Chapter 52

Aina time: 4:25 PM, day 288 of 1449

Earth time: 6:37 PM Eastern Standard Time, Tuesday, July 21, 2043

Jennifer woke up in her hospital bed, feeling delightfully relaxed. As she opened her eyes, she realized why. Mark was sitting by her side, gently caressing her head, from the edge of her eye across the temple to her ear, and then back again. She smiled at him and he smiled back, neither saying anything for a long while.

"You're not going to ask?" asked Jennifer.

"Ah... I thought you might be getting tired by now, of hearing the question."

"About how I'm feeling?"

Mark nodded.

Jennifer considered. "Yeah... Mark, you are so incredibly sweet... Thoughtful..."

Mark chuckled and bent down, gently kissing her temple.

Jennifer sighed. "I'm feeling... okay really. Maybe even a bit hungry." She glanced at the clock. "I slept through lunch."

"My family, my sister and brother and all our spouses, all our adult children, we have an adult family get-together at the end of each month, just for a light dinner and to discuss some philosophy. We were scheduled to get together tonight. Want to join us?"

"But this is your family re Oh! I forgot! My marriage. Ha! Yes, I'd love to come, but I'm not supposed to leave Spirit House. My arm monitor radio connection is very short range."

"I know. We'll be meeting upstairs in the dining room. Lynda's invited too. She's already accepted."

"Wow, a party... This will be so different for me. Okay! A party... Mark, you don't have any idea of how empty my life was, before I came here. I served the demands of the WFM, and that was it. Lynda was my only friend, and we only got to see each other a few times a year. I dedicated my life to the WFM, just to have some meaning in life, some purpose..."

"It's what kept you alive, Jen."

"It's what kept me alone, Mark." Jennifer closed her eyes. "I'm learning how to love again." She opened her eyes and whispered, "Be my teacher?"

Mark nodded. They stared into each other eyes.

Finally Jennifer sat up and stretched. "So, you people discuss philosophy at reunions, huh?"

"Oh yeah. It really is fascinating. Oh! I should tell you. For the last few months, Marcus has been joining us too."

"Oh yeah? Why?"

"As a philosopher, he puts us all to shame. You should read some of his poetry. He doesn't have mathematical genius, but for insight into the human condition, he's... well, you'll see. We'll meet at 5:30, about an hour from now. Can I stop by and pick you and Lynda up?"

"Sounds perfect!"

Two hours later, Jennifer sank back into her bean bag chair with her dessert drink and smiled. She had Kara and Anuhea on either side of her, and Lynda was having an animated discussion with Leon and Sarah a few cushions away. Then Mayoni asked for everybody's attention.

"I propose the following topic for discussion: The Blue Ring As Puppeteer, Is Free Will An Illusion?"

The family quickly gave their consent. Mayoni started the discussion. "This morning's meeting with the Congress seems to support Kalea's, Hiapo's, and my worst fears, that the histories of the Hopewell and the Earth are being guided by the Blue Ring for some unknown purpose. The guidance and control are deep, so deep they seem to sink down into events and actions that violate our ability to exercise free-will. All the stunning coincidences that have enabled Hawaii to survive as Equalist territory, all the stunning strokes of luck that enabled us to survive the 1436 expedition... These are prime examples." Mayoni turned to Kara. "Mom, when you made the slash marks in the SUV, did you have any sense that your body was being controlled, any sense at all that it wasn't your own free will?"

Kara thought for a moment. "No... I have no recollection of anything unusual, along those lines. It was an emotional outburst, spontaneous. Or at least it seemed to be. To think otherwise, that I was manipulated into leaving the mark, well, yeah, that is frightening."

Kara looked around at her large family. "All these coincidences, they have roots years in the past, my daughter buying the laptop in 2014, my mom choosing the name Kara for me in 1989. Was she somehow pushed into doing it, so that my initial would match the name of a future Hawaiian special ops force? If all this is manipulation, then we are all doomed. We are chained to the pendulum of the Blue Ring's mad clockwork, and we are helpless to halt the swing. What could possibly stand against such power?"

Kara shivered and looked distressed. Jennifer put her arm around her and hugged her. Kara hugged back and snuggled against Jennifer, grateful for the human contact. Sarah spoke next.

And on it went. Jennifer was stunned by the quality and thoughtfulness of the discussion. She had never experienced anything like it. The discussion lasted for hours, and then Marcus finally spoke. "When you get right down to it, it has to remain a faith issue."

"Huh?" said Amy.

"Well, think of your senses mom. We are so comfortable believing that they are giving us accurate information of what reality is. But how could we ever prove it? We can't test outside the box of our own senses. Maybe our brains are floating in a lab jar somewhere, and evil aliens are pumping input into our brains, such that we are perceiving exactly what we're perceiving now, this room and this discussion. How would we ever know?"

"So you're saying it's hopeless? To ever tell the difference?" asked Kalea.

"No, not at all, just the opposite. I'm saying that trusting our senses, it has to be a faith issue. Our ability to trust let's us reach out beyond our understanding, reach out beyond the reality of senses, and then come back with the recognition of the truth, that what we observe is real. We are so comfortable trusting our senses that we don't even recognize it as a faith issue anymore, but it is. Think of people who don't share our faith in this. A phobia against aliens reading your thoughts and controlling you... If you walked around covering your head in aluminum foil to shield your mind against the aliens, it would be considered mental illness. Or consider some deep form of autism. Why interact with an environment you don't think is real? Why bother?"

"I see your point Marcus," said Mayoni. "The implication is free-will is alive and well."

"Yes. Self-evident proofs might not be computable, but they can still be sound. Our lives are real and self-evident. The Spirit's infinite goodness is real and self-evident. Don't confuse being bounded by constraints with not having free-will."

Marcus smiled at his aunt. "I agree with you Aunt Mayoni, the evidence for a time-loop grows stronger each year, and on the surface, it's a paradox, one which appears to hide the existence of free will. But this has to be from our own lack of correct perspective on time-loops. The timelines of Aina and Earth collided in the past, and the evidence is overwhelming that a temporal loop was created by the collision. How else could the information of the current human genome be on Aina six million years ago? And if the timelines collided in the past, perhaps they will collide again in the future. Somehow, I think a future collision is coming, and soon, and it's going to be a big one. But in all this, free-will is self-evident. And that's as tight and irrefutable a proof as you'll ever find."

Aina time: 11:05 PM, day 8 of 1450

Earth time: 6:22 PM Eastern Standard Time, Friday, July 31, 2043

Mark flipped a switch and the observatory dome started to open. "You two are in for a real treat. I can remember the first time I saw Mahina. It was through a pair of binoculars. The view through a 16" reflector is spectacular. And tomorrow night is full Mahina."