Soulwaves : A Future History Part #2

This is the second part of my channelled future history of our planet Earth and humankind. Our hero awakens and begins to get the first sense of his mission on the planet. He has no idea though of why he really incarnated and the enormity of the path ahead of him. Put an hour aside and treat yourself to a wild ride for your imagination. Note that it makes more sense to have listened to Part #1 first.

Transcript

Gravity is love.

It comes from above.

We control its flow by connecting to what's below.

Centred by the heart for grounding to start,

Lessen the bond to fly beyond.

The keys lie in daily meditation to bilocation and levitation.

Sacral and root under conscious control for all kinds of magic to unfold.

Chapter 11.

Epoch 1.

There was a time when the counsellors of the light sat in both the density and the void.

Only they knew of this time,

Although time itself had not really got ticking.

Neither was the density that dense.

It was a period when rocky planets were first coalescing around third generation stars.

They were far too hot for any organic light to get a foothold.

This was a time of audit.

The counsellors were assessing which were the best planets to use in each galaxy to start life.

If you were around at that time,

You may have seen the odd single,

Pair or groups of shimmering egg-shaped objects floating around the surface of various molten worlds.

As there was no time per se,

They appeared on many worlds at the same time.

As there were trillions of stars to assess in all the billions of galaxies,

It was a fulsome task.

In each galaxy,

The stars with the most potential planets within the Goldilocks zone were singled out.

This meant multiple experiments could be carried out,

Should the first attempts at seeding life prove abortive.

In one galaxy,

A star with four inner rocky planets stood out.

It was about 27,

000 light years out from the centre of an average looking galaxy.

This system would be the first.

Chapter 12.

Chaperoned.

2075.

34 years left.

For the remainder of his degree course,

Shen had two projects on the go.

The first was to sleep with as many females as possible,

As well as dabbling with a male or three.

Two of the males were on purpose to see what it was like,

And one encounter with a wily transvestite was accidental.

The second project involved learning as much as he could about big data,

And how it could be used to shed light on the smallest of details.

Shen's initial hunch with the missing whales was that they were ultra-sensitive and susceptible to solar flares,

Or more probably coronal mass ejections.

These tended to peak at sunspot maxima.

He suspected that they were somehow picking up spikes through the magnetic field lines rather than through the atmosphere.

As they would float to the bottom of the ocean when they died,

They left little evidence of their demise.

Shen disagreed and was fearless in refuting Cheng's theories.

Cheng loved having a student who would challenge him,

So he tasked Shen with looking at a wider dataset in his second year.

By expanding the search across other whale populations and also to see if dolphins were similarly affected.

Data sharing across all universities globally was common,

And Shen took little time to discover it was indeed a global phenomenon for all species of whales.

Dolphin numbers seemed to vary too,

But to a completely different and random pattern.

The weirdest patterns seemed to come from the river dolphin populations of the Yangtze and Amazon,

Where whole pods would appear for a few years and then be followed by reports that they'd been driven to extinction.

When big data does eventually reveal its pattern,

It often pays dividends not to over-analyze it or to look at it from a different angle,

But to look at wider and wider datasets.

Cheng surprised Shen at the end of his second year when Madame Bien made an appearance in his office.

I've been asked to set up a new project,

Shen,

Cheng said,

So you will be reporting to Madame Bien again.

Shen protested,

But with respect,

What does she know about big data?

The unflappable Madame Bien cut in.

You're right,

I know nothing about big data,

Shen,

But everything about how to give you access to what you want.

Yes,

Chimed in Cheng,

Madame Bien can open doors for you that even I don't know exist.

None of them knew,

Including Madame Bien herself,

That she was the illegitimate daughter of President Miang.

Cheng continued,

You know more about big data than most of the tutors here,

So in your final year,

I want you to just focus on project work.

So what's my new project,

Asked Shen.

Fundamentally,

It's still the same challenge of finding out why statistician numbers vary,

But I want you to look for causes other than solar activity,

Said Cheng.

We want to know what other cosmic phenomena might be affecting life on earth.

We should be paying some visits to the Purple Mountain Observatory,

Said Madame Bien,

And we'll meet again in a year's time for you to report back on what you found,

Said Cheng.

Dig around for major and minor extinction events.

Shen acquiesced as he was developing a passion for traveling and seducing,

But was a little daunted by the thought he might have Madame Bien in tow as a chaperone.

Chapter 13,

The Ways of the Wu.

2075,

34 years left.

Before Shen started on his final year,

He'd promised his parents he would come back during the summer recess.

He also wanted to find out if the rumors about the ladies from Fragrant Gardens were true.

He was quite surprised at how much he'd missed the gardens,

The view of the city,

And most of all Huey and Gia's company.

