Chapter 10: Revelations

With Clancy's word still echoing I stepped back into 'The Meeting Place' to find a tented village had sprung up, the people were the men that I had left recovering following the spell when Gerald and the wizard had attacked.

A voice spoke to me, "Oh John, I tried to follow you but couldn't, that blasted portal wouldn't let me pass!" It was Margaret which explained why she wasn't with me while I was home.

A man dressed in a white uniform spoke up, "It's a failsafe part of the portals, if they're not working correctly then only corporeal bodies can pass, it's because the filters cannot process pure energy signals correctly. To be honest until we got the signal that you had arrived in one piece we had given up on your survival." He said

"I tried several times to enter that thing before it closed, but it was like hitting a brick wall!" Margaret complained.

I was puzzled, "But the portal converts the body into energy before it sends them on, how would a pure energy form confuse it?" I asked.

The man shook his head, "I don't know? It's just the way the makers designed it, I don't think they ever thought of transferring ghosts between worlds." He said just dismissing the question.

Just then the police Captain arrived, "Ah Ambassador, I see you have retrieved your party, did you have any problems?" He asked.

I glanced at Gerald who was still scratching his healed hand, "Not too many, but those I had were small." I said with a smile which made Brenda and Genius laugh and Brother Pieter turned to hide a smile.

The Captain could see the reaction but didn't understand what had caused it. "Err. Yes, well Ambassador I have a request for you from the Android world, would you mind going there as they have a special project that you may be interested in." He said handing me a piece of paper.

I looked at it and then at the shade of my wife, tears were in my eyes. "We'll go immediately!" I said.

Brenda and Genius came to me but I shook my head, "I want you two to rest, according to this note we'll only be gone a few days, if that! Then we're moving to our next destination." I said and I beckoned to Margaret and a rather surprised Gerald to follow me as the Chief led me to another portal. I found the activator and then the icon which was a stylised image of a man. I reached out to take the almost insubstantial form of Margaret's hand and stepped through the portal.

We arrived at an enclosed area Margaret turned to me, "Why did you bring Gerald? Wasn't he the reason for Brenda's disappearance?" She asked.

I nodded, "Yes, but I don't want to leave him with the others, he might have had followers there, it was the easiest of two options." I said. Gerald didn't say anything but just looked at his hand. I turned to him. "Now I want you to listen to me, if you foul up again I will return your hand back to the state it was in before! Do you understand me?" I asked him

He looked suddenly afraid and nodded, "Yes ... yes Lord John, please don't harm me again, I won't do anything against you and Brenda!" He said pulling his arm behind him. Now to be honest I didn't know how I would be able to reverse the healing, and I'm glad he didn't make me.

A delegation of people were waiting outside the area for us to emerge, I could see them and so I straighten up and led Margaret and Gerald out of the portal room, there was a Genius type which made Gerald stop in his tracks. "But she ... how did? ... I don't understand." He said confused.

"You have a lot to learn and much to unlearn!" the woman said to Gerald before she addressed me, "You are Lord John, and this is your wife Margaret." She said telling me more than asking me. "Please come with me, your other man requires a different treatment, one that we can give him; we've downloaded the details about him and will deal with him." She said.

Two men approached Gerald who stepped back in fear, I stopped them. "One moment, Gerald, for all his faults, was only affected by his life, there is good inside him, it only needs to be shown. I don't want him hurt." I said

The woman smiled, "We will not hurt him, he will be shown the truth behind what he's done, any harm will be when he realises what he's done, and we will help him through that." She said and her eyes showed that she meant what she said.

I made a decision, "Gerald, you will go with these people and listen to them, they will be in charge of you, like prison officers." I told him, "You're going to be imprisoned here until they think you are ready to return to your world." I said — acting now as a lord talking to his prisoner, it could have been worse, I might had passed a death sentence, at least this way he'd still be alive.

He looked at the two men and then back at me, "If you so decree my Lord." He said — he realised that he was being spared as well.

The woman nodded, "Good, now Lord John if you and Lady Margaret would follow me we have something of interest for you." She said turning to a building nearby.

I looked at Margaret who shrugged her insubstantial shoulders, "Well you wanted to come here." She said and began to follow the woman. I turned to look for Gerald but he and the two men had vanished. And so I went to the building.

Inside the building it reminded me of a hospital, the walls were a light cream colour, and the floor was made of grey tiles, I mentioned this to the woman who laughed, "We tried to get the other worlds to be as clean as we can," Then her face turned sad, "The problem is that we can't do this everywhere, and sometimes standards slip." She added.

