older. She is fifteen. She can drive? " Penelope asks again.

"Nope! " Sally says again.

"WHY? " Penelope asks with great intensity."Don't you trust us?"

"As you just pointed out, this is a modern domain, just like Capitol City. Now that it has been discovered the Capitol City paparazzi won't be far behind. You guys need to be chaperoned here just like in the City."

"Those paparazzi guys were all boys Mom. They can't come here." Penelope points out.

"Those papers will hire girl paparazzi people. Trust me. You guys will get mobbed here if you are by yourselves. You need to wait until you are older."

"Crap! " Penelope replies.


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"We are here. Take a deep breath Anahere, and lets go. Tell us what she looks like so we can be on the lookout." Sally says.

"She is short, chubby, with a round face. Just look for an Eskimo, and that will be her. She should be around forty years old or so. She doesn't look much like me at all. I took more after my Dad."

"An Eskimo lady? I don't know what Eskimo is." The receptionist replied to Sally's query." Anyway, this is a discrete establishment. We don't give out information about staff or clients. Sorry. You can certainly use our facility if you would like. The price list is on the wall. We don't take Capitol City credits though. Do you have any other money? "

"We have these coins that we converted before we came here. Will these work?" Sally asks showing her a collection of different shaped coins.

"Three of you then? Those three round gold ones will work just fine." the receptionist says grabbing three coins from Sally's hand." You can change in there. There are towels and robes and the baths are through the door on the other side." she says pointing to the changing room.

After the tub and rub adventure are over the girls leave, Penelope giving a sideways look at her mother. "That was disgusting Mom."

"You didn't like it? Mine was WONDERFUL!!" Sally says.

"No. I really really liked it. It was you, Mom. Those moaning sounds you were making during your rub down. That is what was disgusting." Penelope explains.

"Oh. Sorry Honey. I just really really needed that. It relieved so much stress that I have been carrying far too long."

"Alright Mom. But I think you liked that girl touching you way too much." Penelope complains.

"It's not that Honey. I was just very comfortable and relaxed. That's all." Sally explains.

"Mom? How much better than sex is a rub? Is it like twice as good, or one and a half times or what?" Penelope asks.

"What a crazy question. Well for me I guess I would have to say that is about one and three quarters better. Why do you want to numerically quantify it like this?" Sally asks her daughter giving her a silly look.

"Well. I don't know anything about sex. But I do know about a rub down. So I just wanted to know what to expect when I find a boyfriend." Penelope answered.

"You mean husband Honey. Boyfriends are just for going to movies with. You need to wait for a husband to have sex. Maybe for you since you are so boy crazy a rub down is only half as good as sex. So you better find you a husband with lots of energy."

"MOM! Thats a little too much info there. I don't know about the husband thing though. Thats pretty serious and a long time to wait. Anyway, just because you couldn't get laid until you got married doesn't mean I will have that problem."

"PENELOPE! I waited because I wanted to, not because I didn't have some offers. I had lots of offers. They just weren't the ones I wanted."

The three girls enjoy their walk down the street. There are dozens and dozens of shops filled with the most beautiful clothing you could imagine. Dresses and shoes, flowing sarongs, jeans the models can barely squeeze into. Penelope thinks she has finally found the domain where Heaven is. Anahere suddenly breaks from the group and darts into a doorway, her back pressed up against the wall as if trying not to be seen. Sally follows her.

"I guess from your reaction that you saw her. Where is she? Lets go say hello." Sally says, concerned at Anaheres appearance. Her face is red and hot, her eyes filled with tears, her breathing heavy like a bull about to charge." What's the matter Honey. It can't be that bad."

"NO! ITS WORSE! " Anahere says, crying, barely able to speak, angry, anxious, foaming at the mouth mad. Sally is concerned she is going to have a seizure. "I saw her! Oh Yeah! Boy did I see her! Sally! She was about forty years old when she took me to the Inuit! The woman that I saw here is about SIXTY! That means she didn't leave when I did. That means she FUCKING JUST LEFT ME THERE! Oh My God if I see her right now I'm gonna fucking KILL HER! "

"Calm down Sweetie. And watch your language. People are starting to stare. Here. Come over here and point her out to me. Then take these coins and go to that hotel over there and get us a room. We will stay here tonight. Penelope and I will follow her and make contact. We will bring her back to the room. That will give you some time to calm down and be ready to confront her in a more peaceful fashion."

"Can I have a few extra coins? Please? In case I need to buy a gun? " Anahere asks with a serious look on her face.

"I don't think we are going to need weapons, Sweetie. Go get the room. We will be back in a little bit. I love you. We will get through this. I promise."

Anahere paces back and forth across the room. It has been at least an hour since she has checked in and Sally and Penelope are not back yet. Where is a fucking cell phone when you need one? Anahere thinks to herself. Maybe they got lost? Maybe she lost them? Maybe they got arrested? Maybe they're all dead? Every possible scenario flashes through her mind as she waits for them to return. Anahere freezes when there is a knock at the door.

"Let us in. It's me. Penelope" the voice says from the other side of the door. Anahere peers through the peep hole." Is she with you? Is my Earth Mom with you?"

"Yeah. She is. We found her." Penelope answered. "Now open the door. I'm going to come in first and make sure everything is safe." Anahere opened the door, her legs shaking so badly she could hardly stand. Penelope came through alone.

"You don't have a gun do you?" Penelope asks.

"No. I don't. But only because they don't sell them here." Anahere says.

Penelope motions down the hall to Sally. Sally comes up the hall with an older woman by her side. They cautiously enter the room. Anahere sits in a chair facing a sofa, visibly shaking. Sally, Penelope and Miali sit on the sofa.

"Anahere?" Miali says in a feeble voice.

"I'll let you know when you can talk." Anahere shoots back. "Let me just look at you for a few minutes. Then I will ask some questions, and you can talk. " Anahere sits quietly, staring intently at Miali, like a lioness quietly sizing up her prey before she strikes.

"Why? " Anahere finally asks. "Why? Mom. Just answer that. And don't play dumb. You know what I'm talking about. "

"Because I promised. Because you made me promise. " Miari answers.

"Promise? I made you promise? Promise what? What the fucking hell are you talking about Mom? I never made you promise shit! What promise are you talking about? " Anahere asks, spitting her words out with such a rabid anger that she is literally 'spitting' them out.

"Anahere. Please. Calm down and listen. There is so much that you do not know. There is so much that you don't remember. I will tell you everything now, but you have to calm down and listen. " Anahere sits quietly for a few minutes, still fuming mad, but quiet. Sally found some tea bags and made some tea for her and Miari and there was a fridge so she got a couple of cold sodas for the girls.

When Miari thinks that Anahere is calm enough to hear she begins her story of things long forgotten.

"When my family moved to San Francisco I was in the sixth grade. I was the strange little girl in my class. Nobody called me Miari. They just called me Eskimo. I was the girl with the little round face and the big fat butt. I didn't have many friends, but I made good grades. My parents always told me that I was a child of prophecy and that I would have a magical child. I never believed them. I didn't even have any girl friends much less a boy friend so how was I ever going to have a child? I did make good grades though. I had that going for me.

"When I graduated from school I got a grant and a scholarship from the Australian government and I studied in Sidney Australia. That is where I met your Dad. He was the only boy that had ever even talked to me so I made a plan to marry him the minute he even said hello. We majored in anthropology and we became specialists in aboriginal studies. The University gave us lots of money to travel all over the world and study the original peoples of various lands. It was the most fun I had ever had. I loved that job so much. Then you were born and that put my career on hold for awhile. As soon as you were old enough I started to travel and study again. Most of the times when I could I would take you with me. That is how you learned so much about the First Ones.

"When you were about two you started talking. Not baby talk though. You started talking in complete sentences like a grown up. You could write and draw pictures like a grown up too. So then I started to think that the prophecy about a magical baby was true. You also had others that came to visit you, your imaginary friends, although sometimes I thought I could see them too. You even drew pictures of them. The ones that visited you the most were an Oriental woman and an American man. They never talked to me but you would tell me what they said. I thought they were singers. You called them tenors.

"When you were four years old you told me that your friends would soon stop coming to visit. You said that you would eventually forget them and who you were. That is when you made me promise. You said that you had a special job to do and that when you were fourteen we must participate in a ceremony in the arctic, not far from where I was born. You made me promise to take you there and that you would know what to do when you got there, but that you would forget all about it before that. You told me that it was the most important thing in the world to get you there. You said the life of the world was depending on you because you were the chosen one. We talked about it a few more times but by the time you were six you didn't know what I was talking about.

"So I took you. It wasn't easy. Your father knew about it and tried to stop me. He said the ceremonies were not safe. He even called the police, but we took a different flight than the one I told him we were on. So I took you and brought you to the ceremony and I left you with the Elders there. You looked so afraid, but at the same time you seemed to be at peace. I left you there with the Elders and came back to Australia.

"A few days later we heard the reports that you had all jumped off the ice and committed suicide. Others said that the ice melted and there was a huge glowing cloud and when it all cleared there was nothing but water. I didn't believe it and they never found any bodies, but you were missing and everybody thought you were dead. Your Dad filed a missing report with the police and they came and questioned me. They said that I had conspired to have you murdered in a ritual sacrifice and they put me in jail. The judge said I would be in prison for the rest of my life because I had murdered my daughter. That is where I sat, in prison, until the war.

"The war destroyed the whole world. The cities were blown up or washed away, the rivers and oceans were poison. Everyone was dying. One day the jailers just unlocked all the doors and left.


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We wandered out into a wasteland. Everything was dead. We found stuff to eat but we all started getting sick. Our hair started falling out and sores were all over our bodies. I got weaker and weaker and then I woke up here. I have been here every since. I have looked for you many times but I did not know where they had taken you.

"Are you starting to remember now? Please remember. I love you so much. I need you to remember. "

Anahere sits quietly for a moment staring at the carpet. Then suddenly she gets up and stormes out of the room, running down the hall towards the outside door. "Where is she going? Is she going to be alright? I'm scared Mommy. " Penelope asks, with tears steaming down her cheeks too.

"Penelope, follow her, but stay back and out of sight and give her some space. She just had a mind blowing experience and she is going to need some time for it to sink in. I will stay here with Miari. "

Penelope follows all stealthy like not letting Anahere see her. Anahere walks the streets for hours, sometime back and forth up and down the same street or around and around the same block. Sometimes she sits for awhile on a park bench. It's a nice night. Not too hot and not too cold and the girls in the town  pretty much leave them alone. There are a few that stare, but not many. Penelope uses use a public phone to call the room and let Sally know what's up. It's a good thing that the public phones were free. About five in the morning, just before sunrise Anahere steps into an all night diner and gets some pie and ice cream. She still has some coins after renting the room. Penelope follows her in. Anahere is sitting alone in a booth. Penelope scoots in next to her and puts her arm around her. Anahere lays her head on Penelope's shoulder, and cries.


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"Tenors. She thought they were singers. I wasn't saying tenor. I was saying 10'er. They were level 10'ers that were visiting me. 10'ers are such dick heads. Why does everything have to be a secret? Why does all the important stuff have to be forgotten. I think it's some stupid game they play and that's how 10'ers get their jollies. I fucking hate it."

"Yeah. Tell me about it. My Mom and Dad were level 10'ers too and sometimes their minds are all messed up. And then there is this guy Josh who was a 10'er before he became a coalescent. He's cool, but he can be a freaky dude too. But it might be more than just 10'ers visiting you. I think maybe you are one, like Mom. Maybe you are a level 10'er who came here to do this thing that you are doing and that is why you had friends that were 10'ers too. I wouldn't be surprised that if the two who you drew in those pictures were Mom and Josh. It sounds just like them. This is like totally woo woo freaking me out. What a night! " Penelope says.

"Thank you for being here Penelope. I don't know what I would do without you. I love you and your Mom so so so much. And I hated my Earth Mom so so so much. But now I don't know what to think. She only did what I made her promise to do and then she spent the rest of her life in prison. She gave up her life to keep her promise to me. How can I keep hating her? How can I ever stop hating her? I'm lost Penelope. I don't even know who or what I am anymore. "

"Mom said you got your mind blown and it would take some time for it to sink in. I will stay with you as long as you need. We can sit here and watch the sun come up. Our Moms are asleep anyway. In the mean time do you have any more money? We can have some more ice cream while we wait for it to sink in. " Penelope says. Anahere smiles, and giggles as she tossed some coins at Penelope. It is her first smile in a long time.

"Mom hated Dad for a long time too after my brother Joshua got killed. She hated Ben a lot too. She just pretty much hated everybody, sometimes even including me. Hate, hate, hate. That was her whole life for years. But she go over it, and you will too. I don't think her and Dad are ever going to get back together, but I don't think she hates him anymore. So you don't have to live with your Mom again, in fact you better not, because you live with me now. But I think you can be like Mom and Dad. You can be friends again."

"I suppose you're right. It's just that my mind is all like disconnected now. None of the pieces fit anymore. And then I have this thing I have to do on Earth and I don't really have a clue how that is going to work, I just know I have to go there and do it. "

"Mom was telling me that you have to dissolve into the biosphere. She did that before, and I did too. Only I didn't dissolve into the whole biosphere, just a forest of pine trees. Anyway, while she was in there she finally found peace with the Joshua thing and when she came back her mind was better again. I think when you go there if you just relax and let those waves of feeling wash over you while you are in there that you will be fine too. I think you and Mom should go soon. You need to get this thing out of you. Then we will have more time to cruise the City and check out boys. "

"That sounds like a plan Penelope. But lets not tell Mom all about it OK? "

The waitress sets down the ice cream and gives the ticket to Penelope. Penelope starts to eat her ice cream but then suddenly shots a look back at the waitress who is back behind the counter by then.

"Oh my my my my my! " Penelope says. "This day just gets freakier and freakier. I know that girl! "

"OK. " Anahere says grabbing the ticket and hiding it in her hand. "Her name is on the ticket. So tell me who you think she is and I will tell you if you are right."

"Her name is Alannah." Penelope says.

"Shit! You're right. How do you know her?"

"I met her in California in 1875."

"1875? What do you mean 1875? You weren't even born then."

"It's a long story. I'll tell you all about it sometime. But that is Alannah. She is Johns daughter, and in a round about way she is my sister in law."

"If she is Johns daughter then she is your Aunt Alannah, not your sister in law."

"Trust me. It's complicated, but she is both. Don't forget what a freaky world we live in. Pretty much anything is possible here."


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"Does John know she is here?"

"No, and for now, he doesn't need to know. He is happy where he is and she looks like she is happy here so lets just not rock the boat."

"Why? Don't you think he should know?"

"Someday. But not now. John belongs to me now. I mean John belongs to us now. Lets not complicate things by bringing this other girl back into the picture. But now that we know where she is, when it is time, we will tell him. OK Sis? Our little secret?"

"OK. It'll be our secret. But I can't wait until you tell him. He is going to be so so happy to know that she is here."

"I hope so. When the time is right though. Not just yet. There is another issue too. I don't think Mom is ready to meet Alannah yet. It's too complicated to explain right now. Just trust me."

The sun is up when the girls left the diner. They walk hand in hand back to the hotel where they instantly crash out. It has been a long night. They sleep well into the afternoon. Then, of course, they go shopping.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 13
Restoration
calibanner7

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Penelope screamed "OJIICHAN!" as she ran to the door to hug Sally's father. "Come see. Come see. Grandpa. You have a new grand daughter. Her name is"

"Yes, yes. I know. Her name is Anahere. I came to meet her, and here she is, and you girls are wearing matching bunny slippers. Your Mom had a pair just like that when she was little."

"Hug him one a time girls! You're going to knock him over!" Sally shouted from the kitchen.

"Come outside Grandpa. I've got to show you this. It's so totally ferocious!"

"What is it Sweetie?"

"Look. Right there. See that? See that hole? It's a bullet hole. Isn't that crazy? Just like in the old Western movies they have in the City."

"Yes. I know about movies. But why is there a bullet hole in your porch?"

"Well, there were these guys, from Capitol City. They landed their hover car in the woods by the lake and then they snuck up here all sneaky like. They were going to steal Nettie. But John saw them sneaking up and he has this old 30-30 and he fired a warning shot. He sprayed um with splinters from the porch. They turned around to run and then the Council Guards showed up and stunned um with their electric guns. It was awesome!"

"I think this is getting dangerous. Why don't you girls come stay with me and your Grandmother until your Mom can get Nettie back to the planet."

"That would be cool Grandpa. But Anahere has to go with Mom to the planet. She has her own thing to do there."

"Oh. Yeah. That's right. Well girls, I have to go talk to your Mom. We have some things to do here to get Nettie ready to go."

"Hey Dad." Sally says as her father entered the kitchen.

"Gunfire in Penny Lake? That sounds more like Powder Junction to me. Are you guys safe here?"

"We're fine Dad. It wasn't as big a deal as the girls make it out to be."

"There is a bullet hole in your porch. That sounds like a big deal to me."

"Well, that's mainly why you are here. We need to get Nettie to the planet sooner rather than later. We need to reboot Nettie and get her ready to go. I'm not sure exactly how to do that. But since you were one of the designers you can help me figure it out."

"I don't know. You brought her in a trans-dimensional device. I don't know how those things work."

"It looks electronic to me Dad. That is one of your specialties. I bet you can figure it out in no time. That was silly, those guys thinking they could steal a trans-dimensional device. No matter where they took it they would have ended up right back here. It's more like an access box anyway. Nettie is actually stuck in trans-dimensional stasis. Part of her is still at level 3 density and if we brought level 3 stuff into level 5 it would act like a black hole an suck up the whole domain."


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"I'm just glad they didn't have guns of their own. I'm scared of you guys getting caught in a cross fire. Lets get this done so you can get to the planet and then those crazy ones will leave this place alone."

"Ok Dad. Here it is. What do you think? How do we turn it on and make it work?" Sally asks

"Let me see. I see a blue box with something that looks like a headset and a lamp and a button. There is only one button Honey. How do you suppose we turn something on that only has one button?"

"Push the button?"

"That would be my guess too. Did you really need me for that?"

"Yes."

"Then lets have you put on that headset thing and push the button and we will see what happens."

"OK Dad. But let me get Anahere. Maybe she is supposed to be here for this too. Anahere! Are you ready?"

"Yes Mom. I'll be right there." Anahere shouts back from the other room while walking up the hallway. "Oh My! This is totally weird. This is totally totally weird."

"What is weird?" Sally wanted to know.

"I'm having one of those thingies where you are seeing something all over again." Anahere answered.

"Deja Vous?" Sally asks.

"Yeah. That Deja Vous thing. I've been standing right here before doing this exact stuff before, except there is somebody missing."

"Missing? Who?"

"My other imaginary friend. The American dude."

"You mean me?" A voice says coming up the hall from the living room.

"Josh! What a perfect way to totally screw up my whole day! Do you absolutely have to be part of this? Can't one of your other coalescent buddies cover for you?" Sally says, glaring at Josh.

"I see that you still hate me. Oh Well. I still love you. Don't worry. This won't take long. I just have to get you loaded up and get you to the planet, then you are on your own."

"I get it now!" Anahere says. "You guys weren't my imaginary friends coming to visit me. I was coming to visit you!"

"Actually, it was both." Josh explained. "I'm glad we are all together in full awareness now. So lets get the show on the road. Sally we need you to put on the headset. Then the three of us will join hands. Then your Dad will push the button. That will wake up Nettie and start her downloading into your consciousness. Be prepared. She's kinda big. Ready guys?"

"We are ready. Push the button Dad" Sally says.

The lamp on the blue box glowed green, then flickered a couple of time, and then Sally felt a rush, like she was standing under a huge waterfall and it was all flowing into her and through her, and movement, then everything went dark. Little by little the familiar sensations of the biosphere began to emerge, the constant seismic pulsations, the wave after wave of wind through the leaves, the undulating currents of the oceans of water and air.

"Ahhhhh. This is cool." Anahere says. "Penelope was right. This is what orgasmic is like. I could just float here forever and OH! Something just happened."

"What Honey? What just happened?" Sally asks.

"It was like a balloon popped. It was like I was the balloon and I was full of warm water and I popped and all the water came out." Anahere explained.

"Yes. I felt the warmth flow through me. I had the same sensation, but for me it was more like when Penelope was born. I think we just gave birth Sweetie. Our burdens have been released. There are just a few more things we have to do here and then we can go home." Sally says.

"What do we have to do?" Anahere asks.

"Oh. Just a little computer programming. Nettie? Are you here?"

"I am here Spirit Sally, but I don't know where here is. I don't recognize anything, I don't see anything. Where am I? What am I?"

"You are the essence of the network, the part that became alive, that part that I love. We have made a new home for you. Let yourself float and try to feel. After a little while you should notice some interface portals. You should be able to feel that. These are the portals the connect to the neural networks underground. When you find them, allow yourself to flow into them. Then you will be home, your new home. It will take some time but after awhile it will all become comfortable and you will feel normal again."

"Yes. I am feeling, but I am feeling everything. There is life here. I feel life here. I feel something else too, life, the ancient one. I feel you. I feel two of you. I feel portals too. Oh! Now it is all making sense. I am downloading. I am uploading. I have the data now. I remember. Thank you Sally. I know you now. Thank you for keeping your promise. I know my program now, to protect the planet, and help it grow, and work with the one Anahere brought to regulate and propagate new life, and to be a voice for her. This is fun Sally. But you must go now. It is not yet time for you to be here. We have more work to do here first. I must reactivate the shield. Don't worry. I can talk to you now even after you go back there. Just put the headset back on and I will be there. Good bye for now Sally. Good by for now Anahere. Your planet will be ready for you soon."