He had last seen them two years ago when he left as a boy,

And they were both impressed at the confident yet humble man who returned.

He's just like you,

Mouthed Gia over his shoulder at Huey.

Over a sumptuous lunch,

Shen shared the details of his projects,

But not of his amorous adventures,

Certainly not his dalliance with Monique.

He of course had no idea his mother knew he was no longer a virgin.

So I have access to the most advanced visualization software available.

I've got AI bots crawling through the data day and night,

But there's just no pattern to extinction events,

Nothing to tie it all together,

Said Shen.

If you can't see the wood for the trees,

Why don't we model it in 3D,

Suggested Huey.

They spent the next few days creating two new 3D orreys.

The first showed the interactions between the outer planets and the asteroid belt,

And how planetary conjunctions and oppositions could kick asteroids out of the belt in both directions.

Shen had completely forgotten that he once wanted a whole and complete planet sitting there,

Until Huey reminded him.

Being able to speed up the orrey and go backwards and forwards in time,

Shen and Huey could see how easy it was for a large space rock to be lobbed right into the path of the Earth.

What didn't make sense was that their model produced hundreds more potential impactors than seemed to have hit.

The second,

A much more delicate orrey,

Holographically modeled the Oort cloud and the known sun-grazing comets that intersected with the Earth's orbital plane.

As the Oort cloud is roughly spherical,

Only a relatively small percentage of incomers would ever cross or intersect with the Earth's orbit.

What's more,

Jupiter and Saturn seem to mop quite a few up,

Making the inner solar system a rather benign place to hang out.

Even with these comet-reducing factors taken into account,

Their 3D orrey seemed to produce even less possible extinction events due to comets than the fossil records implied.

In the last week of their recess,

Shen had the brilliant idea of adding theoretical objects outside the cloud.

They could then see what sorts of esoteric bodies might have sent more comets than predicted on their inward spirals.

They tried everything from nearly stars like Jupiter,

Red dwarf stars,

Rogue planets with no home stars,

And even wandering black holes.

The models themselves didn't reveal anything concrete,

But were a lot of fun and did allow for Shen and Huey to spend some quality time together.

They both knew they were onto something,

But the answers were still in the noise of an overwhelming mountain of data with billions of permutations.

I'll keep playing after you go back,

Said Huey,

Knowing that Shen would be modelling the esoteric possibilities virtually and that his AI bots would probably find the answer before he did.

His son's visit had given him a new lease of life and some ideas for new models to sell that would keep him busy and solvent for the rest of his days.

Now that the Earth's atmosphere was increasingly clearing,

Huey also dusted off his telescope and started looking at the real cosmos for the first time since he was a teenager.

Following the worldwide bans on burning fossil fuels,

The Milky Way could be seen by the naked eye again.

Their father and son evenings spent looking at the stars made a lasting impact on both of them.

Jia and Huey had agreed to share time with Shen equally,

So orrery modelling occupied the mornings and Jia nabbed Shen for herself most afternoons.

As for the evenings,

They were hived off for Shen's gallivanting,

Or for stargazing with Huey sharing the occasional pint of banana beer.

When Shen had gone away,

Jia had not missed him as much as Huey because she could sense he was okay.

She knew he was on a mission,

But knew nothing of its nature.

Since he left for the academy,

She also had been very busy teaching the ways of the Wu to the more open-minded doctors,

Nurses and therapists.

On their first afternoon together,

Jia took Shen out for a walk in fragrant hills and began to tell him about the ways of the Wu,

The Chinese shamans and shamankas.

This was a subject Shen had never shown any interest in when he lived at home.

Shen learned that it was forbidden for a Wu to marry a Wu.

The progeny of two parents who are Wu would be too powerful for their own good and the good of those around them.

So dad's not a Wu,

Asked Shen.

No,

And he never will be,

Replied Jia.

I chose him exactly for that reason,

Even though he will tell you he chose me.

Huey would never know that their meeting was no accident.

And for the last one thousand years,

Wu have mainly been female and only one in a hundred were boys,

Said Jia.

So am I a Wu?

No,

Not yet,

Shen.

It was safer for you not to be.

And anyway,

We wanted you to learn about the density.

Shen wanted to know more about this,

But Jia spent the rest of the walk telling him as much as she could remember about her mother and grandmother,

Both of whom inexplicably disappeared overnight when she was only 12 years old.

She also told him about the work she was doing with non-Wu medical staff before it started to rain and they headed back home at a brisk pace.

That night,

Shen had the weirdest dreams.

He was wandering through a forest inhabited by creatures which were half-human,

Mixed with other animals such as a horse,

Pig,

Cow and eagle.

Sometimes the head and upper torso was human,

Other times it was the other way around.

It was one of those dreams that stayed with you the next day and Shen told Jia about it as they set out on another walk.