I was thinking of the problems that my world was having with c-diff and other bugs, even with the aid of disinfectants and understood what she meant.

"But why did you ask John to bring me along?" Margaret asked slightly puzzled as I hadn't shown her the note that I'd been passed — I didn't want to build her hopes too much.

The woman looked at me and I shrugged, she looked at Margaret, "We have a procedure that is slightly risky, if you don't want to go through with it we would understand, but after what Lord John has been doing for all the worlds we thought it was worth the attempt." She said

"But what is it?" Margaret persisted.

The woman smiled, "We're almost there, you'll see." She said

We entered a room, it seemed large and was full of computer equipment, on one side was a large tube of liquid and in the tube surrounded by the liquid was a human body, it was a woman with long black hair that swirled around in the liquid, I nearly sat down on the floor, it was Margaret, but when she was about 30!

"Bu ... but that's ... that's..." Margaret was lost for words.

"It is a biological clone, grown from cells from your body." The woman said in a matter of fact voice, "We've improved the body slightly, removing the cause of your death, and improving your white blood cells to help fight diseases. The only problem is that the brain, although fully formed, is blank it needs information to be fed into it. That is where the risk is! We're not sure if the transfer would work." She added.

"But where did you get the cells from?" Margaret asked and this did puzzle me as well.

"I'm afraid we exhumed your body, it was the only way to get the correct cells, but we did bury you again." The woman explained as if this was normal to talk to a ghost like this.

Margaret turned to me, "John what should I do? Can't you tell me?" She asked.

I shook my head, "To be able to hold you again, to really kiss you again ... I would say do it, but I'm just being selfish about it. I'm sorry Mags; it's something that only you can decide." I said.

"You have to be aware that we're not sure what will actually happen, it could be that the copy is successful, but then what would happen to your spirit body? Would it still be here and be aware? Or will the process wipe your mind in there? It is possible that this won't work, and your mind could be wiped clean! It's something that you have to decide to do, we won't force you." The woman said.

"And Mags remember, in your spirit form you can do so much that you can't do in a real body, remember how you went to Genius a few days ago, you wouldn't be able to do that anymore." I said.

Margaret shook her head, "But I want to actually hold you as well, for me it wasn't just 'till death do us part' I wanted to stay with you and I still do!" She said forcefully and then turned to the woman. "I want to do this!" She said

The woman smiled, "Thank you, I'm glad you agreed." She said and then the room began filling with people, the noise of the machinery began to increase, the woman went to a chair which — to me — looked a bit like an electric chair with a skull cap on top of it. "If you will sit here please?" She said to Margaret.

Margaret looked at me, "See you soon John." She said and went to the chair, turning around and sitting in it.

The woman turned to me, "I have to ask you to leave for the process." She said.

I shook my head, "No, that's my wife there; I've got to be here for her!" I said.

The woman took my arm, "It may be too distressing for you, please Lord John, for her good and yours come with me." She said and forcefully — too forcefully as she pulled me out — she took me out of the room which was then sealed behind us.

"But I should be..." I began.

"The process can take many hours, once we transfer the mind the body has to relearn how to breathe correctly before the autonomous reactions establish themselves, it's not a simple thing to do." The woman said.

I frowned, "But you said you'd never done this before."

She shook her head, "We haven't, not for real that is. We've run several hundred simulations and have covered all the permutations ... but there are always the things we haven't catered for."

"So I should be there to..."

"To do what? You can't hold her hand! Just what could you do if something did go wrong? All the staff in there has been trained to do this and they are in constant touch with the monitoring computer. They will be doing everything for Lady Margaret. More than you can." The woman said bluntly, then her face softened, "But there is something you can learn while you're here." She said taking me into another room.

Again the room was full of computer equipment, but this time without the tubes, there was another electric chair in the middle of the room.

The woman led me to the chair, "This is an educator, at the moment you do not realise what is happening in the worlds, this will show you what had happened to create all this!" She sat me down in the seat and then adjusted the head piece so that it covered my head and eyes, screens came on inside the eyepieces showing me the room, when I moved my head the view changed, the woman was standing in front of me smiling, "This will totally immerse you in the history, don't worry nothing can happen to you." She said then she walked to a panel and pressed a switch...

I was in a large meeting room, seated next to me was a man I didn't know, and he turned to me. "Marcus what do you think is happening?" He asked me — although I didn't actually understand what he said I knew what the words meant.