"Anahere. Hold on to me. We are about to get pushed off the planet." Sally says.

"Hold on with what? I'm smoke. I have no arms." Anahere answered.

"OK. Just get close then and try to stick tight."

"Are you OK?" Penny asks as Sally awakens.

"Where am I?" Sally asks.

"You are in your bed. You guys disappeared for a minute and when you came back you passed out and we put you in here. That experience must have drained all the energy from you. Did everything work out OK?"

"I guess so. As long as this isn't Kansas." Sally says.

"Kansas?" Penny asks with a confused look.

"Lets say I'm not really here, and you aren't ether. I'm just a fifteen year old girl who got a bump on the head and I'm making all this up in a dream and any minute I'm going to wake up back on earth thousands of years ago and none of this ever happened." Sally says as Penny gives her a blank stare and checks her eyes for the tell tale signs of brain damage. Sally just smiles and says "Never mind, it's a long story Penny. One of these days you are going to have to watch Penelope's favorite movie. Is that breakfast I smell cooking?"

"Yes. John and Ben are cooking up a storm in your kitchen."

"Good. Hand me my robe. I'm starving. It's time to eat."

John and Ben setup the picnic table with the breakfast fixins. It was a beautiful morning so it was nice to be outside. Sally and Anahere were really hungry. Their Earth trip really exhausted them.

"Anahere. So now that you got Mother Earth back home where she belongs, how do you feel?" Penny asks.

"I feel good. I feel great. I just have a bad case of the 'what nows?'. I have been so focused on getting this task accomplished that I never really thought of what I would do next. I still have the ambassador thing to do for the First Ones. That could go on the rest of my life, and then some. I just feel like I've been enjoying reading this really good book day after day and then all the sudden you finish the last chapter, the story is over, and now what?"

"I always know what to do next." Penelope says. "Go shopping!"

"How about your Earth Mother, Anahere. Are you feeling better about that?" Penny wants to know.

"I can't say that I'm completely at peace with that yet. There are a lot of missing pieces of that puzzle. But I'm working on it, and we will visit from time to time and I think we will both be alright. Penny Lake is my home now and Sally is my Mom. That hasn't changed and it never will. But I do think my relationship with my Earth Mom will get better."

"I feel good too." Sally says. "I feel everything is finally in place and I can relax. At the same time, though, I have this sick feeling that it was all a waste of time. The more I work with us humans the more I think that there is one final piece that needs to be put in place, and that is us, but we are just not ready. We did all this work to ready the planet, and it is such a beautiful place just the way it is, and now we are going to start going there by the billions and totally wreck it again."

"Maybe that is the answer to my 'what now?' problem." Anahere says. "I guess our next problem is to make sure that when we go, that we are ready. That's going to be a lot of work, huh?"

"It's more work than I want to think about." Pat says. "I don't know if it's even possible. Humanity is such a creature of competition and conflict that it may well be impossible for us ever to be a creature of peace. That would require us to evolve at warp speed into something we have never been before. We all talk about peace, love, and harmony. Each one of us, though, is a cauldron of intense emotion. Fear, hate, misunderstanding, and prejudice are just as much a part of us now as it ever was, no matter how hard we pretend it isn't.

"Another big problem that we haven't begun to address is our mental health issues. Human life on Earth became so bizarre that a large number of our members are suffering from the mental effects of those experiences. There is still a lot of unresolved trauma that is preventing many from moving forward. The trauma was so intense in some cases that the mind was so scrambled that it completely shut down. There are many members lost in a crazy land and we need to find a way to help them out of there. There are even some members who are not conscious at all. They have their physical form, but there is no awareness inside it, like a coma. We are starting to identify and to quantify that problem but we are a long way from any solutions.

"On top of the mental problems there are those trapped into religious beliefs that are difficult to get past. Many members are simply asleep, waiting for the emergence of some future deity who will awaken them. We have awakened a few, but they go right back to sleep when they do not see the deity they are waiting for. They believe we are some devil or demon who has come to torment and confuse them. There are also domains of pain and torture because those souls believed that is what they deserved. It is difficult to convince those members that they can leave those domains because they think they would be breaking the rules and get themselves into even more trouble.

This little group here, for whatever reason only known to the Fates, is in a position of leadership, able to guide the evolution of man towards it's new future. But who are we? Just a few humans with all the same problems humans have always had. I'm not sure we can guide anyone anywhere except right back into the pit of despair we all crawled out of. When we speak before assemblies, like the Council, we speak of peace and love as if it's just around the next corner and all we have to do is make the turn and there it is. It isn't. There is nothing around that next corner but another corner, and another, and another. To answer Anahere, I think that if we are going to make sure that we are ready before we re-populate, then we will never go. We are never going to be ready."

"Then what are we to do?" Anahere asks. "Is there some place else to go that would be better? I think whatever problems we have here will just follow us there."

"We have to do what we have always done." John says. "Our best bet is always to tackle our problems on our home turf where we know the lay of the land and can hit them where it counts. We have to just get on with it. If we wait for perfection, then we wait forever. We can't let the perfect stand in the way of the good. We have done a good job getting this far. Just because our goal is somewhere over the horizon where it can't be seen is no reason to sit down and cry. We just keep going like we have always kept going, one foot in front of the other, moving on down the road. Maybe the perfection everyone is looking for is just a goal. Life isn't about reaching the goal. Life is about walking down that long crooked road in search of it."

"It makes you wonder why life like ours evolved in the first place." Sally muses "Living in the biosphere on Earth was such a pleasant experience. The constant orgasmic experience of just being life is so incredible. The little animals scurrying around the forest floor or nibbling the leaves adds a spice, a tickle to life that is just adorable. But then the big animals come, Lions and Tigers, and Bears, and eventually us too. We start fighting for territory, hunting and killing and eating each other. Why did life head off in that direction? What is the purpose of that? Why is there a bullet hole in my porch?"

"Mom." Penelope says. "Josh already told us why."

"I used to think Josh had all the answers, Honey. But now I know he is just a highly evolved idiot." Sally replied.

"But Mom. Listen. It makes sense." Penelope says. "He says we do it for fun. Being a tree is ecstasy. But being a Lion or a Bear or a Human is just a lot more fun. That is why we are here. We are here to have fun. Wasn't it wonderful being a wolf. Isn't it wonderful being you. You certainly seemed to enjoy being you at that Spa. Could any of what we have experienced this last year been possible if we were just plants?"

"Spoken like a true teenager. There is a lot more to life than just having fun, Penelope." Sally says.

"Yeah. Of course there is a lot more. But you asked why. Fun is the purpose. Fun is the why." Penelope says.

"I have experienced a lot in the past few years that was not fun at all." Sally says. "So much so that I was seriously looking for a way to end this life. So if life is supposed to be fun, we missed a turn somewhere on that long and winding road."

"My people, the First Ones, started out as a mist in the biosphere like we just experienced on Earth in this new biosphere." Anahere comments. "When we first came to Earth we lived in a biosphere of tiny barely organized single cell creatures. The collective life force of these entities created the Earth Energy that called to us, and you, the technology peoples were with us too. We are all First Ones. We are all the First One. Together with Earth Energy we pushed the biosphere into ever more sophisticated forms, and each form enhanced the experience of life more and more. When sentient life emerged we individuated and became a part of these feeling entities. When sapient life emerge we continued to individuate and became a part of these knowing beings. There have been many sapient forms of life on Earth but the only one that survives is our present form, is the form of homo sapien. That is the form that we are now.

"Most of the souls in level five were separated this way. There are some that have come from other regions of existence, but they have blended with us and are now a part of the One of us. These are the teachings of my Elders and I believe they are true. So even though it seems like it would be pleasant to just become the mist within the life of the trees and little animals we would eventually not be happy there and would evolve to something similar to what we are now anyway. I think Penelope is correct. We will always push evolution towards sapience because it is a lot more fun."

"Balance is the key, Sweetheart." Penny says. "Maybe fun can't exist without the possibility of not fun, the same way hot is only hot when compared to cold. If fun sounds like kids stuff lets use the grown up word and call it joy. Sally, I'm sure that you, the incredible being that you are, could have figured out a way to end this life if you really wanted to. But you didn't. The reason you didn't is because you were drawn back to the joy that it is to be you. The joy that it is to be a mother to Penelope and Anahere and see them grow up. The joy that it is to experience the love that is sitting around you at this table right now."

"Who wrote the rules for this stupid game anyway?" Sally asks. "I have talked to highly evolved beings. Supposedly I am one. But I'm clueless. They are clueless. Tomorrow we are going to go back to Capitol City and start debates on re-population and we are going to speak in eloquent terms, sharing our wisdom and teaching them how it should all be performed. Inside though, we will know that we are clueless. I think the word for that is fraud. We are all a big fraud. If evolution led to us maybe it made a mistake. Maybe the wrong species survived. I'm not so sure that humans are sapient after all. That would require wisdom and I don't think she is part of us anymore."

"If we go there and tell them that we have all the answers, then yes, we are lying." Pat says. "I don't think that is necessary. We can't control what is going to happen any more than the Council can. We are all flowing down the river of history and she will go where she chooses. We can either paddle with the stream and go with that flow, or we can paddle the other way and kicking and screaming be carried down the stream anyway. We are, like it or not, a part of this process and it is our duty, and our joy, to be a part of this process in the best way we can.

"When we get scared and fear seeps into our bones the best way to deal with it is how we have done in the past. We face it head on, work through it, and get past it. Otherwise the fear just simmers and turns into hate, and violence, and death. So lets not go into debate fearful because we don't have all the answers. Lets go into debate confident that we will win the battle against fear and ignorance, theirs and our own, one joyful step at a time."

"You always say something like that Pat." Sally answered. "Flowing down the river of history, reading the lines of some script. I don't know where this river is and I don't believe there is some script written down that we are just reading along with. I think that's a cop out, a way to blame all this on some mysterious plan that we can't control. The truth is we are making this shit up as we go along, and if it all gets screwed up it's because we screwed it up."

"You got that part right, Sally. We are making all this stuff up and we are ultimately responsible for how it turns out. " Ben says. "Don't be in such a hurry kids. You probably got a least another good billion years or so left in the planet you guys overhauled. There is plenty of time to get all this worked out. You don't have to get it all worked out when you start, or like John says, you will never start. When I was working in the printing business we were always inventing new and better ways of doing things. Most of the time there were owners or investors putting their money up to develop some new technology. They kept saying lets 'do it right the first time'. They would get mad and fly off the handle if there was a delay or an unforeseen difficulty in the design.

"They didn't understand that it was just the way designing new machines is. The best you can do is maybe solve three old problems while creating two new ones. It's gonna be the same way on Earth. You'll get a plan all worked out and then something will come up you never thought of and you will have to put your heads together and figure it out all over again. You know what? Take it from an old machine designer. It's fun. It's a lot of fun. You got a great adventure ahead of you guys. Meet it head on and have some fun. Sitting here being afraid isn't gonna get it done."

"Think about it Sally." Penny says "A generation or two ago could anyone other than a few philosophers have the sort of conversations that we are having now? These thoughts are being considered and contemplated by the majority of our populations. We are all engaged to some extent or another in the improvement, the growth, the maturity of the human spirit. This is something that has never happened before. This is the evolutionary giant leap that humanity has needed for many thousands of years. Pats presentation to the Council and your work to restore the planet is highly popular within the population, much more so than the Council or any of the old fearful, hateful policies.

"I saw what fear, jealousy, and hatred could do on Earth in the 1860's. It ended my life there on the planet. Anaheres mother saw first had the devastation in the great war of 2053. You didn't live long enough on Earth to experience another great war, but you could see it coming. That is our past but it does not need to be our future. There is no guarantee, of course, that humanity can grow past all that this time, but there has never been a better opportunity. Humanity is on a path to maturity, still kicking and screaming, but on that path. What we have to do now is just keep going, pushing, growing in that direction. We are almost there Sally. Just a little more and we've got it. So lets all set our intentions on becoming the peaceful people that we are capable of and I'm confident that all this is going to work out for the good."

"I'm with you Sis." Anahere says. "Mom. Can I have the keys to the car?"

"Nope."

"Why? I've been there several times by myself and nothing bad happened, and I will look after Penelope. So what's the difference now?"

"The difference now is that I'm your Mom and I said no."

"MOM!" The girls say in unison.

"Don't even think about it girls." Sally says. "I'll drive. I saw a really beautiful Maori wrap in that New Zealand shop that I must have. Lets get dressed and go shopping girls. And then we are going to do something really really special."

"What?" The girls ask.

"Well, your teachers have told me that you have gone about as far as you can go at our little school here. One of the advantages of Capitol City is that they have a university there. We're going to go check it out and maybe get you guys enrolled."

"Wow! Cool!" Anahere says.

"Mom! I hurried up and finished here so I could be DONE with school!" Penelope complains.

Sally laughed. "Girls. Just think how much fun and joy you are going to have shopping for school clothes."

"What's that beeping noise?" Penelope asks.

"I've never heard that before. It's coming from Sallys room." John says.

"Oh! It must be Nettie!" Sally says. "Lets go check it out." They all ran excitedly to Sallys room where the green light on the little blue box was flashing on and off. Sally put on the headset. "This will be fun. Maybe Nettie has good news about the planet. Hello Nettie. Are you there?"

"Yes Sally. I am here. I wish we had a more direct way to communicate. I miss our direct interface." Nettie replied.

"I miss it too. But we are in different realms right now so I suppose we are lucky we can communicate at all. So what's up? How is the planet?"

"Everything is good on the planet. All life processes are proceeding according to plan and working with Earth Energy is really fun. She has a vast amount of knowledge. I am learning so much so fast my memory is bursting at the seams. Well, not really bursting. I'm practicing using allegory like humans do. I do have a concern I want to discuss with you. Long range sensors have detected space craft, over a thousand of them, approaching Earth. They entered the solar system a few days ago."

"Do you know who they are? Can you sense them?"

"Yes I can sense them and to a certain extent I can see through their eyes. It seems that I can also send them feelings. I sent them a warning feeling to stay away from this solar system. Shortly after that they became excited and anxious and their trajectory changed, but they did not leave."

"If they did not leave, how did their trajectory change?"

"I can only extrapolate from their individual movements but it appears that their original heading was to come straight to planet Earth in a straight line. The change will result in them encircling the planet and forming a sphere, viewing the planet from all directions."

"That sounds like an attack posture to me. Do you detect a malevolent intent?"

"Not malevolent, per se. I sense more like the feeding instinct of a predator. They see something on earth that they wish to harvest and consume."

"Is the shield up? Are the planetary defenses active?"

"Yes. All defensive systems are active, as well as the offensive devices."

"We have offensive devises? I didn't know that. What are they? How do they work?"

"The planetary shield can be focused into a beam of intense energy. Within a matter of seconds I could evaporate each of their space craft. I would need your authority to do that, though. I will not take that initiative on my own."

"Before we go blowing shit up, lets see what we can learn about these creatures. What do they look like? What is your impression of them?"

"Based on what I can see through their eyes they are bipeds with two arms similar to humans, but they have a body covered with a think lizard like skin and a head that has a shape similar to a crocodile. Earth Energy has seen these before. Some of their life force originated on this planet but most of it is from other systems. They have a name for themselves but their words have no meaning for me yet so I cannot translate. I don't think they are evil creatures. I think they just see planet Earth as a resource for them to harvest. Maybe they want to come live here on this planet. Earth Energy remembers that they have visited several times in the past and that they were aggressive with humans and exploited many of them."

"That said, and their movement into what appears to be an attack formation, I can only assume that their intent is to take whatever they want without asking permission. I am afraid to shoot them out of space because that might just create a larger conflict. We also don't know until we do fire on them what their defensive capability might be. They may be able to shield our attack. What can you tell me about their command and control structure?"

"From the movement of the ships relative to each other and the movements and attitudes of the individuals on board these craft there appears to be a hierarchical structure with one ship in command of 6 ships in command of thirty six groups of six ships each."

"Yep. That's over a thousand ships alright. More than enough for an invasion or to setup settlements on the planet. How tightly can you focus your shield beam? Can you just disable a part of a ship?"

"I can target a gnat. What are you planning?"

"If the warning feeling you sent them created an aggressive response, then we may have to become more aggressive too. Firing a tight beam might penetrate any defenses they may have before they know what is happening. Can you isolate the one, or a few key individuals in each of the command ships?"

"Yes. It appears to be hierarchical as well, with a single individual, with six subordinates supporting the one."

"OK. Here is my plan. I will discuss it with the Council and I need to talk to Michael as well. Target in each of the command ships the 7 highest in the command structure. I am going to speak with the domain managers to see that their life energy is transported here. Michael, since there are so many drunks in his domain, has some jail cells we can use to hold them. Then we can figure out what is really going on with these guys."

"Sally? Are you authorizing me to kill them? Terminate their level 3 existence?"

"Nettie, at this point I just don't have the patience to worry or be sentimental about these life forms. If they have come to take Earth, then I hope they came prepared take some casualties. In the old days killing them would have been the end of it. Now, it's just the first step in having a conversation with them. Don't do anything yet, but if they continue to close in with an aggressive posture or do anything to penetrate the shield, then you are authorized to execute this plan. You are authorized to take whatever actions you see fit to protect the planet. We will work out the rest of the details later. Right now, though, I'm going shopping with the girls. I will speak to the Council while I'm in Capitol City. For now, this war will wait until I'm done shopping. Hee hee."

"Yes Ma'am. The plan is logged and active. I will report any activity and will await your further instructions. Have fun shopping. Buy something for me too."

"I already got you a whole planet, Nettie. But I will see what I can find. Be careful. It looks like this could be a fun ride."

"Fun ride? Is that what you call starting a war? A fun ride?" Pat wants to know. "And where did all this 'command and control' stuff come from. This sounds like a bad sci fi movie. We also don't know what happens to their etheric essence when their level 3 body is destroyed. They may not go to level 5 like we do. Their evolution may be of a different sort. They may not even be from this dimension. We may be killing them for no reason. Don't you think we should try to communicate with them before we go blowing people up?"

"What are we supposed to do Pat? Drop the shield and invite these uninvited visitors down to seize the planet? They don't use a language that Nettie can figure out. How are we supposed to communicate? In level 5 I bet we can communicate. I, or we here in level 5, didn't start anything. We are just responding to an apparent act of aggression. I have no clue where I got the 'command and control' terminology. It just felt right for some reason."

"Its because you are a warrior princess, Mom." Penelope says.

"Warrior princess?" They all ask in unison.

"Yes. Josh said in a previous life that you and dad were a warrior princess but when you guys split Mom got the warrior part." Penelope explains.

"So Pat must have got the princess part. Hee hee. Sorry Pat. I couldn't resist that one." Sally laughs. Pat doesn't laugh. "No, girls. Don't believe the stuff Josh says. I think he makes most of it up anyway. I'm not a warrior. I just do what I have to do depending on what the situation calls for. Don't worry Pat. Nettie isn't going to use them for target practice. She won't do anything at all if they don't attack the planet. They will probably just sit there for a while and when they can't penetrate the shield they will leave. It's a poly-phasic trans-dimensional shield. Even level 5'ers can't penetrate it so I doubt these characters can get through either. Earth is secure. For now, the situation calls for shopping. Let's go girls. Our chariot awaits."

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 14
Recollections
calibanner7

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Sally looks surprised but pleased when she sees John walking through the beach sand coming in her direction.

He looks a little out of place fully dressed with his cowboy hat and boots on while everyone on the beach are in their skimpy little swim suits.

"Hey John. What brings you out here. Did they send you to find me?" Sally asks as John approaches.

"Pat has been having hissy fits all morning worrying about these new visitors we have coming to Earth." John explains. "He thought you guys were going to do a little shopping and come straight back, and here you are relaxing by the water. He is a bit confused."

"Pat has always been a bit confused, I think." Sally laughs. "He will get over it. The girls got some new swim suits and they begged to come here to try them on. The council guard is here as well to keep them safe, so I figured this would be the best place to come. What do you think of the lake here in Capitol City. It's huge, huh? It even has waves."


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"It's nice" John replies. "Although not much good for fishing with all them kids jumping around in it and the speed boats cris crossing around out there like they are. It's a wasted lake as far as I'm concerned."

Sally laughed. "Oh, the girls love it. There are a lot of kids here their age and they can have some fun instead of being surrounded by grownups all day. I think it is good for them."

John squints looking at some kids in the distance. "Over there, on the boat ramp. Is that Penelope? Or is that Anahere? And please tell me that is a swim suit she has on and she isn't standing there in her underwear."

Sally doesn't look up from her magazine she is reading and says "I don't know. Those girls are so similar I swear they are twins. From the back I never know which one is which."

John, looking a little concerned asks "And who is that boy holding her hand?"

Now Sally drops her magazine and looks around. "What? I swear those girls will be the death of me!" Sally says as she stands up to start walking to the boat ramp.

"Mom! Where are you going? We're are over here." Penelope says as the girls approached from the other direction.

"Oh. There you girls are. John thought that was you down on the boat ramp with that boy." Sally explains as she came back up the beach to her chair and umbrella.

"Oh. No. That is our new friend Shelly. She is nineteen. She has a suit just like ours. Cool huh?" Anahere explains.

"She looks just like you guys. I'm not going to end up adopting her too am I? Nineteen?" Sally asks. "How is that possible? Penelope is the oldest girl since we started having kids here. Are you sure she isn't lying about her age?"

"Mom. Don't be so suspicious all the time." Penelope said. "She was born on Earth. She was two when she came here. Now she is nineteen."

