Chapter 121 Angel’s wings

Friday 3rd September

Al and Joe stood in the main reception room at the Sandgate Beach Hotel. One hundred ex-patients from the Bodhiisha Temple Rehabilitation Unit were drinking and chatting around them.

Al looked at his watch. It was a seven-fifty in the evening. ‘We’re all due to go into dinner in twenty-five minutes, Joe, so I’ll just say a few words to the lads.’

Al walked to the stage area that spanned the room’s width at its far end and climbed three steps onto the platform. It seemed to him that the colours in the surrounding room had become unusually vivid and he had an unfamiliar feeling that he could not associate with any particular circumstance. He had briefly experienced both sensations on a couple of occasions in recent times. He felt well, however, so thought no more about it. He crossed to the centre of the stage and picked up a microphone from a stand. ‘Good evening everybody.’

The room slowly fell silent.

‘It’s wonderful to see so many of you here this evening for this historic weekend. When Joe and I planned this event, we knew it would coincide with Beth’s closest pass to Earth. At that time, we had no way of knowing that the comet would end up on a direct collision course with the Earth. We are assured, however, that the international action being taken will fragment it and avoid any risks to the planet.

‘The missiles that have been launched at the comet will reach their target in about five minutes from now. Although we’re told there won’t be much to see initially, we thought you might like to gather on the patio behind the hotel and witness the moment of impact.’

There was a murmur of assent from those present. Hotel staff opened the large doors that led onto the patio, and everyone filed out into the warm evening air.

There were loudspeakers on the patio that were connected to Al’s microphone. He continued to talk while everyone gazed at the comet in the clear, late-evening sky. It was no longer following the path of the sun but seemed to hang, unmoving, in the sky as the sun approached the horizon. ‘All of us share a history that brought us to the rehabilitation unit at Diss, and I, for one, recall my surprise at being asked to engage in the experimental trials that were being conducted there. It seemed that brain scans carried out as part of our PTSD assessments had revealed all of us to possess a particular neural structure in what they called the temporoparietal junctions of our brains. This made us particularly good subjects for those experiments.

‘As you now realise, those experiments will be reaching their operational conclusion shortly. On behalf of the MOD, our nation and the wider world, I would like to thank every one of you for volunteering to engage in this action.’

A puzzled expression appeared on the faces of many on the patio and this was accompanied by a murmur that ran through the group. Looks of confusion, however, rapidly transformed into expressions of understanding. A rationalisation for this change of perspective was quietly articulated by one participant to his neighbour. ‘Now Al comes to mention it, the experiments and the training are coming back to me. Somehow, I’d been thinking this was just a reunion of those of us who’d been at the unit, although I knew, of course, it was more than that.’

‘Me too,’ said his neighbour. ‘I guess the top-secret nature of it all was impressed upon us so much that the truth seems rather like a dream now, and our cover stories seem more like reality.’

‘I expect that’s it.’

Both men returned their attention to the sky.

The very bright light of the comet initially appeared no larger than Venus or Jupiter – a spec in the night sky. As they watched, however, the glow gradually increased in size. Its colour slowly changed from blue-white through all the colours of the visible spectrum to red. With each new colour, some part of the earlier spectrum remained. This finally produced a pattern in the sky resembling a swirling, disjointed rainbow.

The area of strangely coloured light continued to expand until it occupied around thirty degrees of horizontal and vertical arc. The shape of the patch changed with its growth until it finally stabilised.

All the Bodhiisha veterans experienced a feeling of uncertainty, as if waking from a strange dream. What was real and what was imagined in their own personal histories appeared very unclear for many moments. The pattern they were witnessing in the sky also made no sense at all.

Then, suddenly, everything made perfect sense.

Everyone had remained silent since the spectacle in the sky had begun. No one had noticed that other sounds – the breeze, the seagulls, and even traffic on the Esplanade – had ceased. The unnatural silence was finally broken by one of the veterans who were staring skywards. ‘It looks like an angel’s wings.’

Another voice then identified the crucial point about their new shared reality. Al shouted, ‘We must go!’

Several members of the hotel staff had been watching the group and the sky from inside the reception room. They continued to watch with curiosity, but no alarm, as, one by one, the men on the patio faded from existence – appearing to simply melt away.

When the patio was empty, the hotel staff calmly closed the large doors and then walked back into the reception room.

The hotel receptionist approached them from the opposite end of the room. ‘I’ve just had a telephone call from the organiser of this event,’ she said to her colleagues. ‘It doesn’t look like those guests will be coming for their reunion after all.’

Chapter 122 Changing trajectories

Friday 3rd September

Hal Bennett and Kathy Harris watched the progress of the missiles on a huge, wall-mounted screen at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This display was a digital simulation of the missile positions based on data provided by the missiles, satellites and ground-based observations.