"I don't know? I got the message just like you did!" I heard myself say, just then the room darkened and a dais rose in the middle of the room. Three people were standing there. I knew they were the foremost scientist of the land.

"Gentles, we have grave news!" The leader of the scientific group said his face grave.

A man to the left of me stood up, "So the rumours are true, the end of the world is coming?" he asked.

There was a general murmur of people talking at this and so the Leader, a man called Kobold, held up his hands to quieten the people. "I have to tell you that we have studied our sun for several rells — a rell is the same length as a year - and have discovered that a chemical reaction is taking place within its atmosphere, it is eating up the hydrogen that the star burns at a rate that means the sun would start to change within 200 rells, within 250 rells our planet would be consumed by the new configuration, but before then the world would be already burnt by the sun." He said

The room erupted into pandemonium, people were shouting questions at the group, the second person, a woman called Rotamana then spoke, "Gentles, please I assure you that our results are clear, as scientist you have been called to help plan the rescue of our world, I would also point out that others sun systems are also at risk, through planning our own rescue we could also help those worlds as well."

A man three places from me stood up, "Why should we concern ourselves with others! Our world is more important! We should concentrate on saving ourselves!" he said.

"Your opinion, Numan Distar, is well known, but it was due to your knowledge that you and your team were invited, we need all the scientists to help us with this." Kobold said from the dais.

"Then you hope in vain Kobold! I will work for the continuation of our people, but that is all. I have no wish for others to profit from our work, and neither should you!" Numan said and got to his feet, several others also rose and followed him out of the room.

The man beside me whispered into my ear, "That was better than expected, he might have stopped his people from working on the problem completely" He said and I nodded — although I had no idea what he meant.

Kobold got to his feet again, "Gentles are there any others who feel as our colleague Distar does? Is it not written in our code that all people deserve to be aided, if we can help these other worlds would it not be to our betterment that we do so?" there was a general wave of agreement and Kobold nodded, "Then from today we will work on this problem, what we need to do is to move our planet from its present position to another, yet to be determined. This is for the astronomers to find, one that can accept our planet without too much disturbance. Propulsion engineers we need some form of drive that will be able to move this planet in some form, also one that would be able to move other planets. Please Gentles although 200 rells seems a long time if we delay it could mean the death of us all!" And with those words the meeting finished and the view faded.

I was going to ask the woman some questions but then the view started again, I was in a small laboratory, I was writing an equation on a white board, "So you see Kobold, that although we can get engines large enough, none would be safe to use on our world, the effect would shake the whole world to pieces, what we would need to do is to enclose the world and then put the engines on the enclosure." I was saying.

"But that would mean creating a ship, one that was larger than the world could create! Are you sure that your equations are correct? Is there any chance that you've made a mistake?" He asked clutching at straws.

I shook my head, "I'm sorry Kobold, but I've been through the figures several times, I've even rented space on the Quarkstone system to check everything, it agrees with me." I said watching Kobold's face drop. "However there is some work by Professor Trulli which is promising. Maybe you should check on that."

"TRULLI! That charlatan is going on about relative sizes and being able to alter them, we don't need to change size just to be able to move the world to safety!" Kobold said scorn showing on his face.

"Just listen to him; he has some ideas that might help us." I begged him.

Kobold shook his head, "I don't know ... it all seems too farfetched, I mean what used would be the ability to reduce the size of anything?" Kobold said but he grudgingly agreed to meet with Professor Trulli.

Again the room darkened for a few seconds and then I was back in the grand meeting hall of the scientist. Kobold and his two associate were back on the dais, but this time a fourth person, who I somehow knew was Trulli, was with them. Kobold held up his hands to silence the group.

"Gentles, I have spent some time with Professor Trulli here with regards to his theories, many of which he has shown me, I think that this is the solution to our main problem. First of all let me allow Professor Trulli to explain what he's devised." He turned to the fourth man who stood up.

"Fellow colleagues of the scientific class. We have a major problem, one of size! So what is the obvious solution to this problem?" he asked in the manner of a school teacher to a class and one man stood up.

"Well we could shrink it down to fit!" he said amongst a gale of laughter.

But Trulli nodded, "Quite correct! If we shrunk the world down to allow it to fit inside a spaceship then we could ensure that the relative safety of the world would be assured."

"But professor how would we be able to do that? It would mean ... I don't know several years of computation by the Quarkstone system alone?" A man said from the audience.

Another man got to his feet. "We have made advances in the transporter array systems, we're now able to send people from one location to another, and so could that be used?"