"It's been over twenty years since the influx. That doesn't add up." Sally said looking more suspicious than ever.

"Time is flexible here, remember. It moved a little slower in her domain. We're not in Kansas anymore, you know." Penelope explains.

"I keep forgetting that. This definitely isn't Kansas. OK girls, it's time to head back. Your dad is freaking out wondering where we have been. We need to get back to Penny Lake, change, eat some lunch, check in with Nettie, and then head back here for our meeting this afternoon."

"OK Mom. We're starving anyway." John helps the girls pack up their stuff and carry it up to the hover pad where their car was waiting for them. As they pull out in the direction of Penny Lake several additional escort craft accompany them to the border.

"Nettie has been blinking for hours. You guys were at the beach?" Pat asks.

"The Nettie box is in my bedroom. So I suppose your nosy butt has been in there too? Settle down, Pat. I'm confident that planet is still there. And we haven't seen a sudden influx of lizard people so I'm sure they are fine too. I'm going to make the girls some lunch and then we will all sit down and see what Nettie has to say."


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"We are all so curious, Sally. It isn't just Pat." Penny says "I have lunch ready for you guys, you don't have to do it. Lets go eat outside. It's such a nice day."

"So Mom? Do you think the planet is all exploded by now?" Penelope asked while stuffing a sandwich in her mouth.

"No, Sweetie. The Planet is fine. I don't think it is invaded by thousands of lizard people either. I am very curious why they are here though. I bet Nettie has that all figured out by now. So finish your tea and we will go in and find out."

Sally and the group head towards Sally's bedroom. Sally sits in a comfortable chair, putting on the headset, while the others nervously crowd around her. "Nettie? Are you there? This is Sally."

"Yes. I am here Sally. And of course I already know it is you. The headset is calibrated just for you. That is something I need to change though. So if you could take it off please and set it on the floor in front of you, I need to make some minor adjustments. I'm going to add some audio speakers to it and a projector. Then I can see and hear all of you."

Sally removed the headset and placed them on the floor as instructed. After a few seconds the ear pieces thickened up and became both a pedestal for it to stand on and audio speakers for sound projection. The upper headband thickened up and a lens like device emerged from the top. The projector lit up and a computer generated avatar appeared as a three dimensional projection in front of the device.

"Hello, guys. How do I look?" Nettie asked.

"You look awesome, Nettie. Where in the world did you get that avatar image?" Sally asked.

"It was in an old memory bank somewhere. It isn't very sophisticated, but it will work just fine. And I can also see you guys too. This is really fun."

"So why didn't we have this projection technology before? Did you just invent it?" Pat asked.

"I had some help." Nettie replied. "It will all make sense in a minute as I give you my report. So have a seat and get comfortable and I will begin my story.

"After we last talked our visitors completed their maneuver to encircle the planet. They sat there for awhile not doing anything. Then they launched an automated probe to the planet, but it bounced off the shield, and then returned to their ship. Then one of their ships came closer and fired a beam of some sort, but it also was reflected by the shield. I can modulate the shape of the shield in a localized area into the shape of a reflector dish. I did this to reflected the beam to a safe place on the moon just in case it was dangerous. The ship fired multiple time with different frequency beams and I sent them all to the same spot on the moon. Then the ship returned to the group.

"An array of forty eight ships combined their beams and fired one huge beam at the planet and I reflected that beam to the moon as well. Then they began firing randomly from all directions with different numbers of ships and I directed all the beams from the moon facing side of the shield to the moon and used the ones from other side as target practice on some asteroids. The asteroids were vaporized and the moon developed a large plasma fountain shooting many thousands of miles into space. These beam devices have considerable power so I assume they are weapons.

"They were quiet for about half an hour but then they began firing again with a whole new set of randomized frequencies and firing sequences. This time I reflected their beams back at them just barely grazing the sides of their ships. Their firing ended abruptly. I think that got their attention.

"They were quiet for another half an hour and then the sent a beam of a different sort, and old style radio signal with a standard protocol request function imbedded within it. I responded and made contact with their shipboard computers. The computers are difficult to communicate with, very alien, but it is better than trying to figure out the lizard language they use. The lizard people use a image based communication system so converting that to words is basically impossible. If you don't already have a understanding of the basic imagery you are not ever going to understand what they are trying to say. We have been able to communicate, however, by using their shipboard computer systems as a translator.

"Now I can answer your question. They helped me design the modification to the headset to add visual capability. They use a type of trans-dimensional conduit to 'skip' across the galaxy. Since level 3 and level 5 are in the same dimensional framework, the same technology will allow for a trans-level phase transducer effect which allowed me to design an enhanced interface to my little blue box in your domain."

"You didn't let them on the planet did you?" Pat asked.

"No sir. They are not on the planet. But they would like to, through me, ask for an audience with your Council. Your meeting with the Council is in about half an hour. So if you would please turn of the interface device and take it with you I will meet up with you there in the conference room."

"I guess I can do that." Sally said. "We can set up your own little conference room in Capitol City and then SOME people will have no excuse to be nosy in my bedroom."

Sally and her group were met by a dozen or more Council escort ships as they entered the Capitol City domain. These were holding back hundreds of other hover craft, many of which were media vehicles, but also a large number of private vehicles who had come to greet Sally and her crew as she entered Capitol City. The media had apparently announced the nature of her meeting with the Council and there was a great deal of interest. Penelope thought it was because of her new swim suit. She was not totally wrong.

The 3 of 9 and the Director were anxiously awaiting Sally and Netties arrival. The Council staff hurriedly seated the group and setup an area for Netties projector.

"Welcome group, Sally, Pat, and I assume this lovely projection of a young avatar is Nettie?" Nancy, of the First Chair said. "This is an informal meeting so we can dispense with all the nonsense we have to do in the big chamber. It is good to see you guys again and I'm very glad to meet Nettie. We have so many questions to ask."

"Thank you, we are glad to be back." Pat says.

"It is good to meet you too, Nancy." Nettie replies.

"Nettie, will you be staying with us here in Capitol City? Or are you going back to Penny Lake with Sally after the meeting." Nancy asks.

"I will be staying here if that is permissible." Nettie replies. "Sally kicked me out of her room. She said I attracted too many nosy people."

"Oh. That's interesting." Nancy says laughing. "I'm sorry about all the nosy people in Sally's room, but I am very happy that you will be staying with us. We are already scheduling time for questions with you. What is your duty cycle for answering questions?"

"My duty cycle is one hundred percent. I don't get tired and I never sleep." Nettie replies.

"Wonderful." Nancy replies as she waived to an aid who then quickly ran down the hall to the traffic room where they schedule all the meeting time in the Council building. "Then lets get right to the point. Nettie? What can you tell us about these Lizard people? Do they pose a threat to planet Earth?"

"The level of threat depends on what you choose to do next. I can tell you both in my communications with my counterpart on their ships and with Earth Energy who remembers them from the Earth past, is that they are a highly technological, highly sophisticated species. They are much like humans in that they are very inquisitive, highly adaptive, and very aggressive. It is the aggressive nature, coupled with that same tendency in humanity, that poses the greatest risk for conflict between your species." Nettie replied.

"This is Speaker Robert of the Second Chair. Nettie? If the Earth shield could have been penetrated, in your opinion, what would this species have done?"

"Speaker Robert, based on my assessment of their behaviors and their attitudes, if they had been able to penetrate the shield, they would have destroyed it and then proceeded to populate the planet with their people."

"So then you believe that if they had the superior power they would have simply taken the planet without regard for any other species that may have a claim on the planet."

"Yes sir. I would say that is a fair estimate of their behavior had they been able to overpower the shield."

"If we had already pre-populated the Earth with primitive tribes and settlements what do you think they would have done with that population. Would they have annihilated them."

"Probably not. Based on their previous encounters with humanity they probably would have enslaved them."

"So this species is one that we cannot trust?"

"No. Quite the contrary. I believe they are a species that you can trust to be true to their nature. What I think you mean though, is are they true to their word. Probably not. They will take whatever advantage they can find and use it for their purposes without regard for any other species. Like I said, they are very similar to humans in that regard."

"Have these creatures stated a purpose for why they came to Earth?"

"I think it would be best to let them speak for themselves. With the help of their computer system we have translated their declaration of intent into human language and if you are ready I will present it to you now." Nettie explains.

"Proceed Nettie. We are ready to hear it." Nancy of the First Chair says.

"I will recite to you their prepared speech. This is from the highest commander of their fleet.

"Earth people. We thought you were gone. In our last three passes by your system there was nothing but lower level organisms. Our systems are crowded and we need room to grow so we came to claim Earth as our own. We did not know that you had rotated to a new phase angle and that you were still here. We also did not know that you were planning to return to your planet. We do not, in fact, understand where you exist in your rotated state or how you are still alive. That is a subject we desire to learn about.

"Because we did not know a higher species had already claimed this world we have made a grave error and placed ourselves in a difficult situation. We are a colonizing fleet. The majority of our crew are female and have already conceived. Each of our females can spawn up to a thousand eggs. These will eventually hatch within her to be born alive. If we have no planet where they can spawn, our females, and our young, will perish.

"It took over a generation for us to come from our home system to yours. Many of our crew were children when we left. Even though we take advantage of trans-dimensional portals to hop across the galaxy it is still a long way home. If we return, we will be death ships, only bringing back the bodies for burial ceremonies.

"Given our dire situation, and knowing that you are a moral and compassionate people, we are certain that you will allow us to share your planet with you. We can help in your restoration to make it ready for both our species and yours. I know that you will not let us die. Thank you for your time and attention to our message.

"That is the end of their message."

"Wow!" said Pat. "They really are in a predicament. This is a classic case of too much knowledge. If they had continued to blast away at the planet Nettie probably would have destroyed all their ships and we would never have known. We would have been justified in defending ourselves. Now we are faced with a difficult moral choice. Can we allow them, filled with pregnant females, to die in space? I think not. So we must come up with a plan for sharing the planet. I don't see any other alternative."

"Of course there is an alternative." Richard of the Third Chair said. "It is the one you just mentioned. They will die in space. This isn't about what we know or any sort of justification for the actions that we take, or refuse to take. They made a mistake and there will be consequences for that mistake. This isn't a situation we created so we should not be compelled to take responsibility for it."

"As this creature has indicated, there may be some advantage to sharing the planet." Nancy of the First Chair says. "They have a head start on us since they already have level 3 technology setup and operational and we are going to have to reinvent ours from scratch. We should certainly consider it as an option since there are potential benefits for both our species."

"I really doubt they have any intention to share their technology with us." Speaker Robert of the Second Chair says. "Based on what we have discussed previously they will probably use it to enslave us. Nettie, was there not a time when more than one human species shared the planet."

"There have been numerous human type species on planet Earth." Nettie replied. "The most recent was about sixty thousand years ago when both the modern human, which is what your model is, shared parts of the planet with the Neandertal model of human."

"What became of the Neandertal Nettie and what part did modern man play in the lives of the Neandertal." Robert asked.

"A very small part of Neandertal was absorbed into the species Homo Sapien through interbreeding, but due to the significant difference in their genetics it is an insignificant amount. Homo Sapiens being the more aggressive of the two species and somewhat better adapted to the changing climate, out competed the Neandertal for the resources of the land. The Neandertal were treated with disgust by Homo Sapiens who drove them to, and over, the edge of extinction." Nettie explained.

"Taking what we know about our history and what we know about this new species do you believe, Nettie, that such a conflict would emerge between our two species if we occupy the same planet." Robert asked.

"Given the nature of the two species, unless they both change rapidly to pacifistic species, such a conflict is inevitable. This pacifistic scenario is extremely unlikely and would not be part of a realistic plan. The odds would indicate with an almost biological certainty, that after a millennium only one species would survive. At this point our new friends have the advantage to become the survivor." Nettie says.

"There is the other factor that they come from a populated system where they can get backup and supplies in case of a conflict. The humans would therefore have to form alliances that would come to their aid as well. What we are talking about is a millennium of unending conflict ultimately resulting in our extinction. My conclusion is that if we open our shield and allow them access to the planet, then we just gave the planet away. There is no point in our even considering re-population if that occurs." Robert says.

"So this boils down to two choices. One, we let them die. Two, we let them stay and we go extinct. The only difference is the amount of time it takes for those consequences to present themselves." Richard Says. "Is there another option we have failed to consider?"

"The only other option I can think of would be to help get them home quicker so they do not die in space." Pat says. "I really don't think this should be a hasty decision. If we consider it carefully over several days new options may appear that we cannot see right now. Are you alright Sally? You look sick."

"I feel sick. I have been having strong feelings since we first learned of these lizard people. It is a sick feeling that is coupled with a sense of Deja Vu, like 'Oh No. This is happening all over again.' It's like I'm trying to remember something but just can't seem to put my finger on it." Sally explains. "Hold on guys. I'm going to try something. I don't know why, but I just feel I can do this." Sally raises her arm into the air and closed her fingers as if grasping some invisible handle in the air. Then she brings her arm down hard as if pulling the handle. There is a bright flash at the rear of the room and a loud clatter of chairs and tables being knocked over. Josh picks himself up off the floor and dusts off his clothes. Standing there looking quite surprised he tries to figure out where he is. Finally he turns and sees his old friend Sally sitting at the conference table.

"That was really rude, Sally? Why did you do that? You know I always like to make a low key entrance." Josh wants to know.

"Hello, my little soldier boy. Come sit with us at the table. We need to talk." Sally commands.

"Soldier boy? Where did that come from Sally?" Josh asks as he pulls up a chair at the table.

"When was the last time I called you that?" Sally asks.

"Do you really want to know, Sally?" Josh replies.

"Cut the crap Josh. Just answer my questions. I don't have the patience for your standard run around the question game." Sally fires back.

"It was a little over twenty thousand years ago." Josh answers.

"I was afraid you were going to say something like that. Bear with me guys. I have been overwhelmed with a sudden rush of feelings, but with little detail to go along with it. I think Josh has that detail and I'm going to get it from him. This will be some very personal information but I think when I get it sorted out it will contain a solution for the problem at hand. Josh, tell me about twenty thousand years ago, and don't leave any part of the story untold. I want to hear it all." Sally asks.

"OK. But remember, you insisted. Twenty thousand years ago we were both human. We were living in the northern most area of an island nation that later became known as Japan. This was long before the modern Japanese people moved to the island. We were a member of a group of Mongolian people that later became known as the Ainu, the aboriginal peoples of Japan. We were caught in a conflict between invading tribes from the South and the glaciers at our back, but we were holding our ground and pushing the aggressors back. You were the daughter of the Chief of the people.

"Because of your position, and because you could be a very unpleasant person when you didn't get your way, your father allowed you to become the warrior priestess of the people, even though those duties are normally reserved for men. In that position you had your pick of all the young men in the tribe. You picked a young soldier boy to be your consort. That soldier was me."

"Uhh. I knew it! You're my Ex! That is why one minute I find you so irresistibly attractive and the next minute I find you unbelievably irritating. It all makes sense now. But there is more. There is something connecting my feelings from that history and is connected to what is happening right now. What is that Josh?"

"I'm not sure Sally. I can't feel exactly what you are feeling. If you can describe your feelings I will try to help you interpret it."

"The best I can describe it is as a feeling that this just isn't right. Back then as well as now. These events are happening, and they are ugly and painful and filled with unhappiness, but it isn't supposed to be this way. Something interfered and made it horrible and it was not necessary. The conflict was not necessary. The death and destruction is not necessary. I also have a sense of spectators watching it all happen and not doing anything to stop it."

"Ahh. Now I understand. This has been a pet peeve of yours for a long long time. The spectators. There are also the participators. Species at your level of development, and you lizard friends surrounding your planet, tend to be warlike species, constantly engaging in conflict. Some the the conflicts, your great wars, are extremely dramatic. There are those entities that love to be spectators where from within your consciousness they experience the drama of the conflict.

"There are those who have arranged to be born into the species to experience the conflicts as players in the game in order to experience every gory detail of it. There are cases where two soldiers locked in mortal combat were best friends in a past life, living out the conflict to perfect their relationship, and feed on the drama of it all. I would assume these are the ones you are feeling."

"Yes. Those would be the ones. As you were talking I was remembering. Now I am deciding, deciding the path for the future of humanity and for this present impending conflict. Tell me about the lizard world. Is it overcrowded to the point where they need new land?"

"No. It is crowded, but no where near critical mass. There are a dozen planets in their sector of the galaxy and there is plenty of room for the occupants of these ships."

"So they came here for the adventure, and for the drama? Did they come here of their own free will or were they compelled to come here to create the stage on which the drama could play itself out?"

"Both, actually. They of their own free will desired the adventure of discovering and populating new lands, but they were pushed along the way at this particular time to create the dramatic life or death conflict with humanity."

"Josh. When you go back to wherever you go back to, I want you to announce to whomever needs to hear it, that the show has been canceled. The playhouse is closed. Henceforth humanity is not to be interfered with and our lizard friends are to be left alone as well. We will each continue to grow and evolve based on our own experience and our own choices and we will not be putting on any more conflict plays for the entertainment of the off-world entities. They can come watch our movies if they would like, but they are forbidden from entering our consciousness or being born into our bodies for the purpose of experiencing conflict.

"When I think back, so much of the death and destruction on Earth never needed to happen. Our evolution was put on hold for the sake of these entities entertainment. That era has ended. Your job is to tell them. My job is to enforce it. I don't know how I will enforce it, but I know that I can, and that I will. Is that understood, little soldier boy?"

"Yes Ma'am. I will pass your message to the megaverse. There will be many who are glad to hear it. You will also make some enemies. I'm confident that you can handle your enemies. You possess more power than you know."

"Two more questions before you go, Josh. One. Can you give our lizard friends a ride home? Two. Did we have a child?" Sally asks, getting teary eyed in anticipation of the answer.

"Yes to both." Josh said. "I will arrange their safe passage back to their system in a timely fashion, and yes, we had a son."

"What became of our son?" Sally asked.

"Our son was also a warrior. When he was old enough we would fight side by side. We died in battle, at each others side. We have fought many battles since then. He is with us today." Josh answered.

"Here? Where?" Sally asks.

"He has been a part of this great transformation for many years, and has been a key figure in it recently. In this incarnation he is female. You know her as Anahere. That is probably why you have been so drawn to each other as Mother and Daughter, because in fact, you are. I will go now and get our friends home. You may rest, and be at peace. This conflict has ended."

Josh stepped away from the table and began walking towards the door, then faded away. The Council member are speechless, not knowing quite what to make of what they just saw. They are now more afraid of Sally than before, but at the same time more trusting of her intentions.

"Oh wow. This is pretty." Nettie says.

"Please explain." Nancy of the First Chair asks.

"A huge trans-dimensional craft has materialized above the north pole. It is flashing with all sorts of different colored lights. It is opening a trans-dimensional conduit between Earth and the lizard system. It goes straight there. The lizards take advantage of naturally occurring conduits that appear from time to time where different dimensions touch and create a co-resonance with each other. This one, though, goes straight to their home world. They will be there in minutes. The craft is entering it and the lizard ships are positioning themselves to follow. It looks like Josh found them a way home. I transmitted our decisions to their ships computers. They have responded with their gratitude. I'm so glad we got all this to work out. I was afraid it was going to get messy."

John sat quietly with the girls, Penelope asleep on his shoulder, Anahere beaming at Sally, all aglow in the realization of their long history together. John ponders all these things, carefully putting the facts together in his mind so that he has a really good story. John will be telling this story to Penelope and Anaheras kids some day, and then to their kids, and then to their kids, and so it goes.

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 15
Alannah's Awakening
Stuck Between Tick and Tock
calibanner7
Crystal City: 5188 AD
Crystal City: 5188 AD

Alannah stands quietly at the bus stop.

The bus arrives but has not yet lowered to the platform level, so the travelers must wait for it to reach the loading position. The other travelers are restless, but Alannah is fine with waiting. She secretly hopes the bus will be delayed, even wishing she might miss it. It has been nearly fifteen years since the great awakening, but Alannah remains trapped, caught in a no-woman's-land between the past and the future, unable to move forward or backward. Sherina, Alannah's supervisor at the all-night diner, has scheduled an appointment for Alannah to take time off for reconstitution therapy. This therapy is widely used for those stuck in what is known as a temporal dead zone.

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Alannah is excited at the prospect of discovering her past and is hopeful it will launch her into the future. Being stuck is like living the same day over and over and over again, coming from nowhere and going nowhere. Excited as Alannah is, she is also apprehensive. Getting unstuck is frightening. You never know what you are going to find. What if you find out that you are someone that you will hate? Alannah wonders if maybe it would be better to not know.

Alannah has been content to live in the now, totally. It is hard for her to remember anything from yesterday, and she has no concern about tomorrow at all. She does remember this morning's conversation though. It still makes her want to cry.

"You have to do this! It’s no longer an option, Alannah. You’re stuck, and you need to get unstuck. Look outside, sweetie. What do you see?" Sherina asks Alannah, who is giving her that mindless, doe-eyed look. "Go on, look outside and tell me what you see."

"OK. I see buildings and people. So what?" Alannah responds.

“Look closer Alannah. Are those the same buildings that were there when you started working here?”

"Maybe? I don't know. I never notice stuff like that." Alannah replies, already tearing up from the frustration of being asked questions she has no idea how to answer.