Jia didn't really give Shen any insight into the dream but just said,

That happens.

Since Jia knew how to imbue the neophyte with the touch,

She knew it was a breeze to now begin Shen's formal initiation.

He was half unexpressed Wu after all.

His dream told her it was time.

Chapter 14,

Smoke Trees,

2075,

34 years left.

Jia started his initiation by getting Shen to close his eyes.

She asked him to tune into the trees around them and to tell her about their nature and function.

It was the end of summer and the trees had taken on a red hue.

They would soon reach their autumnal splendour.

Shen noticed how the smells had changed in merely a few weeks.

They were more pungent and musty,

A sign that life was making way for death.

Knowing what he was thinking,

Jia said,

Come back in spring and the scent will be awash with new life.

Let's get to know the trees.

As they walked past different types of tree,

Jia got Shen to hug them with his eyes closed and to ask them what their purpose was.

After shaking off initial embarrassment,

Well known to a Wu as a blocking agent,

Shen quickly and accurately intuited that the pines and cypresses were the forest protectors and sentinels.

They sent out warnings to the shorter trees.

The persimmons also stood guard,

But unlike the pines,

They could look into future weather conditions and use their roots to inform the ground as to how to alter its chemistry for their optimal growth.

By the end of their walk,

Shen had correctly identified maples as being the calming agents.

They made the other trees more relaxed and imbued a sense of tranquility in humans,

As well as in other visiting animals.

At the end of the afternoon,

Shen got stumped.

He couldn't immediately figure out the role of the smoke trees.

They were hard to hug,

With their trunks made inaccessible by the hanging foliage.

It was time to call it a day.

On their third outing,

Jia decided to reveal more of the unseen world to Shen.

They sat under the shade of a particularly dense conglomeration of smoke trees,

And Jia decided it was time to pull back the veil.

Her language changed.

So,

Son of mine,

Baton-carrier and torch-bearer,

Look into my eyes,

Said Jia,

But not sounding quite like his mother.

Shen obeyed.

Let your attention wander to the sides of my head and the top of my forehead and the tip of my chin,

But keep your gaze centred on my eyes,

Said Jia,

Who was not Jia.

Now be prepared to see your ancestors.

The air fizzled around them,

And Jia's visage went fuzzy and indistinct.

I can see an old man with a long pointy beard,

Said Shen.

That's your great-grandfather,

Said Jia,

Not Jia.

Just observe,

Don't speak.

Shen felt like he'd downed too much banana beer,

As he saw females morph into males,

And adults change into children.

Now imagine,

Shen,

You are looking not at my eyes,

But through my eyes,

To the centre of my brain.

As he did so,

A dolphin's head briefly appeared,

And then Jia's whole body went translucent.

Her arms and legs shrunk into their sockets,

And her head completely vanished.

Shen remained calm,

As in front of him appeared a floating egg,

With dark patches where the arms and legs would have protruded.

It,

Not Jia,

Said,

We are the first.

The egg asked Shen to close his eyes,

And then it gently densified,

And asked Shen to state the role of the smoke tree.

What's the first thing that comes into your head,

Jia?

Now Jia again,

Asked.

They are the softeners of time and space,

He said.

Through them we can see through the veil.

Jia knew her work was done for that day,

As it was Shen who was not Shen who said that.

They walked back in silence,

Both respecting the thoughts of the other.

On subsequent afternoons,

Jia gently pushed back Shen's request to sit by the smoke trees again.

He sneaked out a few times by himself,

And managed to get the air to fizz,

But failed to get the veil to part.

Jia did show Shen the basics of levitation,

But asked him not to try it himself,

And especially not to tell his father what he'd seen.

She showed him how to reduce his weight,

And attachment to the earth,

But told him that it wasn't safe for him to fully levitate,

Before he learned how to unlevitate.

She had already decided consciously learning about biolocation was a no-go for him right now.

She also omitted to tell him he used to do it by himself when he was a toddler.

Her motivation was to ensure Shen came back for more by piquing his interest,

But mainly because she just wanted to keep him safe.

For now,

It was enough that he'd glimpsed through the illusion.

Chapter 15.

The Point.

It wasn't just self-aware humans who didn't know why they were able to ask the questions of how they got here,

And what is the real point of everything.

Although the counsellors of the light kept watchful sets of eyes,

Ears,

And hearts on matters and goings-on in the density,

They were somewhat ironically in the dark about quite a few things.

They could see all events across time in the plane of matter.

They knew when to pull strings,

When to let things simmer and come to the boil under their own volition,

And when to let things cool down.

They knew exactly when to send a representative down,

To which exact planet,

In which exact galaxy,

And in which material form.

They knew many methods of neat insertion,

But fewer methods of less-than-neat extraction.