Professor Trulli nodded, "It could be, if we could create a transporter that would move entire systems, and then use some sort of pattern buffer to reduce the sizes of the object being transported..." he turned to Kobold, "It could work!"

Kobold smiled, "Good, I want all effort to focus on the transport system, prove that reduction can be done successfully and without harm to the subject! Use the new androids to help you on this. We have something here that might be of benefit to us all! Gentles let's get on with this." And the scene went dark.

While I waited for the next part I considered what I was seeing, a meeting because of a dangerous situation at another world. A dissenting scientist called Distar, and the working out of miniaturisation for transportation — transportation ... transportal ... portals? — A way to move things from one point to another ... so the Portals moved me from one world to another as part of the working of these people while they tried to move their own planet. They must have installed them on the worlds I've been to just to test them? It was obvious now I thought of it.

The next scene started with Numan Distar, he was addressing the hall of scientist. "And I tell you that these people are doomed anyway, why even the youngest world they have only just discovered fire! What use are these people going to be to us - that's if you can call them people! We should concentrate on ourselves, not the possible people that could be! I urge you all Gentles to discount them from our calculations!" he said and sat down.

"And would you want us to be known as murderers? We have the chance to save these planets from the forthcoming death? For the chemical reaction is approaching their suns as well! If we leave them we are therefore causing their extinction! I for one do not want that on my mind all the time! I say that if we leave anyone behind then we deserve to die as well!" A man said from the audience.

Distar got to his feet again, "So you would condemn us along with these primitives! Let me remind you that we have evolved beyond their knowledge and so..."

"And so we should help them! It would prove to them that we are better than them and are willing to help them, we could even provide them with transporters to send them between their worlds to aid their trade." Another man said which started a new round of conversations, I could see Distar look disgusted with them and then he noticed that some of his own scientist were starting to agree with the general purpose.

"You fools, if I have anything to do with this I would make sure that your whole plan is wrecked!" he said only to find that his route out of the hall was blocked. A group of armed men were starting to surround him.

"Numan Distar? You are under arrest for treason, your bio-data has been found on the android creation system, this is against the state code for the harmonious continuation of the world. You will accompany us to the judicial area for sentencing" The guard in charge said.

"You may have stopped me, but I tell you this. When the worlds are in dire need, I will return to show you how you went wrong!" he said and then pushed his way to the exit.

The guard in charge drew his pistol and fired at Distar, the bolt made no difference, and then he adjusted the control on the gun and fired again. A hole appeared in Distar's back, from the hole sparks began to emit. As the guards approached the body it was obvious that he wasn't human, but an android. The guard touched his ear, "Control, Numan Distar is at large, the person here was a duplicate, he is to be found and arrested!" The man said and the rest of the team took the android body away.

The hubbub of the meeting faded away into darkness.

I was now confused, if Distar was an android then where had the real man gone to? And more importantly how is Brak Distar concerned with this? It seems that all this was doing was raising more questions than answers.

Before me a new scene was starting, I was in a viewing room; Kobold was speaking as a screen showed a planetary system. "Gentles this is the system of Turch Malic, the main planet is being used as test system. It is completely uninhabited. We've decided to take the whole system so as not to cause too much disturbance to the planet concerned."

A scientist raised his hand, "To what degree are we going to reduce the system?" He asked.

"We are aiming for a few microns for the whole system, as a test we have androids on the target planet they will record the process from the view of the planet." Kobold said.

"Why was this planet chosen?" Another person asked.

Kobold smiled, "The plants on the planet give off a spore that can induce hallucinations, they are processed and can then be used in medical procedures, and as such the planet may be of use to us." He said.

Unnoticed by anyone was an automatic countdown which reached 0. The planetary system was engulfed in the beam and appeared to contract down in size. "Collectors to position 2, Monitors? What's the signal like?" Kobold asked.

"Receiving data from androids, compensating for signal loss, all droids reporting a light display but nothing has changed for them." A voice reported.

On the screen the planetary system had vanished, "Collectors to position 1. Englobe and then store the system." Kobold said and soon we got the report back.

"System retrieved and has been stored on collector vessel, reports from androids on Turch Malic received. The planet hasn't altered; they can see no change in perspective, as far as they can tell the only effect was the light display! They still believe they are the correct size."

Everyone in the room began to show their appreciation to Kobold who nodded and held up his hand. "One more thing has to be done. We need the androids to create transportal units for the return home; we'll have to get the Quarkstone system to increase their size on arrival."

One scientist nodded, "You know when they establish their trade routes we're going to be working with a larger computer system to process the images, it will have to be as large as the planets themselves!"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to them, what design has been decided for Turch Malic?" Kobold asked.