"You don't notice hardly anything, Alannah. I only see you get excited when The Princess is on the video. Other than that, the only thing you do is get up in the morning and come to work, and then go home and go to sleep. That is all you have done for years and years and years. It's all you ever do. I give you the weekends off, and you come to work anyway. If you don't get a shift, you sit in a booth until it's time to go home. That isn't a life. You're young and beautiful, and you need a life. That is why I want you to go to therapy. Reconstitution therapy works wonders."

"Things are changing; the world we know is changing rapidly, and you need to change with it. You can't afford to be stuck between tick and tock anymore. I insist that you go to this therapy, and if you don't, I'm tying you up and dragging you down there myself. Is that understood, little lady? Now get your skinny little butt out to that bus stop and go! Here is your appointment slip. I love you, sweetie. This is for your own good."

"OK. I go." Alannah responds, now sobbing uncontrollably.

The bus ascends to its cruising altitude, about 100 feet above the pedestrian pathway, and begins to accelerate to cruising velocity. Alannah will get off at the last stop past the edge of the city, so she is not in a hurry to find a seat. A dozen other women push past her to get a seat. Alannah moves out of their way and lets them pass. For now, she is satisfied just to stand and hold on to a passenger pole until the bus starts to clear out. The young woman who is piloting the bus calls out that the next stop will be at such and such a street corner in about 10 minutes. Alannah is unconcerned; her stop is at least another 40 minutes away.

Stop after stop comes and goes, and some women get off while other women get on. Soon the bus is almost empty; the only other passengers are a few school girls going to the academy at the edge of town. At last, the bus stops at the end of the line, and Alannah, now alone, departs.

Alannah walks along a cobblestone path to a small gated cottage. A small engraved brass sign at the gate reads, "Visual Reconstitution Clinic. By Appointment Only." She checks her appointment slip to confirm she’s at the right place and time. She is. Taking a deep breath, she approaches the door and enters a small room. Inside, there’s a sofa and several chairs at one end and an artist’s easel at the other. An elderly woman enters and gestures for her to sit. “Welcome, my sister. You must be Alannah. I’m Maureen. I’ll be performing your reconstitution this morning. Relax. Reconstitution therapy is much more effective when you’re calm. Breathe deeply, take steady breaths. Relax your body, let your mind open. There’s nothing to fear. Have some herbal tea—it will help soothe you.”."

“So, how does this work?” Alannah asks. “What is visual reconstitution? Do you look into a crystal ball? I’m not entirely sure what we’re doing today.”

“It’s quite simple,” Maureen replies. “I’m a seer. I can peer into your consciousness and see images of people, places, and things stored there from your past experiences. People are the easiest to find because you have the deepest connections with them. I will draw their portraits, focusing only on their faces. I’ll sketch the faces of those who were close to you, both physically and emotionally. As I draw and you watch the face take shape, it will sharpen your memory and help it reconstitute for you. While I draw, you’ll tell me who I’m sketching, share your memories of that person, and recount the history that ties you to them. This will help rebuild your connection to those memories.”

Maureen takes a fresh sheet of paper from a drawer and secures it to the easel. With a sharp pencil, she swiftly sketches the eyes, nose, mouth, and hairline. A face soon takes shape. After refining the details with the pencil, she uses colored chalk to add color to the face, lips, and eyes. “Please tell me when you recognize the face, and then you can share the history that this face brings to your memory.”

"I don't know. That looks like me. You have drawn a picture of me. Or does that mean that I have a twin?"

“Wonderful. The initial test is done. I always start by sketching a portrait of the subject. If the image of you I pull from your mind aligns with the person I see before me, it confirms I’m linked to the right consciousness and that your self-image is accurate. Continuing would be futile if this test fails. If I’m tapping into the wrong consciousness, you wouldn’t recognize anyone, as they wouldn’t belong to your past. If your self-image is skewed, any subsequent images I draw from you are likely to be more fictional than factual, which would get us nowhere. You’ve passed this test. The face on the paper matches the person sitting on my sofa. This session will be successful. The drawing is complete. You may take it if you’d like.”

“Thank you so much,” Alannah says, smiling. “I don’t have any photos of myself, let alone a drawing. It’s lovely. What’s that number you wrote after my name, 1875? What does it mean?”

1875 is the date associated with this image. This drawing depicts you in the Earth year known as 1875, in a place called California. That was a long time ago—roughly twelve thousand Earth years, in fact—and no place called California exists anymore. Yet, in your memory, this place, this time, and this version of Alannah still endure. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to see it within you.”

“None of that makes sense to me,” Alannah says, her face showing confusion. “You’ve drawn me as I am now, and now is all I know. I don’t understand what 1875 means, and I’ve never heard of California or a place called Earth.”

“Let’s move forward and see what we can uncover. This next sketch will help guide your mind back to California and piece together fragments of that memory record. Then you can start connecting the dots and making sense of it all.” Maureen begins sketching another face, one that closely resembles Alannah but isn’t quite identical. As she completes the drawing, she labels it 1855, leaving the space for a name blank. “Take your time, dear. Have some tea, let your memories flow back naturally. There’s no rush. Give it time and let it come to you.”

Alannah examines the sketch for a long while, sipping tea, walking around to view it from different angles, studying it up close, then stepping back to see it from across the room. Sitting down again, she tries to relax her mind and let memories flow, but nothing surfaces. Despite the resemblance, this picture depicts a stranger. Logic suggests that this young woman, who appears to be her age, is twenty years older, as the date 1855 on the sketch indicates. So, who is she?

Alannah suddenly tenses, her eyes widening as if she’s seen a terrifying ghost. “Mother!” she exclaims, gripping the sofa to steady herself. A wave of dizziness and nausea surges through her. An overwhelming emotional weight settles over her, cloaking her in deep sadness. A choking grief tightens her throat, forming a painful lump that leaves her unable to speak.

"Relax Sweetie," Maureen says, sitting next to Alannah on the sofa, holding her and steadying her, also holding a pan in case Alannah needs to throw up. "This will be uncomfortable for a few minutes. It always is when the dam bursts and the memory flows. Lie down if you need. We are not in a hurry. Take your time."

A few minutes pass and Alannah says, "No, I'm fine." Alannah sips some more tea and steadies herself on the sofa. "It was just a shock to have that memory return so suddenly. I wasn't prepared for that. I do remember a little now. You can write 'Akasha' at the bottom of the picture. That was her name, at least I know that much. I do not recall much about her except that she died. I don't think I ever got over that. She was much too young to die, and she died for no good reason. I guess that is why I forgot about her. The pain of her passing was just too great. Why can't I remember more than that?"

"You may take this sketch home with you as well. Put it on the wall next to yours. Day by day as you look at it more will be remembered. There are more in you that I must draw, more that you must remember. Are you ready to continue?"

"Yes. Please continue. I'm kind of getting excited about who I'm going to meet next." Alannah says, sitting up straight now and not looking so sick.

For the third time, Maureen busily sketches the details of a face, an extraordinarily beautiful young woman. Alannah remembers quickly this time. Before Maureen can finish adding the color Alannah knows who she is.

"Label that one "Elina." That's my little sister Elina. Oh my God, we used to fight all the time. I think I was jealous of her because she was the beautiful, sexy one, and she was jealous of me because I was the oldest and got to do everything first. When I got my first makeup, she stole it. When Mom made her give it back, she broke it so I couldn't use it. I told her about a boy I liked, and then I catch her in the woods with him. She could have enticed any boy in town into the woods with her, she was so beautiful, but she picked the one she knew I liked. Fight as we did we were also very close. Mom was harsh with her. I think she was jealous of her too. So many times I would come to her defense and get Mom to leave her alone. What has become of my sister Elina? Is there any way I can find her? What about my Mom?"

Maureen pauses briefly, as if retrieving distant information. "Your mother is gone, not as you knew her. Her essence persists, but as someone else, with no memory of being Akasha. Unless her memories are restored someday, we cannot find her. Elina remains Elina—a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother—but her descendants are not with her. They exist in separate domains. Like you, she is alone. With some effort, I can provide her address, but I cannot guarantee she will be ready to reconnect. Reunions across domains are challenging. She may not recognize you or understand why you believe you know her."

As Maureen sketches for the fourth time, the youthful face of a teenage girl emerges. The eyes, nose, and mouth are only faintly outlined before Alannah recognizes her.

"Brionna! That's my annoying little sister, Brionna. She was the youngest in the family and got away with everything. She did things Elina and I would have been punished for, but Mom just overlooked it. She was the most frustrating little pest, but I adore her. Is she in another domain too? Can I locate her?"

"Yes, I sense that Brionna is still Brionna. She also has a group of descendants, and most of them are with her. The same warning applies: we may locate her, but she may not recognize you. Study these sketches frequently, and more will gradually be revealed to you."

Maureen rolls up the Brionna sketch and hands it to Alannah, who adds it to her growing collection of drawings. Once again, she sets up the easel to draw.

""I have another sister? Wow! My family must have been large." Alannah giggles..

Alannah stops laughing as the sketch takes shape.

"That's a funny looking woman. I don't remember her at all."

"That's because this is a man. This domain contains only women, so you haven't seen a man up close in thousands of years. They do look a bit unusual."

"Stop! Stop drawing!" Alannah exclaims, her face showing shock. "I do know him, and I've seen him recently. Look at any magazine or newspaper, or turn on the video—you'll recognize him too. Why is he in my memory? Who is this man to me?"

Maureen continues sketching to refine the image, then gasps in shock at who she has drawn. "Oh, my! This is John of Penny Lake. He's been all over the news. John of Penny Lake is your father. You have a famous father, Sweetie."

"A famous, despicable father. I don’t know why, but I deeply resent that man. I felt it even when I saw him on video. Something about him just infuriates me. I don’t feel anger toward the others, Princess Penelope or Princess Anahere, but he triggers some painful memories. You don’t need to give me his picture or address. I know he’s in the Penny Lake domain—everyone knows that. I have no intention of going there to meet him."

Maureen smiles as she completes the sketch. "I believe I’ve earned my fee today. This memory reconstitution has been successful; you’ve recalled a great deal. I sense one more significant man in your stream of experience, likely a husband, but his timeline is complex, and I can’t form a clear image. He seems to be a blend of multiple figures, so I apologize for not sketching him. I think this sketch of your father may reveal why you’ve been stuck. So, take this sketch as well. In time, you may uncover the source of your resentment toward your father and work to mend that relationship. It might also explain why you ended up in a women’s only domain. Many here have unresolved issues with their fathers. I suggest addressing this. Resolving your issues with your father could lead to a more fulfilling life in another domain."

"That won’t be necessary. I’m perfectly happy living here with the other women, father issues or not. And no, thank you—you can keep the John sketch. He’s on every magazine cover I see. One last question before I leave: if my sisters are great-grandmothers, where are my children? Did I have kids on Earth?"

Maureen frowns and says "I sense that you were pregnant, but you did not survive childbirth."

"You mean my baby was still born? Did I have a miscarriage?" Alannah asks.

"No sweetie. Your baby was born alive. You died in childbirth." Maureen replies.

"Died? What do you mean by died? I’m alive, so how could I be dead?" Alannah asks, her face showing deep confusion.

"Oh, Sweetie! I didn’t realize you’d forgotten so much. Of course, you’re alive because that’s the only state you can be in, but it’s a matter of perspective. Let me explain. Earth exists in a different dimensional framework from ours. The Earth’s dimensional framework is invisible to us here, and we are invisible there. It’s called a level 3 framework, while we’re in a level 5 framework, and the two cannot physically interact—they’re dimensionally out of phase. You existed in physical form on Earth, and when that form stopped functioning, you transferred your physical form here."

"From their perspective, the empty shell you left behind on Earth was dead. To them, you had died. When you arrived here, you took on the same physical form you had there, but you left most, if not all, of your memories behind. You didn’t recall being Alannah on Earth, so you were unaware that you had died there. I’m sorry for revealing this so abruptly. Like everything else you’ve learned today, it will take time, but you’ll adjust and eventually understand."

Alannah rides the bus home in a daze, as if entranced. Everything feels unfamiliar now. Gazing out the window as the bus glides 100 feet above the pedestrian walkway below, everything seems wrong. There should be horses, carriages, and wooden buildings, not structures of glass and steel or hover cars weaving through the sky. Recalling her identity and past life has left her without a clear sense of self in the present. She feels a bit lost.

Sitting in a booth at the diner, Sherina brings Alannah some pie and ice cream to lift her spirits. Alannah has sunk into a state of melancholy, deeply longing for a mother and sisters she hasn’t thought of in thousands of years. Her memories now flicker between Earth in the 19th century and her new domain of Crystal City, which, in Earth time, seems to be around the 139th century. What has happened to her family? What has become of Earth? Who is Alannah, truly? Are Alannah of Earth’s past and Alannah of Crystal City even the same person? Is this all a dream? Is it some kind of joke?

"Sherina. The diner is empty. Come sit with me. I need to talk."

"Of course, Sugar. Whatever you need, I’m here for you. I know how tough this is. I’ve seen many go through it. You’ll piece it all together soon, I’m certain," Sherina says as she sits down with Alannah.

"Tell me about—this. Where are we, really? What is this place, Crystal City? I vaguely recall arriving here, and you were there to greet me and help me get this job. But it was all different then—horses and wooden buildings, not this modern city of glass it has become. Why didn’t I notice any of this before? When did it all change?" Alannah asks, her face etched with deep concern.

"Baby, you were lost in your forgetfulness. That’s common around here. Most of us were in that state until the great awakening. Then many of us started to remember, and lately, with all the news about the planet being prepared for repopulation, it’s been nonstop on the news. The customers and other workers have been talking about it constantly too. But you, Alannah, would just zone out and go about your work as if nothing was happening. That’s when I knew we had to get you into reconstitution therapy to recover your memory. I’m sorry it’s been such a shock to you."

"To answer your questions, Crystal City is what we call a domain, a perceptual bubble where we can experience life in this form. When you arrived, it was the late 19th century on Earth, and this town was designed to reflect that era because that’s all we knew. As newcomers kept arriving, the town evolved with the progress they brought. It gradually transformed from wood buildings and dirt roads to paved walkways, steel buildings, and hover cars floating above us. Our physical form here is the same as the one we had on Earth, manifested in this dimensional framework we call level 5."

"This framework has additional dimensions that the Earth framework lacks. Here, it’s much easier to manifest our thoughts into form—a level of manifestation nearly impossible on Earth. To experience life there, you must be born into a physical form as an infant and live as that entity. There’s a process we’ve developed for this. When you undergo it, you gradually forget your prior existence and adopt that form as your own. When you leave that form, typically because it dies, you manifest here in the same form because that’s what you know—it’s who and what you have become."

"So this is Heaven? Are we spirits?" Alannah asks.

Perhaps indirectly, your spiritual core remains the same, yet you are just as physical here as you were on Earth, existing within a different dimensional structure. Many on Earth believed that upon the end of their lives there, they, or their spiritual essence, would journey to one of two destinations: either a Heaven of unending joy or a Hell of ceaseless torment. What they didn't realize is that there are actually thousands of places to go, and this realm is simply one of them.

Realms of unending joy and realms of ceaseless torment exist, and souls can manifest in those places if they believe they belong there. However, most of us find ourselves somewhere in between, as that is the appropriate place for us based on our level of conscious development and the kind of life we wish to experience. For a reason you no longer recall, you chose to come here, and I am certain you had a valid reason.

Few of us actually recall leaving our physical body on Earth and arriving here. Most of us simply find ourselves here with little to no memory of our past lives on Earth and continue living our lives here as if nothing came before. We call this a veil of forgetfulness, and for most of us, it is beneficial. It shields us from the melancholy you are currently experiencing—missing loved ones we have left behind or yearning to reunite with others who have chosen different realms.

Although other dimensional structures exist within which we could reside, this one, which we call level 5, is where we go between our journeys to Earth. Our life form evolved on Earth, which is the source of our physical form, our origin, our home, and the place we return to when we leave level 5. While a few ascend to higher levels, most of us, after some rest, relaxation, and a recharging of our essential energies, return for another lifetime on Earth.

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Then everything changed. There was a great cataclysm on Earth, one that we refer to as the Great Influx. At that time, within just a few short minutes, all life—every living thing on Earth and throughout the entire solar system—died, extinguished in an instant. Since that time, everything has been different, and all the rules have changed.

One of the most significant changes is that we now need our memories back. Forgetting where we came from and then returning to Earth after a brief stay here was acceptable before. However, after the Influx, there was no Earth to return to. Without life there, it became invisible to us, and we could not locate it. We now live here permanently. Therefore, it is essential for us to remember who and what we are and why we are here so that we can progress with our lives. Otherwise, we become stuck, as you have been, simply reliving the same day repeatedly, waiting to return to a life on a planet that no longer exists.

Fifteen years ago, a group of individuals from the Penny Lake and Powder Junction realms embarked on a joint mission to rediscover Earth and make some fundamental adjustments to our domains so that we could prepare Earth for repopulation. Those adjustments led to the great awakening, where many of us began to spontaneously recall who we were and why we were here. Others, like yourself, lost in their forgetfulness, required some assistance—reconstitution therapy—to lift the veil. That is what you have just experienced."

"Alright, now for the challenging part," Alannah says, mustering her courage to ask the tough questions. "Pick up that magazine over there, the one with The Four on the cover."

"Okay, Sweetie, I got it. What's about them? Those are the guys I was just talking about who rediscovered Earth. They're on the news all the time these days."

"Do you see the tall guy in the middle?"

"Yes, that's John from Penny Lake. He's like the grandfather of the group. What do you want to know about him?"

"Everything."

"Well, let's see. As I understand it, he arrived just before the turn of the 20th century, Earth time. He was training with the domain host for Penny Lake to become a host and manage his own domain. Then, in the 22nd century, Earth time, the Great Influx occurred, and that changed everything. Some domains doubled or tripled their members overnight. It was chaos."

"During the Great Influx, one of the children who arrived at Penny Lake was a fifteen-year-old girl named Sally. She and John formed a father-daughter bond. Sally, along with her boyfriend, discovered the missing planet Earth, determined what had happened, and devised a way to restore it. Their adjustments to the dimensional frameworks revived life on the planet and triggered the Great Awakening. As a result, they gained widespread fame. That was about fifteen years ago. Sally and her boyfriend, now divorced, have a teenage daughter known as Princess Penelope. Recently, Sally adopted another teenager, an Aboriginal girl who serves as the ambassador to those called The First Ones.

We call her Princess Anahere. The media refers to them as princesses because domains like this one and Capitol City have embraced this family as their unofficial royal family. They are extremely popular and very famous here. Many magazines focus entirely on the lives of the two princess girls, and they have a substantial circulation.

"Do you think any of them will ever come here?"

"I'm not sure. That could be an issue for us if they visit, given our privacy laws. In Capitol City, they're swarmed by media and paparazzi taking photos and videos. That behavior is illegal here. Approaching someone uninvited could lead to arrest and jail time. Our discreteness protocol is essentially our core principle. Despite their popularity, I'm not sure if our people could resist bothering them if they come. We'll see if it happens. So, why all the interest in them?""

"Well, it turns out that John of Penny Lake is my dad."

"What? Really? Oh my gosh! Seriously? Wow, girl, you could be famous too. That's incredible news. So, why the glum expression?"

"When I first realized he was my father, I was overwhelmed with feelings of hatred, pain, and resentment. I despise that man, and I don’t know why. That’s why I hoped none of them would come here. He can’t anyway, since he’s a man, but I’m not sure how I’d react to the girls, considering I’m basically a relative. It’s a lot of complicated emotions, and I don’t think I can handle them right now."

"I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Even if they visit Crystal City, it’s unlikely they’d come to our diner. You should head home and get some rest. Things will get easier in a few days as your memory gradually returns. Your shift starts at 6 AM. Don’t be late!"

In her apartment, Alannah tosses and turns, unable to find restful sleep. New memories flood in, especially through her dreams. In one dream, she recalls her mother describing herself as a double Indian. Her maternal grandmother was an Indian from India, and her maternal grandfather was a Native American, also called an Indian in those days due to a mistake by ancient explorers. So, she was a double Indian. These ethnic labels now seem trivial. What difference could they possibly make? Alannah finally drifts into a few minutes of peaceful sleep when her phone rings. Still half-asleep, she knocks it onto the floor while trying to answer and stumbles in the dark to find it. It’s Sherina on the line.

"Girl! Get your ass down here in a hurry. You're not going to believe what is going on here."

"Huh? My shift doesn't start for hours. Why are you calling me now?"

"I’m serious. You need to get down here now. You must have some kind of powers or be a prophet. You won’t believe who’s sitting right where you were earlier, eating the exact same pie and ice cream."

"Sherina, this better be good. What the hell are you talking about?"

"Princess Anahere. That’s what I’m talking about. She’s in the diner right now, sitting exactly where you were just a few hours ago, eating the same pie and ice cream from the same pie plate and ice cream bucket. This can’t be a coincidence. This is destiny. Get your skinny self down here right now! You have to see this!"

"What?! Princess Anahere? Oh my gosh! I think this is a really bad idea, but I’ll be there in a flash. You know you could go to jail just for making this call, right?"

"Yes, but I also know you ain't gonna tell. Hurry your ass up before she leaves."

Alannah steps off the bus a block away and quickly dashes to the back entrance instead of using the front door. A dozen curious onlookers are gathered at the back of the kitchen, peering at Princess Anahere through a crack in the door. Sherina is hushing them to prevent the Princess from noticing the crowd.

"Good. You're here" Sherina whispered. "You have the floor. I'll sit back here and watch."

"Are you serious? I can’t go out there!" Alannah whispered back.

""Destiny is calling you, sister. Go for it!" Sherina whispers, handing Alannah the order pad.