They stood in silence as the traces of the missiles converged on the comet and then finally vanished on impact.

Another large monitor showed the view of the comet from the ground. This screen showed the blazing blue-white light of the body, which was now no more than three hundred thousand kilometres from Earth.

Around the world, millions of people were witnessing the same event. Zhang Wei was one of these as he sat at his desk in the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing, looking at the screen on the far wall of the room.

The awareness that had most recently seen the world through Zoe’s eyes, noted Zhang Wei’s anxious interest and then detected something else. It was a sudden, profound calm – a sense of relief.

In Folkestone, Max, Mike, Ben and Sue experienced the same feeling.

Hal and Kathy stared at the large monitor and watched in disbelief as the coloured patterns formed in the sky.

Hal quickly sat down at a desk and typed on a keyboard. ‘This isn’t possible. It can’t be real.’ He looked up at Kathy. ‘I’ve requested a correlated analysis of the effects of the missile impacts from space telescope data.’

It took two minutes for the computer to provide a graphic response to his request. ‘The comet has fragmented into one hundred and two segments,’ said Hal. ‘Gravity should draw them back together, but that’s not happening at the moment.’ He paused as new data appeared on his screen. ‘The fragments are moving apart. None are on a collision course with the Earth.’

Chapter 123 Another end

Saturday 4th September

Al experienced no fear as his awareness moved rapidly through space. Clear recollections formed of his lives on Earth within the different worldlines that he had inhabited during his last incarnation and also during many previous incarnations.

He recalled the reality in which he had been married to Jenny, had been resident at a therapeutic unit in Diss and had been invited to a reunion in Folkestone by Ollie Fenchurch.

He recalled the reality in which the Diss unit had really been a covert research station, investigating the weaponisation of sub-ego imperatives and transmigrations using a system called Starchild.

He recalled the reality in which Starchild had been specifically focused on non-military purposes with a view to deflecting asteroids by enhancing the panpsychic awareness inherent in matter. Ollie Fenchurch had not featured on that worldline. It had been Al and Jo who had arranged for the troops to mass in Folkestone to implement the defence against the approaching comet.

There were many other narratives he could remember – some within the same timeframe as those he had just recalled and many from deeper into the past.

For the moment, it seemed natural for him to be the conscious awareness inhabiting what he would have considered during incarnations as inanimate matter. He was willing the motion of a comet fragment through space – slowing it and turning it until it would be retained in an orbit by the gravity of the Earth. His awareness noted the other comet fragments on a similar path, with gravity inexorably drawing them together.

It all made sense now. It all made sense, full stop. The world of form was an illusion. It arose in consciousness so that the Universal Consciousness could explore itself. The localised awareness of Al Smith had been part of that, but was also all of it.

Al’s awareness was not just at one with the Universe – it was the Universe.

Chapter 124 A new satellite

Friday 3rd September

Hal and Kathy continued to watch the display as the fragments of the comet progressed through space.

‘Starchild has worked,’ Hal repeated on several occasions. ‘All the fragments of the comet have changed direction and gone into stable orbits. It’s as if they were guided spacecraft.’

‘Of course,’ said Kathy as she wondered why the classified programme to deflect asteroids had not occurred to her previously as a cause for the recent anomalies. ‘Starchild may also be responsible for the changes in the fundamental constants that CERN reported.’

‘It’s as if the whole Universe’s been reconfigured like props on a theatre stage.’ Hal suddenly stopped and stared at his screen. ‘Those comet fragments are being drawn back together by gravity.’ He typed on his keyboard once again. ‘I’ve asked for future projections.’ Further graphics appeared on his screen. ‘It looks as if the comet fragments are going to recombine and then become a second permanent satellite of the Earth.’

‘What did you mean when you talked about Starchild just now?’ asked Kathy.

‘I don’t remember saying anything about a starchild.’

Kathy turned again towards the monitor as all recollection of Starchild faded from her mind.’

Chapter 125 Another beginning

Saturday 2nd October

It was surprisingly warm for an October evening in Northumberland. Sue and Ben sat on a rock outcrop on the north coast of Lindisfarne Island, looking out upon Sandham Bay.

‘The last two months have been unreal,’ said Sue, ‘in every sense I could possibly mean that. I’m still trying to get my head around what’s happened. We did actually get married here on Lindisfarne, didn’t we?’

Ben laughed. ‘We’ve got a certificate to prove that.’ He paused. ‘The strangest thing has been our recollections of multiple worldlines since we both dreamed about being with Sam at the Kongōbu-ji Temple.’

Sue nodded. ‘Yes. It’s clear that other people’s memories of previous worldliness have faded away when those memories have become inconsistent with the current reality.’

‘Our contact with Sam seems to have left us with the ability to retain the whole story,’ agreed Ben, ‘although I’ve carefully recorded everything – just in case.’