"The design is a swamp to reflect the major planet's makeup; we have directed the androids to create the transportal activators to resemble trees. It's part of the routine to make the transportal areas inconspicuous." A voice replied but I didn't see who said it, then I realised it was me!

Kobold nodded, "Good, now how is the ship progressing?"

Another man got to his feet; he was the engineer in charge of the ship. "We have the core of the ship built; the control system has some interface units for emergencies installed. There is a space for the crew to remain in suspended animation until needed." He looked smug with this statement.

"And how is the emergency system going to be aware of the depth of the problem?" Another man asked.

The ship engineer shook his head, "At the moment we don't know, it's supposed to take an android of a particular design, one meant to be more human than android, we do not yet have the technology to create such a thing, it is hoped that during the first stages of the journey the android researchers would be able to construct it."

Kobold stood, "Gentles we have just 100 rells to complete the ship and to start on the journey ahead of us. We have to work harder. I've authorised the creation of androids to help with the building of the ship, this to include a transportation buffer as well as the engines, not to mention the holds for the planets that we will be taking." He looked up as a woman scientist got to her feet.

"We will need to have spare worlds to house the androids, in fact to supply them with their own world; a few of the target systems have planets that could be transformed to accept human life. It might also be useful for us to move to." She said

Kobold shook his head, "We have no plans to move from our own planet, the plan for us is to have our own star created without the problems of the chemical reactions that are now being seen on our own star. But your suggestion for the androids would help us as it would give them somewhere instead of borrowing from our own world." He said and then the view faded again.

I didn't like their attitude to the androids, it was as if they had relegated them to second citizen status, even though they were created beings the one's I had talked to, like Genius or Bran o'the forest, were so human in their reactions that I felt they were people in their own rights!

To relegate them like this was just as we treated the slaves back in the 18^th century, and look what happened after that! It's just history repeating itself.

I was starting to wonder what else I was going to see when the view brightened again, I was back in the viewing room and there was a general air of alarm.

"Well what has happened?" Kobold was demanding,

"Unknown sir, the fifth planet, the technological one, had an internal reaction to the process. It seems that the waves resonated within the crust; it just started to break to bits before we could stop it. The whole planet is destroyed, it's affected the other planets in the system as well, we're trying our best to contain the problem, we've had to stop any rescue action and have decided to spread the remains of the planet into a new orbit, the inner planets have been spaced out to compensate, but the fourth planet has lost most of its free water."

Kobold sat down shaking his head, "Is there any good news about this?" he asked.

"Well the third planet may be viable for habitation, there are animal life-forms noticed and some rudimentary sentient life, I suggest we establish a means to watch them, from the ground and also from the air, a large satellite could be used for a central base and an android group on the main land masses to help them." The person reporting suggested.

Kobold nodded, "Then do so! If we can salvage something from this fiasco then do it!" he decided. "That was the last system on the list; the suns have been checked and altered so that the chemical reaction is not present. The loss of life on the destroyed planet is regrettable and we need to find out why it happened? I would suggest that we start the engines on the ship, and plan the course. Gentles we need to get our people ready, once the ship is outside our system then the beam will shrink us down to storage size and place us in the command section."

Again the scene faded away. I had no time to think as the view brightened again, this time I was in a control room, a computer voice was speaking, "Error, error! Target system unstable, home planet disintegrating. Transporter systems active — retrieving refugees from home planet, transferring to viable planets in storage. 10% retrieved, 20% retrieved, 25% retrieved ... planet now gone 75% loss of life! But this project will continue." The control room staff turned to each other shock on their faces.

"So what do we do now?" One man asked,

"We carry on, our planet is gone, but our people remain alive, spread throughout the worlds we're carrying. It will be our duty to ensure their safety. The course has been decided and set, we will stay on duty until day 20 and then if all is well we will go into the hibernation system. All according to the plans that the scientist have devised." The captain said.

"You still think they should be saved, I would say our world is lost why don't we just leave these others." A man said angrily, I could not see his face from my perspectve.

The Captain shook his head, "you heard our own people have been transported to those worlds, and so if we destroy them then we kill our own people! No Brak that will not be done!"

The man Brak shook his head, "I think you are wrong." He pulled a gun but an android behind him grabbed hold of him.

"Brak, for your attempt on my life you will be placed into the hibernation unit, when we arrive at our destination you will be tried for this crime. I could have you spaced ... but you may be needed when we arrive. I'll see you then!" The Captain said.