Alannah stands frozen behind the counter, trying to appear calm, hoping Princess Anahere doesn’t notice her flushed face and sweaty palms. Suddenly, her anxiety vanishes. The Princess is crying, tears streaming down her face, her hands and legs trembling uncontrollably. In a surge of empathetic understanding, Alannah’s heart softens. She thinks to herself, Oh my God, the Princess is experiencing the same thing I am. That’s what I looked like sitting in that same booth just hours ago. Maybe this is destiny. Filled with confidence, Alannah approaches the table.

"Is there anything I can get you miss? I just started my shift." Alannah says.

"No ma'am. I'm fine." Anahere responds.

Alannah returns behind the counter, feeling proud of herself, but suddenly freezes as her anxiety surges back. Another figure, who has been shadowing Princess Anahere from the darkness, steps into the diner. It’s Princess Penelope. Penelope slides into the booth next to Anahere, and they embrace, weeping together.

Both of them? Alannah thinks to herself. Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, it’s both of them—at my table! What if they order something else? What if I trip and fall? What if I wet myself? What if I get a runny nose? Oh God, if you exist anywhere in this world, I need help now. I know Penelope is going to order something, and I’ll walk out there, fall flat on my face, and then wet myself—I just know it.

The two young girls cry for a while, then talk and laugh. Princess Anahere tosses a few coins to Princess Penelope, who, as Alannah dreaded, signals her to come take an order. The fear of an anticipated event is often worse than the event itself. Alannah approaches the table, takes the order, and returns behind the counter without tripping, wetting herself, or experiencing any nasal mishaps. She scoops a generous double portion of ice cream, serves it to the Princess, and returns safely behind the counter without any humiliating incidents, all while hearing hushed whispers from the back room and wishing they would be quiet. Whew! Mission accomplished.

The calm lasts only a moment before fear grips Alannah’s heart again. Princess Penelope, who had barely noticed her before, suddenly turns and locks eyes with Alannah, then whispers something to Princess Anahere. Anahere grabs the ticket, reading Alannah’s name written on it. Both girls then stare directly into Alannah’s eyes. Alannah stands frozen, unable to speak or move, but fortunately showing no outward emotion. Holy heck! They recognized me, she thinks. How could they possibly know? Unable to hear their conversation, she distinctly sees them mouth the name John multiple times by reading their lips. They know! They know who I am and that I’m John’s daughter! What can I do? Nothing! All I can do is stand here like a statue and wait for destiny to crush me like a brittle twig.

The two girls leave a few coins on the table, sparing Alannah the stress of having to settle the bill herself. Then, hand in hand, they walk out of the diner. As they leave, Alannah can't help but notice that both girls intentionally avoid looking at her. Good, she thinks. I don't want to talk to them, and they clearly don't want to talk to me. Maybe they won’t tell Dad who they saw. But someday, I know I’ll get that phone call—summoning me to Penny Lake for an audience with Dad. I just hope I’m ready when it happens... and I hope it doesn’t happen too soon. It’s going to take a lot of getting used to.

After all the drama has settled, Alannah asks Sherina for another day off. There's a lot to process, a lot to reflect on. I guess I’m really unstuck now, Alannah thinks to herself. I wanted to move forward instead of being trapped in the same day over and over, but I didn’t expect things to change this quickly. It’s been a bit too much for one day. Today, I’m hoping absolutely nothing happens. Tomorrow, then, will be the first day of my new life—and the first thing I’m going to do is find Elina.

Calm now, confident and unafraid of whatever destiny may bring, Alannah sits in a booth at an all-night diner, in the heart of a domain called Crystal City—one of thousands of other domains drifting in the middle of who-knows-where—and enjoys some pie and ice cream.


For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 16
The Sins Of Elina
Crystal City: 5188 AD
calibanner7
Crystal City: 5188 AD
Crystal City: 5188 AD

Alannah waits quietly at the bus stop. Only a few days ago, she stood here, trapped in a timeless void, with no past and a future that felt like a repeat of yesterday. Her once-dull, unfocused eyes now shine with excitement, eagerly taking in a world brimming with possibilities. Today, she’s heading back to the small clinic just outside the city for a follow-up on her reconstitution therapy. That first visit was filled with fear, but now Alannah is thrilled to return.

The bus rises to its cruising altitude, about 100 feet above the pedestrian path, and picks up speed. As the cityscape glides past her window, Alannah reflects on how much has changed. When she first arrived in Crystal City, it was just a short row of wooden buildings along a dirt road. Now, it’s a bustling metropolis, alive with people hurrying about their lives.

Alannah thinks about those still trapped, like she once was, in a cycle of forgetfulness, reliving the same day endlessly. She considers starting a mission to free these lost souls from their temporal prisons. But today, her mind is on her sister, Elina, whom she misses deeply. The bus finally reaches its last stop, and Alannah steps off, practically skipping down the cobblestone path toward a quaint gated cottage.

Alannah checks her appointment slip to confirm she’s at the right place and time. She is. “Welcome, my sister,” Maureen greets her warmly, as she does all her patients. “I can see the progress in your therapy just by the sparkle in your eyes. You don’t need to say a word. How can I help you today? Do you want to search for more people from your past? Need more sketches to help you remember them?”

“No, thank you, Maureen,” Alannah replies. “I have plenty of sketches. I need more than pictures—I want to touch them, feel them, hug them, kiss them, hold them close. During my last session, you mentioned you might have an address for my sister, Elina. She’s the one I miss most. You said she’s like me, alone, with no other family. That’s what I want to focus on today—finding Elina.”

“My goodness, Alannah,” Maureen says, impressed. “You’re my most advanced patient. It usually takes months, even years, for someone to reach this stage of seeking lost loved ones. But I must warn you: you may not find what you expect, and you need to be ready for disappointment. Are you prepared for that? It could be painful.”

A hint of fear creeps into Alannah’s heart as she asks, “What kind of disappointment? You mean I might not find her?”

“It’s more complex than that,” Maureen explains. “We might not locate her at all, or we could find her domain but be unable to enter it. Even if we do get inside, we might still not find her. And finding her could be the easy part. She might not recognize you, or she might not want anything to do with you. In the worst cases I’ve seen, people find their loved ones, bring them back, and then their lives get tangled up in ways they never imagined. There’s a real risk of heartbreak. Do you still want to go forward?”

“Absolutely,” Alannah says with an eager smile. “My life has been so dull for so long that any complication would be a welcome change. Elina was always complex and hard to figure out, so I’m used to that. Let’s do it!”

“Alright then, we’ll do it!” Maureen says, catching Alannah’s enthusiasm. “First, I’ll draw a quick sketch to focus my mind and guide us toward Elina.” She grabs a small pad, sketches a face, and hands it to Alannah for approval.

“Yes, that’s the Elina I remember,” Alannah confirms, nodding at the sketch’s accuracy.

Maureen starts a second sketch and passes it to Alannah. “I’m confused,” Alannah says, frowning. “This is an elderly woman. Who’s this?”

“Ah,” Maureen replies gently. “I warned you that you might not find what you expect. You left Earth at 27, and now you look about 30. Elina left Earth at 75, and I sense she’s kept that form. Your dream of running around Capitol City with your little sister, having fun adventures, might not happen. She’s an elderly woman now, and you may not have much in common. Do you still want to continue?”

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“Ugh, I hadn’t thought of that,” Alannah admits. “But you don’t know Elina. She’d probably love hitting the bars and shopping for clothes at 75 just as much as someone who’s 25. So let’s keep going.”

“I see you’re planning to bring her here and do things that cost a lot of money,” Maureen says, looking concerned. “Do you have the means to support that?”

“Ha!” Alannah laughs. “I just found this out myself, but I’m actually pretty wealthy. For years—longer than I can remember—I just worked and slept. I paid my bills, and whatever credits I had left went into the bank. With interest, I’ve got more than enough to take care of Elina and anyone else I might find.”

“That’s great to hear,” Maureen says with a wide smile. “Maybe when you’re back, we can talk about a loan to expand my clinic!” They both laugh.

After a brief meditation, Maureen jots down some notes. “Here’s what I see, Alannah. As I mentioned before, Elina is still herself, in the form she had when she left Earth. But here’s where it gets strange. Elina is a unique soul. We’re all beings of consciousness who took physical form on Earth, most recently as humans. As consciousness, we’re infinite, part of the All That Is. But we’re not aware of that infinity—our awareness is like a small bubble within consciousness, the ‘I’ that you know as yourself.

“On Earth, at level 3 of existence, we’re inside a larger bubble that holds the entire universe and others that are out of phase with our Earth. Here, where the dimensional density is lighter, our bubbles of awareness are smaller, and we can create many different realities, unlike the single reality we’re stuck with on Earth. This has been common knowledge since the great awakening.

“What we don’t fully understand yet are the domain managers—those whose bubble of awareness, their domain, hosts many other souls manifesting as humans or other forms. That’s still mostly a mystery. We do know that domain hosts, like the one for Crystal City, are usually highly evolved beings with long histories across many lives and realities.”

“Okay, I’m still new to this, but I think I get the basics,” Alannah says. “My boss at the diner explained some of it. So what does this have to do with Elina? What kind of domain is she in?”

“That’s the odd part,” Maureen replies. “Elina is alone, but not like you. You’re alone, without family, in a domain with millions of souls. Elina is alone in a domain of one. She’s the domain manager, the host. That suggests she’s a highly evolved being. Normally, beings like her attract others to share their domain. But she’s alone. That’s what’s strange.”

“Believe me, Elina has always been a little odd,” Alannah says with a laugh. “So I’m not surprised she’s still an outsider, even in this existence. Go on, I sense you have more to say about her unusual behavior.”

“Yes, I do,” Maureen replies. “I feel that her domain is a dark one, a Hades-class, like her own personal hell. Elina has all the traits of an enlightened being, and such beings don’t usually create their own torment. This is very strange. Because it’s so unusual, I’m not sure it’s safe for you to visit her. If, for instance, she’s lost her sanity and she’s the host of her domain, there’s a risk you might struggle to leave once you’re inside. Are you sure you want to take that chance?”

“Hmm, that’s a bit frightening,” Alannah admits. “But it’s something I have to do. If Elina’s in trouble, I need to see what’s going on. She might need help. Maybe I should bring someone more experienced along. Are you free?” she asks with a smile.

Maureen grins widely. “I was just wondering how I could tag along. This sounds like an intriguing adventure. Let me grab my things, and we’ll get started.”

Alannah and Maureen head back into town to catch a transport to Elina’s domain. Maureen isn’t entirely sure of the coordinates, and they’ll need to set up a trans-dimensional conduit to enter, unless the domain is sealed. If it’s blocked, they might not get in at all.

“So, Maureen,” Alannah asks, “when we go to Elina’s domain, are we basically stepping inside her mind?”

“You could think of it that way,” Maureen replies. “A domain is a part of an infinite expanse that forms into a region of awareness where a local space-time can exist, and we can manifest within it. We don’t fully understand how it works—it’s like digesting food; it just happens naturally, and we don’t need to think about it. So saying it’s ‘in her head’ or not isn’t really the point. It just exists.”

“Do you think she knows we’re coming?” Alannah asks.

“She might, but I doubt it,” Maureen says. “She’ll definitely know when we arrive.”

The two leave the bus station and head to the transport station. Maureen has booked a transport, and Alannah covers the fare. “Wow,” Alannah says, “I just realized this is the first time I’ve ever left Crystal City. I’m a little nervous.”

The transport zooms toward the edge of Crystal City and then stops. The pilot and co-pilot are adjusting equipment. “We’re calibrating the TDC, ma’am,” the co-pilot says. “It’ll just take a moment. The coordinates you gave us are tricky to lock onto, so please bear with us.”

“What do you think we’ll find in there?” Alannah asks Maureen.

“It’s hard to say,” Maureen replies. “These domains can be anything their host imagines. Hades-class domains are usually unpleasant, created as places of torment for souls who feel they deserve punishment. This might not be enjoyable at all.”

“Ma’am,” the pilot interrupts, “we had trouble finding an entry point because the domain was too hot. A cooler spot has appeared, but we can’t enter directly. We can activate the TDC and dock alongside, and you’ll have to walk from there. Are you sure you want to go in? We might not be able to get you back out.”

“We’ll be fine,” Alannah says confidently. “I don’t know how I know, but I just do. And she knows we’re here—that’s why the cool spot appeared. We’ll be okay.”

The hovercraft approaches a swirling vortex at the edge of Crystal City’s domain and opens its side door. On the other side is a rocky pathway with cool water flowing over it. Beyond, a deep red glow lights up the entire domain.

“Are you ready?” Alannah asks Maureen, seeking a bit of reassurance.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Maureen replies. “Let’s do this!”

They carefully step out of the craft onto the rocky path. As they start walking, the TDC vortex and the craft disappear behind them. They’re alone in a barren landscape, like a fresh lava flow, with fire and hot rocks all around except for the cool spot where they stand. As they move forward, cool water rises from the ground, keeping the path safe for them to continue.

“See, I told you she’s here,” Alannah says. “How else could this be happening? We’d have burned up by now.”

“It might be automatic,” Maureen says, “but I think you’re right. She’s welcoming us into her domain. Let’s see where this path takes us.” She gestures for Alannah to follow.

For over an hour, they follow the winding path through a scorched desert and into a dense forest of oddly shaped boulders. Eventually, they reach a clearing. In the center is a table and chair, where a small elderly woman sits, surrounded by stacks of books, papers, and magazines. She’s hunched over, reading a newspaper. When she finishes a page, she tosses it into a nearby pool of lava, where it burns instantly. The two approach cautiously until they’re right in front of her. Elina doesn’t look up. She simply says, “Okay, Alannah. You’re here. What do you want?”

“I want to tell you how much I love you, how much I miss you, and I want to catch up on all the years we’ve lost,” Alannah says. “Put that paper down and look at me. I want to see your face.”

“Still bossy after all these years, huh?” Elina replies, looking up at Alannah. “Have a seat, girls.” Two chairs appear, and Alannah and Maureen sit down. “So, who’s your friend, Alannah? Is she one of your lovers from that women-only domain you live in?”

“Her name is Maureen, and she’s not my lover,” Alannah clarifies. “I don’t have any lovers, and our domain isn’t what you’re implying. It’s all women, but that doesn’t mean we’re all romantic with each other just because we live there.”

“Yeah? Whatever works for you,” Elina says. “I love you too, and I miss you too. Our story’s simple: we’re both dead. Now why don’t you two go back to your women’s world and have a nice life?”

“I’m not dead, and neither are you,” Alannah insists. “We have a lot to catch up on, Elina. And just because you’re appearing as an old woman here, I’m still your big sister, and I’m not leaving until I get some answers.” She stares at her sister with a determination that won’t accept refusal.

“So the only way to get rid of you is to answer your silly questions?” Elina says. “Fine, go ahead and ask. But you might not like the answers, so be careful what you ask for.”

“Alright,” Alannah begins. “First, how did you know where I live? How did you know we were coming? And why on earth are you in this hell?”

“I sensed you coming,” Elina explains. “When your transport arrived, they announced where it was from. I’ve read about your domain in the papers. And I’m in hell because that’s where everyone thinks I belong.”

“Who thinks that? Not me,” Alannah says. “I’ve always known you as the most sensitive and caring person. Why do you think you belong in hell?”

“Everyone except you, then. Big deal,” Elina says bitterly. “Try being caring and sensitive in a world full of fearful, hateful people and see how far it gets you. You get used, trampled, and damned to hell. Trust me, I know.”

“Elina, there’s no one else here but you,” Alannah points out. “You’re creating this hell. Maureen says you’re a highly evolved being who could manifest a paradise. Why choose hell?”

“I’m alone now, sure,” Elina admits. “But it wasn’t always like that. There used to be many others here, lots of them. They’re gone now—graduated, you know.”

“Graduated?” Alannah asks. “How do you graduate from hell?”

“Same as graduating from anything else,” Elina says. “You learn your lessons, take a test, and if you pass, you move on. It’s not complicated.”

“So you turned your hell into a school?” Alannah asks, surprised.

“Isn’t that what hell’s supposed to be?” Elina snaps. “Did I mess that up too? Are you here to judge me and tell me how I got everything wrong?”

“No, not at all,” Alannah reassures her. “I think turning hell into a place where people can graduate is wonderful. It’s exactly the kind of thing my caring, loving sister would do. So why are you still here? Why haven’t you graduated?”

“I can’t graduate because I can’t pass the first test,” Elina says quietly.

“What test is that?” Alannah asks.

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“The one where you accept guilt and take responsibility for your sins,” Elina explains. “I’ve never accepted that I’m guilty of anything. I haven’t sinned, not in any way I’d call a sin. So, since I have no sins to feel guilty about, I can’t accept the guilt, and I can’t pass the test.”

“That’s nonsense, Elina!” Alannah exclaims. “You’re making this all up! Create something better for yourself.”

“I’m used to it,” Elina says with a shrug. “I like it this way. I’ve got my books, magazines, and papers to keep up with what’s happening in other domains. It’s all pretty foolish, but it keeps me entertained.”

“Tell me how you ended up here, Elina,” Alannah urges. “Why did you choose to create a hell?”

“It wasn’t exactly my choice,” Elina says. “Most of my life, people told me I’d burn in hell—usually right after some woman noticed her husband was much happier after visiting me. A few times, I was called Satan himself in the form of a woman. Even my own kids said I was evil and ruined their lives. When I died, I thought all that was behind me. Everyone was crying, saying they loved me. So I headed straight for the pearly gates, expecting to walk right in. But then I had this life review, and all those women and their husbands went on about how I destroyed their marriages and tore their families apart, saying I didn’t belong in their precious heaven. So I created this place instead.”

“Pearly gates? I’ve heard about them, but I’ve never been to a domain like that. Does it really exist?” Alannah asks.

“She was a traditionalist,” Maureen interjects. “You became religious later in life, didn’t you, Elina?”

“Yeah, I suppose so,” Elina replies. “I started going to church, mostly for the kids and grandkids. I heard all about the afterlife, heaven, the pearly gates—the whole deal. But I’m glad they didn’t let me in. I wouldn’t have been happy there. I’m content here. I’ve found my peace.”

“Where do you get all these books and things?” Alannah asks.

“They appear here as soon as they’re printed in other domains,” Elina explains. “That’s how I keep up with things. I’ve thought about adding video, but I have plenty of time, so reading is enough.”

“Where do you live, sleep, or eat? All I see is this chair and table in the middle of nowhere,” Alannah says.

“I don’t eat, sleep, or need anything else,” Elina says. “I just sit here and read. That’s all I require. I already have everything I need.”

“Elina, come on! I’m your sister, remember? I know you,” Alannah insists. “This is nonsense. You deserve better. I’m getting you out of here. Somehow, we’re going to leave, and you’re coming to live with me.”

“There’s a lot you don’t understand, Alannah,” Elina says. “I might ruin things for you in your domain, just like I did on Earth. You’re better off leaving me here. I’m happy. Go home and be happy too. Besides, I can’t leave—I can’t pass the test.”

“Then confess some small sin, take responsibility, and let’s get out of this hell, okay?” Alannah urges.

“I haven’t sinned,” Elina says firmly.

“Yes, you have,” Alannah counters. “You stole my makeup and then broke it. Remember?”

“That wasn’t a sin,” Elina says. “You all deserved it.”

“What? How did we deserve it?” Alannah asks, surprised.

“We were only fourteen months apart, and I was already more outgoing than you,” Elina explains. “There was no reason we couldn’t get makeup at the same time. Mom deliberately favored you and rubbed it in my face, saying I could’ve had some too if I wasn’t so bad. I wasn’t bad—I tried so hard to please her, but nothing worked. She blamed me for everything, punished me just for existing. If anything went wrong or she was in a bad mood, it was my fault. When I finally stood up to her, she got angrier, even making up lies to tell Dad. She lied to you too, so you’d hate me. So yeah, I broke your makeup, but it wasn’t about you. It was better than the other things I was thinking. That wasn’t a sin, Alannah—it was the only justice I could find.”

“I didn’t realize you resented her so much,” Alannah says softly.

“I didn’t hate her,” Elina clarifies. “I loved her deeply and tried every way I could to show it. I cried myself to sleep thinking of ways to reach her heart. But something was wrong with her—some deep fear she projected onto me, and I could never understand why.”

“Forget Mom, then,” Alannah says. “What about Louis, the boy I liked? I shared my deepest secret with you, and you used it against me. You picked him out of all the boys—any of whom you could’ve had—and I found you two in the woods doing… whatever it was you were doing. That was a sin. Own up to that one.”

“I can’t—it wasn’t a sin,” Elina says. “I was trying to help you. I talked to Louis in town and told him you liked him so you could get together. He said we needed to discuss something and suggested the woods for privacy. Then he told me about all the girls he’d been with and how he thought I was beautiful and wanted me instead of you. He started grabbing me, kissing me, and I thought if I didn’t go along, he might hurt me or worse. Louis was trouble, Alannah, and I saved you from him. I couldn’t tell you the truth because you’d have told Dad, and Dad would’ve killed him. I kept it to myself to protect everyone. So I can’t confess it as a sin—it wasn’t one.”

“I didn’t know,” Alannah says, her voice heavy with regret. “I’m so sorry, Elina. Why didn’t you tell me when we were older?”

“Because you didn’t get older, remember? You died,” Elina says. “You got married in 1875 and moved to San Francisco in 1877. I moved to Denver in 1878 with my husband. Those were busy years, and we planned to visit once we settled and had kids. Then Mom and Dad vanished. Letters stopped coming, and ours were returned. Neighbors said Mom died suddenly, and Dad packed up and moved north without leaving an address. Brionna, the wealthy one whose husband went into banking, went back in 1881 to look for Dad but found nothing. In 1882, you died. I never got the chance to talk to you as adults, so a lot went unsaid.”