They sometimes wondered if that was perhaps their real mission,

To learn how to travel bidirectionally between the void and the density.

They knew some of those that they looked after in the lower realms suspected they were higher realms with higher intelligences.

These channels and mediums would never know for sure if they were just imagining it all,

Making it up,

Or going slightly bonkers.

It was hard after all to imagine the unimaginable,

And to envisage the unseeable.

They wondered too if their strings were being pulled by even higher intelligences in even higher realms.

They speculated on the existence of multiverses and of a god.

Perhaps everything was nested in an infinity of layers like an endless Russian doll.

Perhaps there was no point to anything.

Perhaps it was just all a big experiment to see what was possible.

To beings that sat outside time and space,

This conjecture followed no timeline or dialogue.

All the counsellors thought these thoughts for all of time.

Only when their attention was drawn to actual manipulation of events did they descend into anything that might sound like a discourse.

He chose his parents so perfectly,

Said counsellor one.

The counsellors had no names,

Neither did they have a language per se.

So this brief transcript,

Channelled in the density,

Is only an approximation of its sentiment.

And it is beautiful and so,

So perfect that he knows not of us,

Said counsellor nine.

And that he never will,

Said counsellor three.

It's time to make him aware of the messenger then,

Boomed all the counsellors.

None of the counsellors ever spotted that counsellor seven rarely said anything,

Except for chiming in on group statements,

Or conversing directly with another counsellor.

Her particular insertion had not been,

And never would be,

Discovered for the life of this particular universe.

Chapter 16.

Comet Neshe.

2076.

33 years left.

Shen is right,

Cheng said.

It will pass between the Moon and Earth on the 17th of March,

2079.

He continued.

In a year or so's time,

Every person on Earth will have to be told the news,

So we avoid mass panic.

When this gets out,

It will spread like wildfire.

The comet will be a naked eye object in two years.

Shen smirked.

He had first spotted the comet on April 28th that year,

As it emerged from behind Jupiter.

With just a week of nightly observations,

He had calculated the comet's trajectory in his head.

His brilliance was starting to go to his head somewhat,

In the form of a simmering arrogance.

After coming back from the summer recess with his parents,

He'd been persuaded that some big data was best seen with his own eyes,

Not extrapolated from a database.

With the sanction of Cheng,

And the door opening powers of Madame Bien,

He'd been seconded to the astronomy department.

He was given access to their vast amount of data,

And also remote access to one of the larger reflectors at Purple Mountain Observatory.

As soon as he made his discovery,

He immediately booked his accommodation in Reykjavik,

Iceland.

From there he worked out that he'd actually be able to see the head and tail of the comet,

Passed right across the face of the full moon.

Once the news of the comet's transit leaked out into the public domain,

Hotel rooms in Iceland would be like hen's teeth.

Shen knew it'd be one heck of a journey to get there,

But it was so going to be worth the trip.

He'd reported his findings to Madame Bien,

Who escalated it immediately to Cheng.

Cheng gave his three top cosmologists and five senior mathematicians full access to the telescope,

And also the department's prized quantum computer.

The review meeting with Cheng at the end of Shen's third year would now not happen,

As events would take over.

It had taken the team of cosmologists and mathematicians three weeks to confirm Shen's findings,

And to prepare some stunning high-resolution graphic simulations.

The visuals seemed straight out of a blockbuster movie.

Cheng had convened an emergency meeting in the Grand Lecture Theatre at the University of Beijing to watch the simulation.

The auditorium could seat 3,

000 students.

Today,

Only 33 sets of VR glasses were needed.

It was a closed session without the usual audio-visual technicians.

What the select audience did require,

However,

Was a large,

Mean-looking security presence around the perimeter of the building.

This didn't cause any concern to students,

As private presentations of this nature had become commonplace in these times.

Cheng took to the stage behind the lectern,

While Madame Bien and Shen sat in the front row of the auditorium,

Accompanied by the eight researchers.

They were presenting to 20 select representatives of the State Council,

Along with the President and his wife,

Yu Yang.

Even Cheng,

An old master of bamboozling politicians with science,

Was somewhat nervous.

Shen noticed a single bead of sweat on his brow.

The gasps were almost audible when the last of 12 simulated views from above the North Pole was shown.

The comet's closest approach would be right above Iceland,

At what would be 9.

46 local time.

This was one planetary close encounter that would be all too visible,

Even without the need for binoculars.

It will pass so close to the Earth that we will have to take all the geostationary satellites down into lower orbits,

Cheng continued.

It will be impossible to recommission about half of them.

We will be recommending cessation of all new launches from now until a year after the comet's passing.

Each subsequent year,

From March to May,

We will pass through the tail,

And this could cause damage to some orbiting satellites.

The CSS will have to be evacuated and shielded.

Shen was silent for once.