‘Many people must have experienced those weird, disjointed changes in the world on the few days before Beth’s arrival,’ said Sue, ‘but I guess most put them down to dreams or imaginings, and soon they were forgotten. Anyone who suggested the Mandela effect was disregarded as a weirdo.’

‘Things seem to have stabilised now,’ Ben noted. ‘The current collective narrative is that Beth had been on a collision course with Earth, but that a multi-national effort involving ICBMs from various nations deflected the comet and put it into orbit around the Earth. It’s also widely believed that the realisation of how close we came to the end brought nations together – not exactly in harmony, but with a lesser focus on selfish self-interest.’

‘It wasn’t quite like that, was it?’ said Sue. ‘We know that a specific group of people was responsible for what happened, although most of those don’t exist on our current worldline. Sam Martin, Sahadeva Varma, Peter Rogers, George Mackenzie and Max Paterson were never here, and the Bodhiisha Temple and the rehabilitation unit were never built in this world. I’m guessing that Starchild doesn’t exist here either – maybe even can’t exist in this reality.

‘Luckily, I was a psychiatrist at Lakenheath Military Hospital, and you were commissioned to undertake a clinical audit of the therapeutic use of psychoactive substances. If those events hadn’t appeared on this worldline, we wouldn’t be together now.’

Ben looked at Sue. ‘I’ve been thinking about all that. We were as close to the action as any of the others. Why are we still here and they’re not?’

‘Do you have a theory?’

‘I’ve been asking myself where all the people and objects disappeared to that were phased-out by this present reality? I’ve been imagining that maybe they’re all still around somewhere, occupying the same space as we do but unable to interact with us.’ Ben gestured over his shoulder towards the old barn they had purchased together just two days previously. ‘Maybe Sam’s standing in front of that barn, having recently refurbished it. Maybe she’s planning to run courses with Sahadeva – right here, right now, but somehow out of phase with us. They might still exist in another self-consistent reality, but one that’s incompatible with ours.’

‘Who knows,’ said Sue. ‘But I’m glad we’re both together on this side of that opaque screen.’ She laughed. ‘We’ll explore the remainder of reality when the barn’s restored and we open our retreat centre.’

‘Zhang Wei said he wants to join us for the first course,’ Ben recalled.

‘Remind me again of how he made contact with you on this worldline. It’s odd, considering we never met Zoe.’

‘Like us, Zhang Wei was able to maintain recall of multiple worldlines. He remembered Sam’s mention of us even though we’d not met Zoe. He tried to track down all the others, but as we’ve just said, they’re not here. He finally found us, and his narrative matched ours. That’s certainly evidence that it all really happened.’

Sue nodded. ‘Whatever “really happened” might mean. Still, we and Zhang Wei can help each other to never forget the journeys our souls have taken.’

They continued to sit in silence in the fading light, staring out to sea.

Suddenly, both Ben and Sue noticed a green, luminous wisp of mist rise from the water and drift to a spot about a metre in front of them. As they watched the patch of green light hovering before them, they both felt an overwhelming tiredness – as if they were on the point of falling asleep. Swirling, unfocussed images arose in their minds and mixed with impressions of the surrounding landscape such that it was impossible to discern what was real and what was imagined. Neither was able to physically move.

Sam stood there on the grass in front of them – close enough to touch had their limbs not been restrained by the sleep-like paralysis.

Two figures stood behind Sam. One they recognised as Sahadeva Varma. Neither Ben nor Sue recalled the other apparition, although both somehow knew it was the form of Max Paterson as he had appeared before his transmigration to the body-form of George Mackenzie.

Sam smiled and stretched out her arms towards Sue and Ben. They could each feel her hand on a shoulder. ‘Hello, Sue. Hello, Ben. We wish you both well. It’s now for you and Zhang Wei to progress The Final Awakening. Remember, however, that Sahadeva, Max and I will always be with you.’

In an instant, Ben and Sue had again become fully alert and had regained control of their bodies once more. They both looked urgently around them, but the vision was gone.

‘What just happened?’ Ben breathlessly asked Sue.

Sue was silent for many moments. ‘I saw Sam, Sahadeva and Max,’ she slowly replied, her trembling voice reflecting her state of shock. ‘Sam put a hand on your shoulder and mine. She said that we and Zhang Wei were to progress The Final Awakening, and she asked us to remember that Sam, Sahadeva and Max would always be with us.’

Ben breathed a sigh of relief and then looked again out to sea. It was a long time before he spoke once more. ‘For a moment, I feared I’d simply had a hallucination triggered by wishful thinking.’

‘You hadn’t,’ concluded Sue, reaching towards Ben and taking hold of his hand, ‘and I think a new chapter’s about to begin.’

End