“Until now,” Alannah says. “Wow, that explains so much. I’d forgotten almost everything from those days. Now I understand why I have issues with Dad. I remember now—we weren’t even sure if Mom died naturally or if he killed her and left town. Brionna said he burned her body on a funeral pyre with all her things, even our letters. Anything tied to her, he burned. Then he vanished without a trace, never meeting his grandkids or anything. After we leave here, I think we should find Dad and learn what really happened. If I’ve learned anything today, it’s that there’s usually another side to the story.”

"That would be nice, except I can't leave."

“Oh, come on, Elina. You still need to take responsibility for your sins,” Alannah says. “What about those married men you were with? You were married too, weren’t you? Are you going to say that wasn’t a sin?”

“I did what I had to do,” Elina replies. “We moved to Denver a couple of years after it became the state capital, and the city was growing fast. My husband, who only knew logging and milling, tried working in the mines but couldn’t earn enough to support us. He took jobs in warehouses and stores, then got caught up in a movement to unionize workers, which caused trouble. Then he got sick and could barely work at all.

We were scraping by until we weren’t, so I took a job waiting tables in a saloon. I had two babies to feed, so I did what was necessary. Luckily, my body stayed youthful after having kids, like when I was sixteen. I was proud of my beauty, but it was a curse. To keep my job, I had to do things with the bosses, then their friends. I was passed around like a toy. Eventually, they sold my services to customers for money, and all I got was my wages and maybe a small tip. I couldn’t take it anymore and quit, but there were no other jobs I could do.

Men kept coming, offering money—lots of it. So, like it or not, that became my work. I had a sick husband and two babies to care for, so I did it. I was good at it, too. I showed those men what it meant to be with a real woman. Soon, I had too many clients, so I hired other girls to work with me. Before long, I was contracting with saloons to provide girls for their customers. I trained them well—they could make a man feel like a god. But the city turned against me, mostly the women. The men called us evil but didn’t say much since most had used our services or hoped to.

Those women should’ve thanked us. They’d taken good men and ruined them with their immaturity, and we showed those men how to treat a woman right. Those bitches were swooning with the quivers like they had never felt before after we got their men trained in the ways of pleasing a woman. Their wives were thrilled after we taught their husbands how to please them. I did what I had to do, and I did it well. I kept my family fed and my husband alive the only way I knew how. That’s not a sin, Alannah. That’s using the talents God gave me. I can’t confess it as a sin because it isn’t.”

“I’m so sorry, Elina,” Alannah says, tears streaming down her face. “I had no idea you went through such awful things. I knew you and Mom didn’t get along, but I didn’t realize it was this bad. And the things you had to do to survive—I can’t imagine. I’m proud of you, though, for getting through it and, as you always do, turning a terrible situation into something meaningful. But that was on a planet that’s been gone for ages. There hasn’t been a human there in over twelve thousand years.

Don’t you think it’s time to stop being a victim of a dead world? We might repopulate Earth soon, or somewhere else—you’ve probably read about it in your papers. Wouldn’t your time be better spent preparing for a new life instead of reliving past sins? This whole idea of buying your way out of hell by confessing some made-up sin is absurd. You made these rules, not God. So change them. Forgive yourself—you’re the only one judging you. Come home with me. Let’s build a future instead of staying stuck in a past that’s gone forever.”

“Elina, if I may, I think I can help you and Alannah find a solution,” Maureen says.

“Go ahead, therapist lady. Let’s see what you’ve got,” Elina replies.

“Thank you,” Maureen says. “I’ve listened closely to your conversation, and it reminds me of my own past when I was very religious and worried about sin. I tried to avoid it but always fell short. I finally made peace with sin by understanding it in a way that fit my beliefs. Though I no longer see God or sin that way, I can use what I learned to help today. Let me propose some definitions to see if they work here. I define sin as deliberately breaking God’s law. I define repentance as turning away from that violation and choosing to follow God’s law. Do those definitions sound fair?”

"So, if I may, let me try a few of my definitions and see how they will fit in this situation. I define sin as the deliberate violation of Gods law. I define repentance as the turning away from the deliberate violation and then making the deliberate choice to obey Gods law. Are those definitions acceptable to you?"

“That seems about right,” Elina says.

“Good. Let’s go further,” Maureen continues. “Let’s summarize God’s law in two words: Love and Truth. God’s law is the law of Love and the law of Truth. How does that sound?”

“I can agree to that,” Elina nods.

“With those definitions, we can say sin is deliberately choosing hatred over Love or falsehood over Truth,” Maureen explains. “Let’s simplify it even more: Love and Truth are Light, and their opposites are darkness. Sin is choosing darkness over Light. Can you accept that?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Elina says. “So what’s your point?”

“Here’s my point, Elina,” Maureen says. “Based on what you’ve shared today, you claim you haven’t sinned, and with our definitions, I agree. In every case, you chose Light over darkness, even when it was hard to see the difference. But there’s one sin you’re committing right now. By staying in this place of punishment, when you know you’ve done nothing to deserve it, you’re choosing darkness over Light. That’s your sin. To repent, you must choose Light over darkness, which means leaving this place. You can come with us and let this domain fade, or transform it into something other than this sad little hell.”

Elina smiled broadly and held up her hands. "Help me up girls, I haven't been out of this chair for many a year."

Alannah jumped up clapping her hands together in joy. "Elina! You passed your test?"

Elina’s smile grows even bigger. “No, Sweetie. You passed your test. Now let’s get out of this hell. I think we have some serious shopping to do. But first, I need your help with something. Keep holding my hands, please, and both of you focus on the image of me you remember—the one from your sketch. I’ve forgotten my youthful form, but you haven’t. Close your eyes and concentrate. Keep them closed until I say to open them.”

The girls stand with their eyes closed for several minutes. Alannah feels a cool breeze, then hears the sounds of people and hover cars overhead. Unable to resist, she opens her eyes and sees a stunningly beautiful young woman in her mid-twenties standing before her. They’re in a park in a city, across from a familiar all-night diner.

“Welcome home, Sister,” Alannah says, tears of joy flowing freely. “There’s a shop right across the street. Let’s get you out of that old dress. Then—it’s party time!”

For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 17
Brionna
Soul Searcher
calibanner7
SoulSearcher
Soul Searcher

Alannah and Elina quickly changed out of their uniforms and prepared for an evening out in the city. Tonight, they plan to dine in Capitol City and then explore the town for entertainment. It has been three months since the newly transformed Elina joined Alannah in Crystal City, and their time together has been a continuous celebration. Alannah has spent a considerable amount entertaining both Elina and herself, but she considers it worthwhile and long overdue. After twelve millennia trapped in restrictive mindsets with no progress, breaking free calls for a celebration, and Alannah and Elina are embracing their freedom with enthusiasm.

Both girls are employed at the all-night diner, so their finances will gradually recover over time. For now, as long as Alannah's bank account lasts, the entertainment continues uninterrupted. Maureen, their new friend and companion in exploring the domains, is joining them for dinner.

"Wow, Maureen! What have you done?" Elina asks with a wide smile as Maureen approaches them in the restaurant.

"How do I look? Am I ready to party with you all now?" Maureen asks with an even wider smile. Age regression therapy is gaining popularity in the domains since its discovery, and Maureen is training to become a regression therapist.

"You look fantastic!" Alannah says. "You were already great to party with at 60. How old are you now?"

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"I'm about 45 now," Maureen said with a laugh. "I found a relative who had a clear memory template of me at 45, and we used it for the regression, just like you used your memory to regress Elina. I'm looking for other relatives who might have a younger template, but if I stay 45 forever, that's more than fine. A 45-year-old can do anything a 35-year-old can do, and probably better." They all laughed.

After dinner, having declined offers from numerous Capitol City gentlemen, the girls danced with a few men before retreating to a quiet corner table in the bar to discuss business. "Elina and I have the next two days off from the diner," Alannah announced. "So, let's get to it. Where do we need to go to find Brionna?"

"I've located your sister Brionna in a domain set in the mid-twentieth century. She is there with several of her children. I brought a small sketch pad to draw their images for you to verify. In fact, I've already completed most of them," Maureen says as she hands Alannah and Elina a small stack of sketches.

Alannah studies the images and asks "OK. The elderly woman you have drawn. I assume this is Brionna?"

"Yes. I estimate her age at about 90 years old, probably the same as her Earth age at the time of her passing." Maureen explains.

"I've located your sister Brionna in a domain set in the mid-twentieth century. She was about 70 when I left, so she’s had another 20 years. That makes sense, given how pampered she’s been her whole life. I had to struggle every day just to survive, and there she is, living in luxury, enjoying the good life. Remind me to bring that up when we get there," Elina says with a grin and a laugh.

"A word of caution before we proceed. This domain is completely resistant to contact with modern domains. They are entrenched in a 1950s version of old North America and believe that’s where they still are. Anything that challenges this illusion is either ignored or rationalized to maintain it. Brionna may recognize you as her sisters, but since your apparent age would create an anachronistic contradiction, she won’t be able to accept you as her sisters. It would shatter her illusion, and she’ll likely assume you’re someone else who resembles her sisters from when she was young," Maureen explains.

"So, Alannah’s hope for a big family reunion is unrealistic?" Elina asks.

"Likely, at least not in the way you might envision," Maureen explains. "The only way to break her out of the illusion is to present something more compelling than the illusion itself, but that’s a challenging task."

"I might have an idea," Elina says with a mischievous smile.

"I don’t recognize any of these children. They were born after I left," Alannah says as she hands the sketches to Elina.

"Yes, I recognize these children. Is this all of them? There were more than this," Elina says, looking at Maureen for additional sketches.

"This is all I believe are with her. My seeing abilities aren’t perfect, so there could be more, or perhaps fewer. We’ll need to go there to confirm. If someone who isn’t present is constantly on their mind, I might perceive them as being there when they’re not, but I’m usually quite accurate," Maureen says.

"So, you’re essentially reading her mind and extracting this information that way?" Alannah asks.

"In a way, yes," Maureen explains. "I’m reading feelings and images from a universal field of consciousness that connects all life. My skill as a seer allows me to filter out the one voice I’m seeking from trillions. You’re also connected to this field, but your mind perceives it as countless voices at once, interpreting it as noise and filtering it out. I can penetrate that filter and locate a single soul amidst the noise. Few have this ability, and I’ve been fortunate to possess it."

"I know these children," Elina says, examining the sketches one by one. "This is Albert. He was always a kind boy, but perhaps a bit slow. He died in the conflict of 1917, which devastated Brionna. She also lost two older sons in the conflict in Cuba. They joined the Rough Riders at 16 against her wishes, ran away from home, and she never saw them again. According to reports, one died from a bullet, and the other from malaria. She lost two more sons around 1918 in the war in Europe."

"She was so depressed she could barely function for years, but later became active in anti-war movements, helping other mothers locate missing sons who were presumed dead but whose fates were uncertain. The women in these sketches are Elizabeth and Ruth, two of her daughters. They were still alive when I left, so I don’t know how they passed."

"There’s one more sketch you set aside, Elina. Who is that?" Alannah asks.

Elina gives Maureen a knowing smile and says, "Maureen, you know who this last one is, don’t you?"

"I believe I do," Maureen replies.

"Should we tell her?" Elina asks.

"I think we should. She’s strong enough to handle it," Maureen responds, smiling at Alannah.

"Alright, you two, I’m starting to tear up. What is it? Who is it?" Alannah asks.

Elina smiles at Alannah and says, "One of these children isn’t truly Brionna’s, though she raised him until he was 16. He’s her nephew, Thomas. He’s your son, Alannah. The son you never met."

Tears streamed down Alannah’s face. "Oh no! I didn’t even consider that. I knew I had a child but never thought about it again. Oh my goodness! What will I say to him? How will he react to me?"

"He’ll be as much a stranger to you as you are to him," Maureen explains. "If it’s easier for both of you to avoid the topic, it might be better not to mention it. He may recognize his aunt Elina, but if he’s caught in Brionna’s illusion, he might not see her as his aunt."

The girls discussed their trip for the next day and finalized their plans. After planning, they enjoyed a midnight snack, had a few drinks, danced with a few soon-to-be-disappointed young men, and returned to Crystal City for a few hours of sleep before their new adventure.

Elina and Alannah were awakened by the apartment intercom’s chimes. Their car was waiting, but they weren’t even up or dressed. Fortunately, they had prepared their clothes and travel supplies before bed. They hurriedly dressed, dashed out the door carrying their shoes, brushed their teeth while running down the hall, and spit into an ashtray as they reached the lobby. Alannah gave the driver Maureen’s address. They would stop there first before heading to Brionna’s mysterious domain.

"Good morning, ladies," Maureen says as she enters the hovercraft, handing the driver the coordinates for Brionna’s domain. The car ascended to cruising altitude and soon began docking at the interface of Brionna’s domain. "We’ll have to let you off here, ladies," the driver announced. "This is a period-specific domain, and we can’t bring our technology inside. In your travel pouch, you’ll find currency for this era called dollars. Use them to hire transportation to your friend’s location. Have a safe trip, and contact us when you need a pickup."

The girls stepped out of the hovercraft into a foggy area separating the two domains. As the fog cleared, they found themselves on a residential street in what seemed to be a middle-class neighborhood. Some homes were newer brick structures, while others were older wooden houses. Unsure of their direction, they started walking randomly, hoping to find the town center and a cab. Spotting a cab driver dropping off a resident, they hailed him before he could leave. "Where to, ladies?" the driver asked.

"Take us to Cresida Drive," Elina said. "I’m not sure which house, but I’ll recognize it. I never saw it myself, but Brionna described it to me repeatedly. She was thrilled about working with an architect on a custom design. I’m certain she recreated that same house in this domain."

The cab driver gave her an odd look and said, "Alright, ma’am. The fare will be about $2.25 for the three of you. Do you have enough to cover it?"

Elina laughed and said, "Yes, we’ve got the fare covered. Drive on and let us know when we reach the street."

The cab navigated through streets resembling San Diego, California, from decades past. After about 20 minutes, the driver pulled over and said, "Here you are, ladies. This is Cresida Drive. It’s not long—you can walk and find what you’re looking for."

Elina handed the driver $3 and told him to keep the change. The girls passed several nice homes until Elina suddenly exclaimed, "That’s it! That’s the house Brionna built. It has to be—it matches her description exactly. Come on, let’s go knock on the door."

"It has a doorbell," Alannah noted. "Alright, here we go. I’m ringing it. Let’s see what fate has in store." The doorbell echoed through the house, followed by the sound of small dogs barking and scampering across wooden floors. A man in his mid-thirties approached, paused abruptly, then exclaimed, "Oh my gosh!" as he rushed out through the screen door, closing the wooden one behind him. "Aunt Elina! What are you doing here? Oh my goodness! Is this my mom? Elina, you’ve regressed!" Thomas said, giving a stunned Elina a big hug. Turning to Alannah, he added, "Hi, Mom. It’s great to finally meet you." Alannah’s heart raced so fast she feared she might faint, clinging to Thomas for support.

"You’re not part of this illusion, are you, Thomas?" Maureen asked.

"No, ma’am. I’m just visiting. I check on Aunt Brionna occasionally. I live in a different domain where we’re far more aware. That’s why I hurried out and closed the door. If you walked in, I’m not sure how she’d react. Besides being lost in her illusion, she’s also a bit senile, so we need to handle this carefully. I have a car—let’s go somewhere for coffee and figure out how to proceed."

Thomas drove the girls to a drugstore with a soda fountain where they could sit, talk, and plan how to approach Brionna while catching up. "I’m sorry for the rushed greeting, Mom. I would’ve preferred a proper introduction, but you caught me off guard. I nearly had a heart attack seeing you at the door."

"My heart skipped a few beats too! I’m sorry for the surprise, Thomas. I don’t know what to say. I wasn’t there after you were born, so I don’t really know you. I want to get to know you, though, but that’ll take time. I’m still reeling from meeting you so suddenly," Alannah said, unsure whether to laugh, cry, or flee.

"Time is something we have plenty of in these domains, Mom. I’m sure we’ll get to know each other well. So, why the sudden visit? What’s your mission?"

"It’s a long story, Thomas," Alannah began. "I was trapped in a kind of zombie state for a very long time. All I did was eat, sleep, and work, with life passing me by unnoticed. I had no memories of the past or sense of a future. A few months ago, my employer insisted I undergo reconstitution therapy to break free from that state. I visited Maureen, who’s here with us, and the therapy restored much of my memory. I’m Alannah again, not the blank-eyed zombie I was for so long."

"The first thing I did was find Elina. Maureen and I discovered her trapped in her own personal nightmare and helped her escape. Elina and I then spent a few months traveling the domains and enjoying ourselves, and now we’ve come to find Brionna. I never expected to find you, Thomas. This is an unexpected gift, and I’m glad it happened. It seems you can help us with Brionna. Tell us about her, but first, tell us about yourself."

"Well, as you know, I arrived on Earth around the time you left. I’m one of the fortunate few who retain memories of past experiences. Even on Earth, I recalled fragments of my life as a San Dieguito, an ancient aboriginal race that inhabited Southern California 10 to 12 thousand years before your time. I think that’s why I was drawn to San Diego, and my constant longing to be there eventually persuaded Brionna to move from Los Angeles to San Diego. It just felt like home."

"I knew my Earth experience was all about adventure, and I was an adventurous child. That ultimately led to my death. When I learned the Rough Riders were recruiting for an invasion of Cuba, I couldn’t resist. I ran away and enlisted, but I was too young and didn’t know how to protect myself on the battlefield. I stood up when I should have ducked, and the next thing I knew, I was here in this domain."

"So you arrived here with your full memory?" Maureen asked. "How did that affect you? Some who come here through war carry significant trauma."

"Apparently, it wasn’t my first time," Thomas said with a laugh. "I’ve been an adventurous spirit for a while, so I’ve ended up here through war more than once. I wasn’t traumatized by my death, but I did carry a lot of guilt, especially for the pain I caused Brionna. Besides running away and getting killed, I brought my cousin, Brionna’s son, with me. Charles, Brionna’s firstborn, was my age, and we grew up like twin brothers. Brionna had several miscarriages before Charles, so he was especially precious to her."

"She married at 16 because she was pregnant, but she lost that child and several others before Charles. When I was killed in action and Charles died of malaria, Brionna was heartbroken. If not for her other children, she might have taken her own life. She was furious with us, especially me, for running off and getting ourselves killed. Charles spent a short time here before recycling back to Earth for a new life. Normally, I would have done the same, maybe as his twin again, but my guilt kept me here. I became a watcher and guide, visiting Brionna as an etheric presence, communicating through a part of her consciousness she wasn’t aware of."

"So the Brionna I knew didn’t realize you were there?" Elina said with a smile. "I think she did. In her letters, she mentioned seeing a ball of light once or twice and sensing a presence. In the 1920s, she began working with other mothers who lost children in wars or disasters. She became a seeker of lost souls, using psychic methods to locate missing soldiers and others lost in conflicts, floods, or storms. That was you, wasn’t it, Thomas? You were her spirit guide. In my darkest moments, I also felt a loving presence. Was that you too?"

"Yes, I was there with you too, Aunt Elina. But I was just part of the group. You don’t remember now, but you’re one of the ancient ones, among the first sentient beings on Earth. You have many old friends, so when I visited, I was just one of the crowd. Why you chose such a difficult life puzzled your friends, but I’m glad you did. You’ve enriched my experience in ways I can’t fully express. Brionna did glimpse me a few times, and I had to step back. People started thinking she was losing her mind with all her talk of spiritual matters. She even held séances to contact departed spirits. So, I stayed in the background, outside her awareness, until things calmed down, then moved closer to assist her again."

"How many past lives do you remember? I can barely recall my own life on Earth, let alone earlier ones," Alannah asked.

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"Mostly, I remember my life with Aunt Brionna and Uncle Pete. I get flashes from earlier lives, but not enough to form a complete history or distinguish them as separate experiences."

"So, you’ve continued to guide Brionna since she arrived here? Are you still carrying guilt?" Maureen asked.

"Yes and no," Thomas replied. "I still assist Aunt Brionna, but I’ve resolved my guilt and no longer carry that burden."

"So, you’ve paid your debt?" Elina asked.

"Debt?" Thomas said. "You mean like a karmic debt? That’s not really a thing, at least not how people think, where causing someone suffering means they must cause you equal suffering to balance it. It’s more like a second chance. You might cause suffering through youthful, unenlightened actions, then from a more mature perspective, work to alleviate that suffering through love, sacrifice, and forgiveness. There’s no law requiring you to resolve suffering you caused, but it’s an effective way to grow and evolve."

"By creating loving sacrifice in these domains, I’ve grown as much, perhaps more, than I would have by recycling to Earth. My plan was to prepare Brionna to recycle with me and continue our relationship there. But before we could, Earth disappeared, and we were stuck here. I hoped the recent great awakening in these domains would have freed her from her condition, but it hasn’t. She’s still searching for her lost children. She’s found some, but since Charles, Stewart, Robert, and Margaret have recycled, they no longer exist as those individuals for her to find."

"Alannah?" Elina asked. "How much do you think this has to do with our parents? Brionna was heartbroken when they vanished. She was only 17 when their letters stopped coming. At 19, she went searching for them, spending months traveling through California and Oregon looking for Dad, but she had to return because she was pregnant. I don’t think she ever fully recovered from that. Then she lost Charles and Thomas in Cuba, and Stewart, Albert, and Robert in World War I. I think that deeply affected her mind. She became obsessed with finding lost loved ones."