He had told Bian all of this a month ago.

Space around the Earth was not going to be a safe place for some time to come.

The Chinese space station was the pride and joy of the Republic.

Over 200 people lived and worked on it nowadays.

NASA had all but abandoned launches these days,

After the ISS was decommissioned in the 20s.

The best rocket scientists and most experienced astronauts around the globe now worked with and for the Chinese.

Shen was hoping that,

Having first spotted the comet,

It would be named after him.

He couldn't wait to tell his parents.

He also intuited that there was more to this interloper than met the eye.

He had not only calculated that it was heading straight towards Earth,

But he had also worked out where in space it had come from.

By contrast,

Cheng's crack team was still solely focused on its Earth-bound trajectory.

Shen knew that most of these dirty snowballs inhabited the Oort cloud,

Over a billion kilometers from the Sun.

They only became referred to as comets when they entered the inner solar system and started to melt.

Although just a few kilometers in diameter,

Their plumage could stretch for thousands of kilometers behind them by the time they reached the orbits of the inner rocky planets.

Shen had tuned out of the presentation and was musing on how and when he should tell the team what he'd been working on most recently.

They already thought he was a bit of a precocious know-it-all.

Some would say for good reason,

Considering he would earn his first doctorate in cosmology before he turned 19.

He was not only a brilliant theorist,

But also had become a natural at observational astronomy.

The reason he alone had spotted the comet was that its path was hidden from view from the Earth by the massive planet Jupiter.

Only when it narrowly missed hidden Ganymede,

By the smallest of cosmic margins,

Could it have been visible.

For an object to hide behind a planet even the size of Jupiter,

When viewed from a moving inner planet,

Meant its path was very strange indeed.

This one had not started in orbit around the Sun,

But had come straight in.

None of the standard AI comet watching algorithms were programmed to pick anything up with this kind of trajectory.

Shen's reverie was broken by President Miang shouting,

Can we hear from the boy?

Cheng beckoned Shen to join him at the lectern,

Somewhat begrudgingly.

Miang said,

Shen we are in your debt,

In fact it seems the whole world is in your debt.

The dinosaurs could have done with your help 65 million years ago.

The rest of the council politely laughed at what they assumed must be Miang's attempt to make light of a grave situation.

Shen meekly replied,

It is my honor sir.

Miang said,

When did you realize that the comet would be deflected by the Moon's gravitational field and that would prevent it from impacting the Earth?

It was after the third night I was making my measurements sir,

Said Cheng,

Calmly and assuredly.

I knew quickly that it was a potential impact object and was working out how we could send a probe to meet it and deflect or destroy it.

It soon became obvious that there was not enough time for such a measure.

Professor Cheng piped in,

We would have to destroy it before it reached the orbit of Mars to ensure we didn't create multiple impactors.

I was speaking to Shen,

Miang barked.

Shen resumed gingerly as he hated to see anyone hurt or demeaned and especially Cheng.

I had a brainwave to check the position of the Moon as the comet approaches.

I found out it would be full as seen from Earth.

As you can see in this simulation where I've added the Moon,

The comet will pass underneath its south pole and bend around to skim the northern hemisphere of the Earth and miss us by a cosmic whisker.

I will see that you will be remembered for this my boy,

Said Miang.

As tradition demands,

You must name the comet.

I've already done that Mr President,

I've named it Comet Neshe.

Only Cheng picked up that this was an anagram of Shen and let out a low snigger.

It was this brief interruption that led Shen to making an instant decision that would change his life forever and the lives of everyone of the then nine billion inhabitants of planet Earth.

Thank you sir,

Shen continued.

I did some more modelling though.

Cheng was alarmed as this was not scripted.

We will experience a meteor display that will be visible even in daylight for months.

This won't be a problem as very little of the tail will make it to the ground.

It's what the comet is made of that we should be concerned about.

Most of them are dirty snowballs but this one seems to be made mostly of iron.

Shen had admitted to tell them how he knew this and nobody thought to ask him.

Shen then zoomed into an image of the Earth that showed its magnetic field lines.

All of this was putting the noses of the eight researchers out of joint as this wasn't part of their presentation.

As the comet passes by it will disrupt the Earth's magnetic field so much that I predict the eddies created inside the Earth may cause a north-south pole flip.

This means a reduction in the protected magnetic field around the Earth and will lead to planetary-wide devastation for many life forms within 100 years.

He had not finished with the delivery of the bad news.

More immediately than that my models show that such a rapid flipping of the magnetic core will cause the Earth itself to tilt due to gyroscopic forces up to anything between 5 to 10 degrees.

This means that both of the ice caps will melt within 100 years.

So all our valiant efforts to reverse climate change will be thwarted said Shen.

One of the researchers interjected but it's impossible for a comet to do that.

Shen brought up another display nobody was expecting.

Look at Ganymede before and after it passed.

There was another audible gasp.

It had clearly tilted on its axis.

The only way this could have happened is if the comet has a powerful magnetic field explained Shen.

Everyone in the auditorium knew the implications for the Earth as ecology was part of all school curricula these days.

Have you got a projected sea level rise Shen asked President Miang.

Let's put it this way said Shen.

I think we should all think of moving to Chongqing.

Chapter 17.

Epoch beginnings.

Unwittingly what Shen has stumbled across was one of the contributory events that would augur the end of yet another epoch in this particular solar system.

Counsellor Seven had to keep her pleasure and satisfaction secret from the other counsellors.

She was one of six odd-numbered female counsellors whose role was to manage and manifest the feminine energies in the density.

Ever since the division of the sexes at the end of epoch two males and females across all species in all galaxies had slightly different roles with experimental exceptions like sea horses.

The females bore the fruit of the next generation and the males provided the seeds.

Females were mostly intuitive and tuned into the void and males more practical and more rooted in the density.

In epoch five such separation did generate conflict and division some of it violent and abusive.

This was as inevitable as it was planned.

The path of return could only be refound by forgetting where you came from in the first place.

Most humans in the latter part of the 21st century were blissfully unaware their epoch was fast coming to its natural end.

They had no idea that epoch four was played out on the planet Mars.

Even Shen was oblivious to this which was somewhat ironic as he was to become instrumental in returning humans to this planet.

Asexual examples of creatures from epoch two were still around if people cared to look.

Octopi from epoch three looked like they came from another world and that's because they did.

They escaped from Lemuria to Mars before counsellor seven terminated the experiment on the now missing planet.

She was particularly proud of how neatly that termination was effected.

When vortices from the red spot of Jupiter,

The white spot of Saturn and the blue spot of Uranus converged on the planet it stood no chance.

Only a few species were ported to Mars to seed the fourth epoch a little time before.

Most of the planet was completely vaporized as the destructive force was so great.

The remnants formed the asteroid belt which would lead scientists of epoch five to come to the wrong conclusion.

As so much of it had vaporized they correctly calculated that the remaining detritus in the belt did not have enough mass to have formed a fifth planet.

At least third epochians didn't suffer as the experiment was terminated in less than a microsecond.

This also left little racial memory for future channels to latch onto.

Counsellor seven still had much to do before her own extraction could be effected.

Over 100 billion galaxies now had an epoch five level civilization revolving around a single star.

As they were all alone in their particular galaxy any efforts to contact any other sentient life would be fruitless.

This was all part of the plan to create self-sufficiency and diversity.

Members of each self-aware civilization of course felt very very alone.

Only when epoch six civilizations emerged would intergalactic contact between sentiencies be forged and allowed.

This universe would have to wait until epoch seven before any civilizations actually met.

The shock would otherwise be too great.

Chapter 18.

The Grand Tour.

2079.

30 years left.

Shen decided to turn his trip to Reykjavik into a grand tour.

Ever since first seeing the earth in so much detail and in so many forms in his father's orreys he had always wanted to go around it.

He didn't know that this particular circumnavigation would not be his last.

He could have easily got the university to pay for it but he had enough of his own money and wanted to do it in style.

So as well as a week in Iceland he planned to see as much of the low-lying coastal areas of the planet as was possible before it was too late.

He'd already booked the tower suite at the Hotel Borg in Reykjavik as soon as he had calculated the comet's trajectory.

It was expensive enough back then and he had had several lucrative offers from the hotel to buy his booking back from him.

Some celebrities were trying to muscle in.

The university would have put him in halls of residence.

This room and his whole trip was coming from his own not inconsiderable coffers.

The tower suite had a living room right on top of the hotel with a panoramic view of the city.

He'd also booked the adjacent deluxe suite in another name both as a backup and to ensure he had privacy on the night of the comet's lunar transit.

From Shanghai he took the tubeway direct to San Francisco.

He avoided the temptation to drop in and see Monique in Monterey.

He got in quite late and checked into a corner suite at the Hilton Union Square which had a spectacular view of the city.

He'd just ordered room service that night.

He planned to spend a few days of being a tourist incognito in a baseball hat.

The next day Shen took his time to walk all the way to Golden Gate Bridge and across the bridge over to Marin County.

The bridge had been pedestrianized as all the traffic to and from Marin County went by a tubeway these days.

The bridge itself had fallen into disrepair in the 30s as the failing US economy in the 20s had led much of the country to rack and ruin.

The politicians blamed a series of natural disasters but everyone these days was taught the real source of the perfect storm at school.

The greed,

Avarice and warmongering of the old guard were the real culprits and they finally ran out of steam and support.