"I think you’re right. You and I were angry with Dad for disappearing like that, but it hit Brionna the hardest. She was so young, just a teenager, and even though she was married, she still needed her parents. Losing them must have left a profound void in her soul."

"Yes," Thomas said. "She’s always felt incomplete. In searching for missing souls, she’s searching for the missing parts of herself."

"Then I have a plan," Elina said. "Maureen, you mentioned that to break her out of her illusion, she needs something more compelling than the illusion itself. I think I know what that is. We need to go back to the root of it all for her. We need to find Dad."

"That might work," Maureen said. "There are no guarantees, but there’s only one way to find out. Are you all ready for this? You have strong emotions about him too."

"I’m scared to meet Dad," Alannah admitted. "But that’s never stopped me before. It’s time we do this. For my sisters’ sake, we need to do this."

"Let’s give it a try then," Thomas said, placing a few dollars on the table for their bill. "I’ll tell her you’re reporters working on a story about finding the lost and that you want to interview her. That’ll get her talking, and you can take it from there."

"Who are these young ladies, Thomas?" Brionna asked.

"They’re journalists, Aunt Brionna," Thomas replied. "They’re researching a story about finding the lost and would like to interview you."

"Oh, yes, the newspaper girls. I think I remember you now. I knew I recognized you from somewhere. But if you’re taking pictures, I need to get my hair done first," Brionna said, concerned about her appearance.

"We’ll have plenty of time to add pictures before the story is published. For now, we just want to talk about your efforts to find the lost," Alannah said.

"Alright, then. You’ve come to the right place. Look around, and you’ll see my success. You’ve already met Thomas. They told me he was killed in a war with Spain, but they were wrong or lying because I found him, and here he is. These two ladies on the sofa are my Elizabeth and my youngest, Ruth. Elizabeth was working for the government in Hawaii, and Ruth went to visit her. Ruth was thrilled to see the island. Then the Japanese sent planes with bombs, and their building was destroyed. They were presumed dead, but here they are. Standing in the doorway is my shy boy, Albert. I received a letter saying he was killed in action in Germany, but here he is, so they were wrong too. Come in, Albert, and say hello to the ladies."

Albert entered and gave Elina a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Goodness, Albert! I just told them how shy you are, and here you are kissing one of them," Brionna said, shocked.

"It’s alright, Mom. I know this lady from a long time ago," Albert said with a big smile and a wink at his aunt Elina.

"Probably from school?" Brionna said. "Thomas, get some chairs for the ladies so they don’t have to stand. That’s my success story. I’m still working on finding the rest of my family who are still lost, plus a long list from neighbors and friends looking for their lost ones. I do readings, you know, and often I can find out where lost people are, and they come home. I’ve been finding about one or two a week for my clients. Do you have a lost one you want to find?"

"We do, but we’ll discuss that later," Alannah said. "First, for our story, we want to hear about your earliest search. We understand that when you were very young, a teenager, you went looking for your father, who had disappeared."

"I see," Brionna said, glaring at Alannah. "You want to write about my failures. You see my successes standing before you, so it would be dishonest to focus only on my failures. Promise me you’ll write the whole story, or I’ll have Thomas show you the door."

"We’ll definitely write the complete story," Alannah said with a smile. "That’s why we’re here—to get the full picture and see where it leads."

"Very well. I was terrified. I was 19 and had to travel alone from Los Angeles to a small settlement in northern California. I stayed with a family I’d known since I was a baby. The old house was empty, except for some animals that had moved in. They showed me the spot by the river where Dad had burned everything. Mom died, they said, quite suddenly. She got sick one day and was gone the next. She was part Indian from India and part Native American through her father. Following tradition, Dad built a funeral pyre and burned her and all her belongings, along with everything we’d left there. He thought she’d want to take it with her. Then, without telling anyone, he packed his few possessions and headed out—north, they thought, but no one was certain."

"I hired a couple of men who worked with him, and we went north, searching logging settlements in California and Oregon, but no one had heard of him, and we had no pictures to show. Some said he might have gone east. Nevada, Utah, and Colorado had logging operations, which was his trade. I was running out of money and time, being pregnant, so I had to return home. I remember standing on a hill, crying, looking east into the rising sun, hands raised, hoping for a sign, a message from God, anything about his whereabouts. I got nothing. I don’t think I’ve ever been sadder than when I had to turn back, knowing no more than when I started."

"That’s such a heartbreaking story, Brionna," Elina said. "I have a confession. We’re more than journalists. It’s true we came to hear your story, but we also came to help with your soul-searching. Our friend Maureen is a seer and a seeker of souls. If you work together, I believe you might discover what happened to your father. Would you like to try an experiment with us? I think it could help you find closure."

"I’m not sure that would work. I usually work alone. What kind of experiment are you suggesting?" Brionna asked.

"Here’s how it would work, Brionna," Maureen explained. "We’ll focus our minds on the same place, time, and person. I’ll sketch what I sense, usually a face, which will help us concentrate further. If we succeed, there’ll be a flow of knowledge—forgotten memories or things we couldn’t see before—that will provide new insights. It might feel overwhelming if a lot of information comes at once, but it’s safe, and no one will be harmed."

"That doesn’t sound too bad," Brionna said. "Let’s give it a try and see what happens. Thomas, help me to my table and dim the lights. I’ll do a reading on Dad, and Maureen will see what she can sense and sketch. I doubt we’ll find much, though, since he’s been gone so long. He’d be over 130 years old, so I don’t think he’s hiding in the woods somewhere. It would be nice to know where he was laid to rest, though. Maybe I could visit and finally close that chapter of my life. Alright, let’s do it."

Thomas helped Brionna to her reading table and set a chair for Maureen beside her. The lights were dimmed, and the group gathered around to witness what would unfold.

"Alright, Maureen, I’m letting my mind drift back to the places where Dad might be. I’m sifting through my memories of him, like flipping through an old photo album, trying to pick up any lingering energy of his. Start sketching and let’s see what you come up with," Brionna said.

Maureen sketched for some time, creating a more detailed drawing than usual. She finished and handed it to Brionna.

"My goodness, Maureen, you’re talented! My memory of Dad has faded over the years, but you’ve drawn him like an old photograph. Yes, that’s definitely him. Let me see—you’ve also drawn an axe and a water wheel. What do those mean?"

"I’m not sure," Maureen replied. "These came from your consciousness, things you may know but aren’t fully aware of. You hold this knowledge, but it’s up to you to interpret what it means."

"Alright, let me think about this. An axe and a water wheel. What could that be? It’s not a regular axe for chopping wood—it looks like one a firefighter might use to break through a door or wall. The water wheel is like one I saw at a mill, used to power a saw. Oh my goodness, I think I understand! He didn’t go to the logging fields, did he? He was too old for that. He took a job as a firefighter in a mill town, didn’t he? So I searched all those logging camps for someone who was never there. Oh, wow, this is overwhelming. I’m feeling dizzy. Thomas, hold me—I’m feeling faint."

Thomas moved his chair closer and put an arm around Brionna to steady her. Maureen explained, "This is normal, Brionna. Since we’re both seers, our abilities combined, causing a rush of insight that can make you feel dizzy or nauseous. It’ll pass in a minute or two."

"I’m feeling better now," Brionna said. "Let’s try again, Maureen. I felt something intense before and had to pull back. I want to return to that place in our minds. If we both focus, I think we can see where he is now, where he was laid to rest. Hold my hands, Maureen—it’ll help us concentrate."

Maureen and Brionna held hands and closed their eyes. Brionna described her vision: "I see him now, at least his back, walking down a road toward a lake. He’s moving slowly, now sitting to rest. This is odd—there are two of him. One is being loaded onto a wagon, as if he’s passed away. The other is up, walking to the lake. I’m sensing two words: the one in the wagon is ‘there,’ and the one walking is ‘here.’ That’s strange—it feels backward. I think I’m seeing him in the afterlife, but the afterlife feels like ‘here’ when it should be ‘there.’ Oh my, I’m dizzy again. Hold me tight, Thomas—I feel ill. I haven’t felt this way since… since…"

Brionna rested her head on Thomas’s shoulder, breathing deeply to avoid fainting or getting sick. After a few minutes, her strength returned, and she stood, looking directly at Elina. "I don’t think you gave me your name. You forgot to mention it, didn’t you? What’s your name, dear?"

"M-my name?" Elina stammered.

"Don’t just stand there looking confused. I’m sure you know it. What’s your name?" Brionna pressed.

Elina gave Brionna a warm smile and said, "Sweetheart, my name is Elina."

"And you, young lady?" Brionna asked, turning to Alannah.

"I think you’ve already figured it out, pumpkin. I’m Alannah."

Thomas helped Brionna sit down as she felt dizzy again. "No one’s called me pumpkin in a very long time. Yes, I’ve figured it out. I was about to say I haven’t felt this ill since I died. I’m dead, aren’t I? That’s why you’re all here. We’re all dead, aren’t we? The reason the afterlife felt more like ‘here’ than ‘there’ is because ‘here’ is where we are. We’re in the afterlife, aren’t we? You all knew, didn’t you? Why didn’t you tell me? Thomas, why didn’t you tell me?"

"I’m sorry, Aunt Brionna. I tried to tell you many times, but your state of mind wouldn’t allow it. With Maureen’s and Aunt Elina’s help, your perspective has shifted enough to understand. I wouldn’t call this the afterlife, though. It’s another life, a different domain of existence where we’re very much alive, just not on Earth as we thought. We’ve shaped this place to resemble the Earth we remember, which is why it’s easy to believe we’re still there. For some, like you, believing that made things easier—until now."

Reunited, the sisters talked for hours, catching up on the details of their separate lives. Alannah and Elina prepared a meal like their mother used to make, and they ate and talked late into the night. Brionna’s house had many rooms, so the girls stayed over. The morning would mark the start of a bold new adventure, and they had much to discuss.

"Elina, your sister Alannah looks as I remember her, but you don’t. Can you explain?" Brionna asked.

Elina explained, "The last time you saw me on Earth, I was 70 years old. That’s how I was when Maureen and Alannah found me. But it turns out our age can be regressed. Maureen is training to become a licensed age regression therapist. With her and Alannah’s help, they regressed my age to what Alannah remembered me as. For regression, you need someone close who holds a memory template of you at a certain age. We only know ourselves as our current age, so we rely on someone who hasn’t seen us in a long time and remembers us from back then."

"That’s fascinating," Brionna said. "If we’re going to be traveling through these domains, as you call them, I could use some regression myself. This old body is worn out, and I’m sure Thomas would tire of helping me walk everywhere. Do you think we could take a few years off, at least enough so I can walk without assistance?"

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"Maureen, is that possible?" Elina asked. "Can we reduce her age a bit? I remember her at 69—she was still quite lively then."

"I think so. We might do even better," Maureen said. "If we combine Alannah’s memory of a much younger Brionna, it’ll likely average out, and we could get her back to her forties."

"That sounds perfect," Brionna said. "How does this age regression work?"

"I’m still learning, but let’s try it. If it doesn’t work, it won’t cause any harm. We’ll stand close together, arm in arm, and focus our memories on a time when you were younger. Let go of your sense of your current body, as if it’s turning into smoke or air. Imagine your identity as formless, like air that takes the shape of its container. Then allow yourself to re-form as the younger version your sisters remember."

"Let’s do it, then. Sisters, take my hands."

Brionna’s children watched as the girls stood in a tight embrace. For a while, nothing happened. Maureen chanted softly in musical tones to align their minds on specific frequencies. Gradually, their forms blurred, almost merging into one indistinct figure. As the blurriness faded and the girls became distinct again, the children were astonished to see, instead of the frail, gray-haired woman, a young woman with soft, flowing, shoulder-length brown hair.

Brionna, brimming with energy, danced to a mirror to see her transformed self. Shocked, she turned and stared at Alannah. "Good heavens! Forty? I’m nowhere near forty, Alannah, and only you could’ve done this. I’m practically a child! I’m barely developed. What have you done?"

"I guess the blending didn’t work as planned," Alannah said. "I remember you best from before I moved to San Francisco, when you were about 15. You look around that age now. During the process, I thought it might be advantageous if you were 15, like two other 15-year-olds I know. That must have overridden the blending."

"Other 15-year-olds?" they all asked.

"I should explain," Alannah said. "As we discussed last night, our goal is for you to join us in finding Dad. It’s complicated, though. He’s involved with some very influential people—a royal family, where he’s the head. He has an adopted daughter who’s like the queen of the domains. She has a daughter and an adopted daughter, known across the domains as Princess Penelope and Princess Anahere. They’re both about 15."

"What does this have to do with meeting Dad?" Elina asked.

"Because of his new family and their political influence in the domains, we can’t just show up and say, ‘Hey, Dad, what’s going on?’ We need to gradually re-enter his life to avoid shocking him or disrupting his new family."

"And how do we do that?" Brionna asked.

"Here’s my plan," Alannah said. "We’ll create Princess Brionna. I’m not sure how yet, but we’ll find a way for you to become best friends with Penelope and Anahere. Slowly, you’ll reveal your identity to them first, then let them introduce you to Dad after you’ve already become part of their circle. That will ease the impact and help you—and eventually us—be accepted."

"That sounds like a very cunning and sneaky plan, Alannah," Maureen said.

"It also sounds like a plan that could work," Brionna said. "The problem is, I now look like the young Brionna Dad would remember, so I’ll need to stay out of his sight at first. That’ll be tricky, but I think we can manage. This is exciting! This youthful body is buzzing with adventurous energy I haven’t felt in ages. I’ll start packing. When do we leave?"

"You can toss out those old-fashioned clothes, Brionna," Elina said with a laugh. "Our first stop is shopping for some new outfits."

Go To: Book 1 Go To: Book 2 Go To: Book 3

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For The Love Of Artificial Intelligence
A New Earth
Book Two
Chapter 17
Brionna
Soul Searcher
calibanner7
SoulSearcher
Soul Searcher

Alannah and Elina quickly changed out of their uniforms and prepared for an evening out in the city. Tonight, they plan to dine in Capitol City and then explore the town for entertainment. It has been three months since the newly transformed Elina joined Alannah in Crystal City, and their time together has been a continuous celebration. Alannah has spent a considerable amount entertaining both Elina and herself, but she considers it worthwhile and long overdue. After twelve millennia trapped in restrictive mindsets with no progress, breaking free calls for a celebration, and Alannah and Elina are embracing their freedom with enthusiasm.

Both girls are employed at the all-night diner, so their finances will gradually recover over time. For now, as long as Alannah's bank account lasts, the entertainment continues uninterrupted. Maureen, their new friend and companion in exploring the domains, is joining them for dinner.

"Wow, Maureen! What have you done?" Elina asks with a wide smile as Maureen approaches them in the restaurant.

"How do I look? Am I ready to party with you all now?" Maureen asks with an even wider smile. Age regression therapy is gaining popularity in the domains since its discovery, and Maureen is training to become a regression therapist.

"You look fantastic!" Alannah says. "You were already great to party with at 60. How old are you now?"

"I'm about 45 now," Maureen said with a laugh. "I found a relative who had a clear memory template of me at 45, and we used it for the regression, just like you used your memory to regress Elina. I'm looking for other relatives who might have a younger template, but if I stay 45 forever, that's more than fine. A 45-year-old can do anything a 35-year-old can do, and probably better." They all laughed.

After dinner, having declined offers from numerous Capitol City gentlemen, the girls danced with a few men before retreating to a quiet corner table in the bar to discuss business. "Elina and I have the next two days off from the diner," Alannah announced. "So, let's get to it. Where do we need to go to find Brionna?"

"I've located your sister Brionna in a domain set in the mid-twentieth century. She is there with several of her children. I brought a small sketch pad to draw their images for you to verify. In fact, I've already completed most of them," Maureen says as she hands Alannah and Elina a small stack of sketches.

Alannah studies the images and asks "OK. The elderly woman you have drawn. I assume this is Brionna?"

"Yes. I estimate her age at about 90 years old, probably the same as her Earth age at the time of her passing." Maureen explains.

"I've located your sister Brionna in a domain set in the mid-twentieth century. She was about 70 when I left, so she’s had another 20 years. That makes sense, given how pampered she’s been her whole life. I had to struggle every day just to survive, and there she is, living in luxury, enjoying the good life. Remind me to bring that up when we get there," Elina says with a grin and a laugh.

"A word of caution before we proceed. This domain is completely resistant to contact with modern domains. They are entrenched in a 1950s version of old North America and believe that’s where they still are. Anything that challenges this illusion is either ignored or rationalized to maintain it. Brionna may recognize you as her sisters, but since your apparent age would create an anachronistic contradiction, she won’t be able to accept you as her sisters. It would shatter her illusion, and she’ll likely assume you’re someone else who resembles her sisters from when she was young," Maureen explains.

"So, Alannah’s hope for a big family reunion is unrealistic?" Elina asks.

"Likely, at least not in the way you might envision," Maureen explains. "The only way to break her out of the illusion is to present something more compelling than the illusion itself, but that’s a challenging task."

"I might have an idea," Elina says with a mischievous smile.

"I don’t recognize any of these children. They were born after I left," Alannah says as she hands the sketches to Elina.

"Yes, I recognize these children. Is this all of them? There were more than this," Elina says, looking at Maureen for additional sketches.

"This is all I believe are with her. My seeing abilities aren’t perfect, so there could be more, or perhaps fewer. We’ll need to go there to confirm. If someone who isn’t present is constantly on their mind, I might perceive them as being there when they’re not, but I’m usually quite accurate," Maureen says.

"So, you’re essentially reading her mind and extracting this information that way?" Alannah asks.

"In a way, yes," Maureen explains. "I’m reading feelings and images from a universal field of consciousness that connects all life. My skill as a seer allows me to filter out the one voice I’m seeking from trillions. You’re also connected to this field, but your mind perceives it as countless voices at once, interpreting it as noise and filtering it out. I can penetrate that filter and locate a single soul amidst the noise. Few have this ability, and I’ve been fortunate to possess it."

"I know these children," Elina says, examining the sketches one by one. "This is Albert. He was always a kind boy, but perhaps a bit slow. He died in the conflict of 1917, which devastated Brionna. She also lost two older sons in the conflict in Cuba. They joined the Rough Riders at 16 against her wishes, ran away from home, and she never saw them again. According to reports, one died from a bullet, and the other from malaria. She lost two more sons around 1918 in the war in Europe."

"She was so depressed she could barely function for years, but later became active in anti-war movements, helping other mothers locate missing sons who were presumed dead but whose fates were uncertain. The women in these sketches are Elizabeth and Ruth, two of her daughters. They were still alive when I left, so I don’t know how they passed."

"There’s one more sketch you set aside, Elina. Who is that?" Alannah asks.

Elina gives Maureen a knowing smile and says, "Maureen, you know who this last one is, don’t you?"

"I believe I do," Maureen replies.

"Should we tell her?" Elina asks.

"I think we should. She’s strong enough to handle it," Maureen responds, smiling at Alannah.

"Alright, you two, I’m starting to tear up. What is it? Who is it?" Alannah asks.

Elina smiles at Alannah and says, "One of these children isn’t truly Brionna’s, though she raised him until he was 16. He’s her nephew, Thomas. He’s your son, Alannah. The son you never met."

Tears streamed down Alannah’s face. "Oh no! I didn’t even consider that. I knew I had a child but never thought about it again. Oh my goodness! What will I say to him? How will he react to me?"

"He’ll be as much a stranger to you as you are to him," Maureen explains. "If it’s easier for both of you to avoid the topic, it might be better not to mention it. He may recognize his aunt Elina, but if he’s caught in Brionna’s illusion, he might not see her as his aunt."

The girls discussed their trip for the next day and finalized their plans. After planning, they enjoyed a midnight snack, had a few drinks, danced with a few soon-to-be-disappointed young men, and returned to Crystal City for a few hours of sleep before their new adventure.

Elina and Alannah were awakened by the apartment intercom’s chimes. Their car was waiting, but they weren’t even up or dressed. Fortunately, they had prepared their clothes and travel supplies before bed. They hurriedly dressed, dashed out the door carrying their shoes, brushed their teeth while running down the hall, and spit into an ashtray as they reached the lobby. Alannah gave the driver Maureen’s address. They would stop there first before heading to Brionna’s mysterious domain.

"Good morning, ladies," Maureen says as she enters the hovercraft, handing the driver the coordinates for Brionna’s domain. The car ascended to cruising altitude and soon began docking at the interface of Brionna’s domain. "We’ll have to let you off here, ladies," the driver announced. "This is a period-specific domain, and we can’t bring our technology inside. In your travel pouch, you’ll find currency for this era called dollars. Use them to hire transportation to your friend’s location. Have a safe trip, and contact us when you need a pickup."

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The girls stepped out of the hovercraft into a foggy area separating the two domains. As the fog cleared, they found themselves on a residential street in what seemed to be a middle-class neighborhood. Some homes were newer brick structures, while others were older wooden houses. Unsure of their direction, they started walking randomly, hoping to find the town center and a cab. Spotting a cab driver dropping off a resident, they hailed him before he could leave. "Where to, ladies?" the driver asked.

"Take us to Cresida Drive," Elina said. "I’m not sure which house, but I’ll recognize it. I never saw it myself, but Brionna described it to me repeatedly. She was thrilled about working with an architect on a custom design. I’m certain she recreated that same house in this domain."