Even the second amendment finally got amended and the resulting gun amnesty led to a dramatic reduction in the murder rate.

The NRA was disbanded and somewhat ironically became outlawed.

This was just one of the legacies of President Mason,

The first black woman in office.

President Mason also brokered a deal with China who came to the rescue and installed the new tubeway and maglev transport infrastructure from Asia to and across the Americas.

Just less than half a century later this legacy was making Shen's trip a breeze.

After he crossed the bridge he took a short bus service to Sausalito where he had the most lavish lunch at Spinnaker Restaurant.

With water on three sides he was the only diner aware these views would be gone forever within just a few decades.

As he crossed back over the bridge later that afternoon all he could envisage was a glorious city enveloped by water with just the peaks of the tallest buildings poking above the wave.

At over 220 meters high at least the bridge would still be crossable.

The island prison of Alcatraz would be as condemned as some of its inmates.

He spent another couple of days wandering around Chinatown where his fluency in the language got him into bars and dens of iniquity not known to many residents.

He left San Francisco and the west coast of the US for what he suspected might be the last time and took the maglev right across Mayland USA over to Boston.

He took one overnight stop in Chicago long enough to discover why it was called the Windy City.

At 180 meters above sea level all Shen could think about is how it would make a fabulous new financial center for the USA as Wall Street would be submerged.

One of Shen's reasons to go to Europe the long way around was that Professor Cheng had insisted he meet Professor Thom Waters a nanotech expert based at MIT Boston.

Thom met Shen at the Boston maglev terminal late in the afternoon.

He was an avuncular and warm character with a handshake that affirmed a regular workout schedule.

He drove an electric car that felt a little different than any that Shen had been in before.

There was virtually no road noise and it seemed to sail over any bumps in the road.

That evening Thom insisted on taking Shen out and treating him to a few too many artisan beers.

So Cheng tells me you are his star pupil,

Thom said,

Slapping down what would be the first of eight beers in front of Shen.

He's never told me that but thanks,

Said Shen,

In his best modest tone.

And Comet Neche is named after you.

That's pretty cool,

Eh?

It was obvious to Shen that Thom was fishing for more information than Cheng had briefed him that he could share.

Yep,

I'm heading to Reykjavik to see it in a few days time,

Said Shen,

Trying to gulp his beer down as fast as he could to keep up with Thom.

Thom ordered a second round of beer and since Shen had been told to keep his mouth shut on matters relating to the comet.

So he began to explain to Shen why he really wanted his help.

So I've got a problem,

Explained Thom.

A nice problem to have.

I'd been experimenting with new lifting mechanisms for drones,

Coating them underneath with an array of nano fans.

So what's the nice problem,

Asked Shen.

They generate much more lift than we calculated and we don't know why.

Thom showed Shen the schematics of the nano fans.

They were tetrahedral in shape like a three-sided pyramid made from three equilateral triangles with a fourth side forming the base.

There was a small hole at the apex attached to a nanotubule axle.

They came in two different sizes and 144,

000 of them filled a single square centimetre.

So the problem is that we didn't design this shape.

We got the nanobots to self-optimise for maximum lift and they came up with this arrangement.

This was a new type of problem for Shen as he'd had no experience in nanotechnology or aerodynamics for that matter.

Thom had his full attention even though the drinks were kicking in.

So why do you think I can help,

He asked Thom.

There's something we're not seeing in the data and Cheng suggested you find it.

I'll show you our prototypes tomorrow.

They spent the rest of the evening getting slowly drunk and eating a never-ending stream of bar food.

Shen went to bed in a cosy room in Thom's house with his head spinning.

Chapter 19.

Sticky Boots.

2079.

30 years left.

The next day,

Thom's wife made them a fulsome breakfast.

She could see by Shen's heavy eyelids and bloodshot eyes that he'd been well-thumbed.

The professor drove Shen over to his lab at MIT.

Curiously,

Instead of the expected tour of his facility,

Thom took Shen directly to his lab and produced what looked like two large tennis rackets.

He instructed Shen to stand on them and strap his feet in.

Hold on to this bar,

Warned Thom.

Shen grabbed a huge handrail on the wall and Thom pressed a bright yellow button on a small remote control.

Effortlessly,

Shen started to float a few centimetres above the ground.

There was no noise.

It was just as if he'd levitated.

So these plates can lift a man,

Said Shen with wide eyes.

Yep,

And the power needed is around 25 watts.

These plates are powered by a single layer of graphenium iron cells,

Which also act as a self-charging solar panel.

Shen had heard about these new batteries and that they were near superconducting at room temperature,

So that one charge lasted for weeks.

He was quick to see the potential,

Saying,

So if this scales,

It will make maglevs and tubeways much more efficient.

Amazing,

Right?

And by the way,

You've even got here on a bigger prototype.