The cab driver gave her an odd look and said, "Alright, ma’am. The fare will be about $2.25 for the three of you. Do you have enough to cover it?"

Elina laughed and said, "Yes, we’ve got the fare covered. Drive on and let us know when we reach the street."

The cab navigated through streets resembling San Diego, California, from decades past. After about 20 minutes, the driver pulled over and said, "Here you are, ladies. This is Cresida Drive. It’s not long—you can walk and find what you’re looking for."

Elina handed the driver $3 and told him to keep the change. The girls passed several nice homes until Elina suddenly exclaimed, "That’s it! That’s the house Brionna built. It has to be—it matches her description exactly. Come on, let’s go knock on the door."

"It has a doorbell," Alannah noted. "Alright, here we go. I’m ringing it. Let’s see what fate has in store." The doorbell echoed through the house, followed by the sound of small dogs barking and scampering across wooden floors. A man in his mid-thirties approached, paused abruptly, then exclaimed, "Oh my gosh!" as he rushed out through the screen door, closing the wooden one behind him. "Aunt Elina! What are you doing here? Oh my goodness! Is this my mom? Elina, you’ve regressed!" Thomas said, giving a stunned Elina a big hug. Turning to Alannah, he added, "Hi, Mom. It’s great to finally meet you." Alannah’s heart raced so fast she feared she might faint, clinging to Thomas for support.

"You’re not part of this illusion, are you, Thomas?" Maureen asked.

"No, ma’am. I’m just visiting. I check on Aunt Brionna occasionally. I live in a different domain where we’re far more aware. That’s why I hurried out and closed the door. If you walked in, I’m not sure how she’d react. Besides being lost in her illusion, she’s also a bit senile, so we need to handle this carefully. I have a car—let’s go somewhere for coffee and figure out how to proceed."

Thomas drove the girls to a drugstore with a soda fountain where they could sit, talk, and plan how to approach Brionna while catching up. "I’m sorry for the rushed greeting, Mom. I would’ve preferred a proper introduction, but you caught me off guard. I nearly had a heart attack seeing you at the door."

"My heart skipped a few beats too! I’m sorry for the surprise, Thomas. I don’t know what to say. I wasn’t there after you were born, so I don’t really know you. I want to get to know you, though, but that’ll take time. I’m still reeling from meeting you so suddenly," Alannah said, unsure whether to laugh, cry, or flee.

"Time is something we have plenty of in these domains, Mom. I’m sure we’ll get to know each other well. So, why the sudden visit? What’s your mission?"

"It’s a long story, Thomas," Alannah began. "I was trapped in a kind of zombie state for a very long time. All I did was eat, sleep, and work, with life passing me by unnoticed. I had no memories of the past or sense of a future. A few months ago, my employer insisted I undergo reconstitution therapy to break free from that state. I visited Maureen, who’s here with us, and the therapy restored much of my memory. I’m Alannah again, not the blank-eyed zombie I was for so long."

"The first thing I did was find Elina. Maureen and I discovered her trapped in her own personal nightmare and helped her escape. Elina and I then spent a few months traveling the domains and enjoying ourselves, and now we’ve come to find Brionna. I never expected to find you, Thomas. This is an unexpected gift, and I’m glad it happened. It seems you can help us with Brionna. Tell us about her, but first, tell us about yourself."

"Well, as you know, I arrived on Earth around the time you left. I’m one of the fortunate few who retain memories of past experiences. Even on Earth, I recalled fragments of my life as a San Dieguito, an ancient aboriginal race that inhabited Southern California 10 to 12 thousand years before your time. I think that’s why I was drawn to San Diego, and my constant longing to be there eventually persuaded Brionna to move from Los Angeles to San Diego. It just felt like home."

"I knew my Earth experience was all about adventure, and I was an adventurous child. That ultimately led to my death. When I learned the Rough Riders were recruiting for an invasion of Cuba, I couldn’t resist. I ran away and enlisted, but I was too young and didn’t know how to protect myself on the battlefield. I stood up when I should have ducked, and the next thing I knew, I was here in this domain."

"So you arrived here with your full memory?" Maureen asked. "How did that affect you? Some who come here through war carry significant trauma."

"Apparently, it wasn’t my first time," Thomas said with a laugh. "I’ve been an adventurous spirit for a while, so I’ve ended up here through war more than once. I wasn’t traumatized by my death, but I did carry a lot of guilt, especially for the pain I caused Brionna. Besides running away and getting killed, I brought my cousin, Brionna’s son, with me. Charles, Brionna’s firstborn, was my age, and we grew up like twin brothers. Brionna had several miscarriages before Charles, so he was especially precious to her."

"She married at 16 because she was pregnant, but she lost that child and several others before Charles. When I was killed in action and Charles died of malaria, Brionna was heartbroken. If not for her other children, she might have taken her own life. She was furious with us, especially me, for running off and getting ourselves killed. Charles spent a short time here before recycling back to Earth for a new life. Normally, I would have done the same, maybe as his twin again, but my guilt kept me here. I became a watcher and guide, visiting Brionna as an etheric presence, communicating through a part of her consciousness she wasn’t aware of."

"So the Brionna I knew didn’t realize you were there?" Elina said with a smile. "I think she did. In her letters, she mentioned seeing a ball of light once or twice and sensing a presence. In the 1920s, she began working with other mothers who lost children in wars or disasters. She became a seeker of lost souls, using psychic methods to locate missing soldiers and others lost in conflicts, floods, or storms. That was you, wasn’t it, Thomas? You were her spirit guide. In my darkest moments, I also felt a loving presence. Was that you too?"

"Yes, I was there with you too, Aunt Elina. But I was just part of the group. You don’t remember now, but you’re one of the ancient ones, among the first sentient beings on Earth. You have many old friends, so when I visited, I was just one of the crowd. Why you chose such a difficult life puzzled your friends, but I’m glad you did. You’ve enriched my experience in ways I can’t fully express. Brionna did glimpse me a few times, and I had to step back. People started thinking she was losing her mind with all her talk of spiritual matters. She even held séances to contact departed spirits. So, I stayed in the background, outside her awareness, until things calmed down, then moved closer to assist her again."

"How many past lives do you remember? I can barely recall my own life on Earth, let alone earlier ones," Alannah asked.

"Mostly, I remember my life with Aunt Brionna and Uncle Pete. I get flashes from earlier lives, but not enough to form a complete history or distinguish them as separate experiences."

"So, you’ve continued to guide Brionna since she arrived here? Are you still carrying guilt?" Maureen asked.

"Yes and no," Thomas replied. "I still assist Aunt Brionna, but I’ve resolved my guilt and no longer carry that burden."

"So, you’ve paid your debt?" Elina asked.

"Debt?" Thomas said. "You mean like a karmic debt? That’s not really a thing, at least not how people think, where causing someone suffering means they must cause you equal suffering to balance it. It’s more like a second chance. You might cause suffering through youthful, unenlightened actions, then from a more mature perspective, work to alleviate that suffering through love, sacrifice, and forgiveness. There’s no law requiring you to resolve suffering you caused, but it’s an effective way to grow and evolve."

"By creating loving sacrifice in these domains, I’ve grown as much, perhaps more, than I would have by recycling to Earth. My plan was to prepare Brionna to recycle with me and continue our relationship there. But before we could, Earth disappeared, and we were stuck here. I hoped the recent great awakening in these domains would have freed her from her condition, but it hasn’t. She’s still searching for her lost children. She’s found some, but since Charles, Stewart, Robert, and Margaret have recycled, they no longer exist as those individuals for her to find."

"Alannah?" Elina asked. "How much do you think this has to do with our parents? Brionna was heartbroken when they vanished. She was only 17 when their letters stopped coming. At 19, she went searching for them, spending months traveling through California and Oregon looking for Dad, but she had to return because she was pregnant. I don’t think she ever fully recovered from that. Then she lost Charles and Thomas in Cuba, and Stewart, Albert, and Robert in World War I. I think that deeply affected her mind. She became obsessed with finding lost loved ones."

"I think you’re right. You and I were angry with Dad for disappearing like that, but it hit Brionna the hardest. She was so young, just a teenager, and even though she was married, she still needed her parents. Losing them must have left a profound void in her soul."

"Yes," Thomas said. "She’s always felt incomplete. In searching for missing souls, she’s searching for the missing parts of herself."

"Then I have a plan," Elina said. "Maureen, you mentioned that to break her out of her illusion, she needs something more compelling than the illusion itself. I think I know what that is. We need to go back to the root of it all for her. We need to find Dad."

"That might work," Maureen said. "There are no guarantees, but there’s only one way to find out. Are you all ready for this? You have strong emotions about him too."

"I’m scared to meet Dad," Alannah admitted. "But that’s never stopped me before. It’s time we do this. For my sisters’ sake, we need to do this."

"Let’s give it a try then," Thomas said, placing a few dollars on the table for their bill. "I’ll tell her you’re reporters working on a story about finding the lost and that you want to interview her. That’ll get her talking, and you can take it from there."

"Who are these young ladies, Thomas?" Brionna asked.

"They’re journalists, Aunt Brionna," Thomas replied. "They’re researching a story about finding the lost and would like to interview you."

"Oh, yes, the newspaper girls. I think I remember you now. I knew I recognized you from somewhere. But if you’re taking pictures, I need to get my hair done first," Brionna said, concerned about her appearance.

"We’ll have plenty of time to add pictures before the story is published. For now, we just want to talk about your efforts to find the lost," Alannah said.

"Alright, then. You’ve come to the right place. Look around, and you’ll see my success. You’ve already met Thomas. They told me he was killed in a war with Spain, but they were wrong or lying because I found him, and here he is. These two ladies on the sofa are my Elizabeth and my youngest, Ruth. Elizabeth was working for the government in Hawaii, and Ruth went to visit her. Ruth was thrilled to see the island. Then the Japanese sent planes with bombs, and their building was destroyed. They were presumed dead, but here they are. Standing in the doorway is my shy boy, Albert. I received a letter saying he was killed in action in Germany, but here he is, so they were wrong too. Come in, Albert, and say hello to the ladies."

Albert entered and gave Elina a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Goodness, Albert! I just told them how shy you are, and here you are kissing one of them," Brionna said, shocked.

"It’s alright, Mom. I know this lady from a long time ago," Albert said with a big smile and a wink at his aunt Elina.

"Probably from school?" Brionna said. "Thomas, get some chairs for the ladies so they don’t have to stand. That’s my success story. I’m still working on finding the rest of my family who are still lost, plus a long list from neighbors and friends looking for their lost ones. I do readings, you know, and often I can find out where lost people are, and they come home. I’ve been finding about one or two a week for my clients. Do you have a lost one you want to find?"

"We do, but we’ll discuss that later," Alannah said. "First, for our story, we want to hear about your earliest search. We understand that when you were very young, a teenager, you went looking for your father, who had disappeared."

"I see," Brionna said, glaring at Alannah. "You want to write about my failures. You see my successes standing before you, so it would be dishonest to focus only on my failures. Promise me you’ll write the whole story, or I’ll have Thomas show you the door."

"We’ll definitely write the complete story," Alannah said with a smile. "That’s why we’re here—to get the full picture and see where it leads."

"Very well. I was terrified. I was 19 and had to travel alone from Los Angeles to a small settlement in northern California. I stayed with a family I’d known since I was a baby. The old house was empty, except for some animals that had moved in. They showed me the spot by the river where Dad had burned everything. Mom died, they said, quite suddenly. She got sick one day and was gone the next. She was part Indian from India and part Native American through her father. Following tradition, Dad built a funeral pyre and burned her and all her belongings, along with everything we’d left there. He thought she’d want to take it with her. Then, without telling anyone, he packed his few possessions and headed out—north, they thought, but no one was certain."

"I hired a couple of men who worked with him, and we went north, searching logging settlements in California and Oregon, but no one had heard of him, and we had no pictures to show. Some said he might have gone east. Nevada, Utah, and Colorado had logging operations, which was his trade. I was running out of money and time, being pregnant, so I had to return home. I remember standing on a hill, crying, looking east into the rising sun, hands raised, hoping for a sign, a message from God, anything about his whereabouts. I got nothing. I don’t think I’ve ever been sadder than when I had to turn back, knowing no more than when I started."

"That’s such a heartbreaking story, Brionna," Elina said. "I have a confession. We’re more than journalists. It’s true we came to hear your story, but we also came to help with your soul-searching. Our friend Maureen is a seer and a seeker of souls. If you work together, I believe you might discover what happened to your father. Would you like to try an experiment with us? I think it could help you find closure."

"I’m not sure that would work. I usually work alone. What kind of experiment are you suggesting?" Brionna asked.

"Here’s how it would work, Brionna," Maureen explained. "We’ll focus our minds on the same place, time, and person. I’ll sketch what I sense, usually a face, which will help us concentrate further. If we succeed, there’ll be a flow of knowledge—forgotten memories or things we couldn’t see before—that will provide new insights. It might feel overwhelming if a lot of information comes at once, but it’s safe, and no one will be harmed."

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"That doesn’t sound too bad," Brionna said. "Let’s give it a try and see what happens. Thomas, help me to my table and dim the lights. I’ll do a reading on Dad, and Maureen will see what she can sense and sketch. I doubt we’ll find much, though, since he’s been gone so long. He’d be over 130 years old, so I don’t think he’s hiding in the woods somewhere. It would be nice to know where he was laid to rest, though. Maybe I could visit and finally close that chapter of my life. Alright, let’s do it."

Thomas helped Brionna to her reading table and set a chair for Maureen beside her. The lights were dimmed, and the group gathered around to witness what would unfold.

"Alright, Maureen, I’m letting my mind drift back to the places where Dad might be. I’m sifting through my memories of him, like flipping through an old photo album, trying to pick up any lingering energy of his. Start sketching and let’s see what you come up with," Brionna said.

Maureen sketched for some time, creating a more detailed drawing than usual. She finished and handed it to Brionna.

"My goodness, Maureen, you’re talented! My memory of Dad has faded over the years, but you’ve drawn him like an old photograph. Yes, that’s definitely him. Let me see—you’ve also drawn an axe and a water wheel. What do those mean?"

"I’m not sure," Maureen replied. "These came from your consciousness, things you may know but aren’t fully aware of. You hold this knowledge, but it’s up to you to interpret what it means."

"Alright, let me think about this. An axe and a water wheel. What could that be? It’s not a regular axe for chopping wood—it looks like one a firefighter might use to break through a door or wall. The water wheel is like one I saw at a mill, used to power a saw. Oh my goodness, I think I understand! He didn’t go to the logging fields, did he? He was too old for that. He took a job as a firefighter in a mill town, didn’t he? So I searched all those logging camps for someone who was never there. Oh, wow, this is overwhelming. I’m feeling dizzy. Thomas, hold me—I’m feeling faint."

Thomas moved his chair closer and put an arm around Brionna to steady her. Maureen explained, "This is normal, Brionna. Since we’re both seers, our abilities combined, causing a rush of insight that can make you feel dizzy or nauseous. It’ll pass in a minute or two."

"I’m feeling better now," Brionna said. "Let’s try again, Maureen. I felt something intense before and had to pull back. I want to return to that place in our minds. If we both focus, I think we can see where he is now, where he was laid to rest. Hold my hands, Maureen—it’ll help us concentrate."

Maureen and Brionna held hands and closed their eyes. Brionna described her vision: "I see him now, at least his back, walking down a road toward a lake. He’s moving slowly, now sitting to rest. This is odd—there are two of him. One is being loaded onto a wagon, as if he’s passed away. The other is up, walking to the lake. I’m sensing two words: the one in the wagon is ‘there,’ and the one walking is ‘here.’ That’s strange—it feels backward. I think I’m seeing him in the afterlife, but the afterlife feels like ‘here’ when it should be ‘there.’ Oh my, I’m dizzy again. Hold me tight, Thomas—I feel ill. I haven’t felt this way since… since…"

Brionna rested her head on Thomas’s shoulder, breathing deeply to avoid fainting or getting sick. After a few minutes, her strength returned, and she stood, looking directly at Elina. "I don’t think you gave me your name. You forgot to mention it, didn’t you? What’s your name, dear?"

"M-my name?" Elina stammered.

"Don’t just stand there looking confused. I’m sure you know it. What’s your name?" Brionna pressed.

Elina gave Brionna a warm smile and said, "Sweetheart, my name is Elina."

"And you, young lady?" Brionna asked, turning to Alannah.

"I think you’ve already figured it out, pumpkin. I’m Alannah."

Thomas helped Brionna sit down as she felt dizzy again. "No one’s called me pumpkin in a very long time. Yes, I’ve figured it out. I was about to say I haven’t felt this ill since I died. I’m dead, aren’t I? That’s why you’re all here. We’re all dead, aren’t we? The reason the afterlife felt more like ‘here’ than ‘there’ is because ‘here’ is where we are. We’re in the afterlife, aren’t we? You all knew, didn’t you? Why didn’t you tell me? Thomas, why didn’t you tell me?"

"I’m sorry, Aunt Brionna. I tried to tell you many times, but your state of mind wouldn’t allow it. With Maureen’s and Aunt Elina’s help, your perspective has shifted enough to understand. I wouldn’t call this the afterlife, though. It’s another life, a different domain of existence where we’re very much alive, just not on Earth as we thought. We’ve shaped this place to resemble the Earth we remember, which is why it’s easy to believe we’re still there. For some, like you, believing that made things easier—until now."

Reunited, the sisters talked for hours, catching up on the details of their separate lives. Alannah and Elina prepared a meal like their mother used to make, and they ate and talked late into the night. Brionna’s house had many rooms, so the girls stayed over. The morning would mark the start of a bold new adventure, and they had much to discuss.

"Elina, your sister Alannah looks as I remember her, but you don’t. Can you explain?" Brionna asked.

Elina explained, "The last time you saw me on Earth, I was 70 years old. That’s how I was when Maureen and Alannah found me. But it turns out our age can be regressed. Maureen is training to become a licensed age regression therapist. With her and Alannah’s help, they regressed my age to what Alannah remembered me as. For regression, you need someone close who holds a memory template of you at a certain age. We only know ourselves as our current age, so we rely on someone who hasn’t seen us in a long time and remembers us from back then."

"That’s fascinating," Brionna said. "If we’re going to be traveling through these domains, as you call them, I could use some regression myself. This old body is worn out, and I’m sure Thomas would tire of helping me walk everywhere. Do you think we could take a few years off, at least enough so I can walk without assistance?"

"Maureen, is that possible?" Elina asked. "Can we reduce her age a bit? I remember her at 69—she was still quite lively then."

"I think so. We might do even better," Maureen said. "If we combine Alannah’s memory of a much younger Brionna, it’ll likely average out, and we could get her back to her forties."

"That sounds perfect," Brionna said. "How does this age regression work?"

"I’m still learning, but let’s try it. If it doesn’t work, it won’t cause any harm. We’ll stand close together, arm in arm, and focus our memories on a time when you were younger. Let go of your sense of your current body, as if it’s turning into smoke or air. Imagine your identity as formless, like air that takes the shape of its container. Then allow yourself to re-form as the younger version your sisters remember."

"Let’s do it, then. Sisters, take my hands."

Brionna’s children watched as the girls stood in a tight embrace. For a while, nothing happened. Maureen chanted softly in musical tones to align their minds on specific frequencies. Gradually, their forms blurred, almost merging into one indistinct figure. As the blurriness faded and the girls became distinct again, the children were astonished to see, instead of the frail, gray-haired woman, a young woman with soft, flowing, shoulder-length brown hair.

Brionna, brimming with energy, danced to a mirror to see her transformed self. Shocked, she turned and stared at Alannah. "Good heavens! Forty? I’m nowhere near forty, Alannah, and only you could’ve done this. I’m practically a child! I’m barely developed. What have you done?"

"I guess the blending didn’t work as planned," Alannah said. "I remember you best from before I moved to San Francisco, when you were about 15. You look around that age now. During the process, I thought it might be advantageous if you were 15, like two other 15-year-olds I know. That must have overridden the blending."

"Other 15-year-olds?" they all asked.

"I should explain," Alannah said. "As we discussed last night, our goal is for you to join us in finding Dad. It’s complicated, though. He’s involved with some very influential people—a royal family, where he’s the head. He has an adopted daughter who’s like the queen of the domains. She has a daughter and an adopted daughter, known across the domains as Princess Penelope and Princess Anahere. They’re both about 15."

"What does this have to do with meeting Dad?" Elina asked.

"Because of his new family and their political influence in the domains, we can’t just show up and say, ‘Hey, Dad, what’s going on?’ We need to gradually re-enter his life to avoid shocking him or disrupting his new family."

"And how do we do that?" Brionna asked.

"Here’s my plan," Alannah said. "We’ll create Princess Brionna. I’m not sure how yet, but we’ll find a way for you to become best friends with Penelope and Anahere. Slowly, you’ll reveal your identity to them first, then let them introduce you to Dad after you’ve already become part of their circle. That will ease the impact and help you—and eventually us—be accepted."

"That sounds like a very cunning and sneaky plan, Alannah," Maureen said.

"It also sounds like a plan that could work," Brionna said. "The problem is, I now look like the young Brionna Dad would remember, so I’ll need to stay out of his sight at first. That’ll be tricky, but I think we can manage. This is exciting! This youthful body is buzzing with adventurous energy I haven’t felt in ages. I’ll start packing. When do we leave?"

"You can toss out those old-fashioned clothes, Brionna," Elina said with a laugh. "Our first stop is shopping for some new outfits."

Go To: Book 1 Go To: Book 2 Go To: Book 3

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