I've had a large panel fitted under my car,

Explained Thom.

They are as close as we've ever got to a perpetual motion machine.

Just needs some sunlight,

Added Shen,

But you don't know why they generate so much lift.

Haven't got a clue,

Replied Thom,

Tapping his pad.

Shen unlevitated and sank gently back to the floor.

His head was buzzing and he was genuinely filled with wonder.

Now try and lift your feet,

Suggested Thom,

Who was enjoying Shen's delight at the potential.

Whoa,

I can't.

Don't tell me you've reversed the pans,

Exclaimed Shen,

Who was bright as a button.

Can you adjust how strongly I stick to the floor?

Sure can.

Go for a walk,

Instructed Thom.

Shen took a few clumsy steps forward,

As if he was wearing a pair of deep sea divers boots.

We think there are probably as many applications for sticky boots as there are for panels generating lift,

Thom said.

We're also experimenting with using bioluminescence as an integrated charging source.

Shen spent the rest of the morning exploring every theory Thom could proffer as to why there should be so much lift.

The information sharing was all one way,

Which Thom,

Upon later reflection,

Found frustrating.

What Thom didn't know,

And what Shen didn't tell him,

Was that he was to meet another nano expert in London in two days' time,

Who had also discovered something unexplainable and intriguing about auto-organising nanobots.

Thom knew Shen had planned an evening in New York before going to Europe,

So he took him back to the Maglev terminal.

As they shook hands,

Thom handed Shen a slender box.

Here's a small panel to play with.

I hope we can work together in the future.

Thom sensed that if Shen did solve the problem,

That he might not share the answer.

It was an accurate hunch.

As soon as he got settled on the Maglev,

An idea came to Shen.

He wondered why they'd never tested the panels in a vacuum chamber.

He couldn't believe they'd never thought to do that.

Chapter 20.

Twelve.

The collective essence of the twelve counsellors wove its numerology into many of the sentient planets sighted in each galaxy.

The sentients that tuned into it the most were those who were conscious and cognisant of numbers and mathematics.

In the universe of free will,

The counsellors did not,

And would not,

Influence which lifeforms used numbers.

For example,

On planet Earth,

There were two highly sentient lifeforms,

Cetaceans and humans.

Cetaceans found numbers tedious and academic,

So had given up on them aeons ago.

Humans,

However,

Were obsessed by them.

Some solely focused on how many units of currency they had in virtual bank accounts.

Others measured their worth by the size of their possessions or bodily dimensions.

In the end days of Epoch 5,

Very few humans paid attention to where numbers came from in the first place.

Most of the planet used the decimal system for counting,

But were blissfully unaware that the seconds and minutes of their time systems used base 60.

The underlying communications infrastructure used base 2,

Base 8,

Base 16,

And increasingly base 2048.

The most important number by far was the only one that cetaceans did use,

And that was the number 12.

They just used it in an esoteric way in the musical scales and harmonies they used for their songs.

Cetaceans had 12 semitones in each of their 12 octave range,

And 12 further subdivisions for each semitone.

At the end of Epoch 4 and the start of Epoch 5,

Early humans embraced the number 12 entirely.

They were less attuned to the density then,

And more sensitive to the message coming from the void.

They divided the sky into 12 zodiacal signs,

The 12 commanders of the night sky.

Early religions tuned into the essence of the council of the light.

The ancient Greeks worshipped 12 deities on Mount Olympus.

Some gods had 12 suns,

And some sun gods had 12 demigods.

When monastic religions rose in popularity,

The minor deities were demoted to being called the 12 disciples.

Juries had 12 good women and men and true.

The rather secular Buddhists hold the belief that life is composed of 12 stages,

Which together keep the wheel of life turning,

Ensnaring all life in a cyclical form of existence from which it is hard to escape.

As humanity headed towards the end of Epoch 5,

Gods and religion were virtually dead and buried.

Whales kept on singing using their scales of 12 tones,

And in complex time signatures of 12 divided by 6,

4,

3,

And 2.

With the limit of only 12 semitones in humans' musical octaves,

It was no wonder people hadn't deciphered the magic of whale music.

At the same time,

Humans had started worshipping and being controlled by another god of 12,

The incessant tick-tocking of their clocks.

The result of all this obfuscation was the vast majority of humans had little knowledge and awareness of the true reality of the world in which they were wandering around each day.

They lived behind the veil of a pervasive illusion.

They thought that their thoughts were their own and that any happenstances were just sheer luck.

The counsellors were pleased for Counsellor 4's increasing ability to resonate with them,

And they with him.

They were even more pleased that with a little nudging,

Some scientists in the density had come up with the nanotechnology that they could more readily influence from the void.

Reviews

I’m in awe of your imagination! Really intrigued about the references to numbers….