The dot, p.17
The Dot, page 17
“If you visit the two planets I recognize from the videos, then you should be able to put the pieces together. Maybe not all at once. But you’re a genius at figuring out the vectors and scalars that your father used for calculating the location for his — you know. Vortex openings.”
My head snapped up from looking at my now empty clear glass plate to have a quick look around the restaurant. “You can’t say that out loud in a public place. What the hell is the matter with you?” She keeps drinking her fruit-filled crystal glass of wine and shrugs nonchalantly when she’s finished.
“Don’t get so uptight. No one is listening to us. What’s more important for you to worry about is the time differential. Liria didn’t tell you the best part of this whole religious experiment the CPH put together. The time difference on those outer spiral planets isn’t four to one. It’s twelve to one. Every one of our years is twelve years for them. Think of it this way. Ten years from now for us here will be one hundred and twenty years in the future for them.
“The CPH wanted to discover the right religion for heavening long before any of them were dead. They are using the gravitational pull of the center to slow time down for us while their experiments are running in fast forward.
“Your father didn’t die from a biomechanical system failure on a dumb planet. He died of natural causes. A Humanoid’s life span is four hundred years. Magallan was already two hundred and sixty when he decided to stay on Planet Four-hundred and Forty-four. He was there for fourteen years. Our time.”
@@@@@@46
Before the break of day, I’m out of the front door and into the skycab, waiting outside. Rymirah is still asleep, and she’ll be happy I’ve gone. She has never been a morning person and prefers privacy in the early hours of the day. Besides, I have something I want to do in private. As the skycab takes me to Mountain SkyDome, three domes over, I message Liria through my neurolink HUD.
→ Connect to Liria ←
—connection established—
#>> What’s taking so long? << she messages.
>> Do you want the details of Rymirah and my reuniting activities?<<
#>> No. You make me furious! <<
>> Emotional this morning? Are you jealous?<<
—connection dropped by Liria—
—reconnection refused by Liria—
‘She never had a sense of humor.’
Two skycab changes later, and I meet her at the foothills of Mount Dreomi. “Good morning, boss.” She shows no expression for my greeting. We’ve held sexual tension between us for many years. Though she’s much older than I am, I find her attractive, and we’ve often had sexually suggestive banter.
“The vortex is close, but your father never showed me the exact portal location. See if you can detect it.”
There is a method to discovering my vortex portals, but each Boundrian Creator is unique to the individual. Liria and her team of biologists believe the genetic signature will be discoverable to a family member. Their hypothesis seems ludicrous to me, but I scan the area with my vortex detector and dial up the sensitivity to maximum. Nothing shows up on the HUD monitor.
“Come on, Hayden,” she says. “You’re not even trying.”
As much as I would like to find my father’s portal and satisfy her team’s theory, I want this more for myself than for Humanoid Intelligence. I decide to walk a little higher into the foothills and visually scan the terrain for a more logical location.
“If I was going to open a portal, where would I hide the doorway?
“That looks like a good place to store equipment over there.” I point to a park area between two small mounds of tree-covered hills. “If I were going to move supplies and equipment for the planet-to-planet transport, I would want an area like that. Wouldn’t you?”
Before she can respond, I started hiking through the hills toward the location. About every twenty meters, I pause to scan for a vortex signal. As I start down the hill, I can see the evidence of trees that have been cleared towards the bottom of the smallest mound.
“Brilliant.” This has to be the spot dad used to open the vortex. “Look at this.” My excitement can’t be contained. “The entire area here is the wormhole opening. It’s massive! A doorway this big would require a tremendous effort of control. I’ve never considered how large an area it would require to move terraforming equipment and supplies. The inventory and scale are incredible.”
I can hear Liria is out of breath and continues sneezing when she reaches me.
“Have you detected the vortex then? What is that smell? It’s like some kind of chemical or cleaning fluid. What is it?”
“The smell is coming from the trees. It’s some sort of pollen or tree sap. I’m not sure why they have an odor.”
While I recalibrate my system, adjusting for the larger size and scale of the area, Liria is impatient. A woman in her leadership position isn’t used to someone not answering her.
“What are you doing?” she says.
Opening the portal is an art and a science. It starts when I focus on the spatial awareness of my mind and body’s energy in relation to the volume of space. I ask myself,
‘Can I become aware of the space between my ears, in space? Am I aware of the energy of space outside my ears? Can I move the awareness of space to the center of my throat? Can I feel the energy of space that surrounds my neck? Can I rest this awareness of the energy of space into the space behind my breastbone? And now, can I become aware of the volume of space outside my shoulders? And now, can I become aware that I am aware? Now, where is the portal?’
If there is a portal nearby or the potential for creating a portal nearby, my sensory units will identify it in the HUD. In this case, my father’s portal populates the HUD readout. The scale is larger than I’ve ever generated myself, and the frequency is refined to a cleaner, more coherent wavelength than what I am used to creating. I’m intrigued to open the passage and transcend to the other side of the gateway. Just as I do, Liria steps into my space and grabs me by the shoulder.
Both of us are immediately moved in quantum space to planet Vorsdan 8.
“What has just happened?” she says.
I grab hold of her as she loses her balance and right as she begins to fall. As she gains her composure still in my arms I’m looking around us, “I know this planet. I’ve been here before. Where is this place?”
Then, just as I recognize the location and remember the three warlords here that are hunting me for stealing their NFT and not delivering their prized gold ornaments. A patrol of seven or eight Arian soldiers are running towards us.
“Over there. I see them!” one of the soldiers says. “The portal is right there. Stop! Get on the ground!” He yells as he and the soldiers gain on our position.
“Do something!” Liria says.
I reverse the vortex in an instant, and we are back on Planet Forty-four. The vortex closes so fast that we fall to the ground. Liria lands on top of me, and we embrace in a deep kiss. Near-death experiences have that effect on the libido. She pulls my shirt off and begins kissing my chest and nipples. The excitement of the moment has me aroused. Her mouth against my skin, and her hands exploring me provide a rush of sexual desire in me.
As I pull her blouse off, before getting further lost in this lust-filled moment, I’m recalibrating the frequency of the vortex and closing the gateway forever.
After what I consider a meaningful exchange of sexual fulfillment from years of shared repressed desire, she’s on her back. I’m laying between her legs with my face resting on her lower abdomen. Now I’m the one who is out of breath.
“What were we doing on an Arian planet?” she says as she pushes me off of her and hurries to dress.
“That wasn’t an Arian planet. At least not until recently. That was Planet Vorsdan 8.” I stand and start putting my clothes on. “I recognized the three moons on the horizon. The ice-covered landscape and smell of old rotten eggs and sulfur were definite traits of Vorsdan. I want to know how those soldiers detected the vortex opening. They were looking for us and seemed to know where to find us.”
“And the gateway? I assume you closed it?”
“More than closed it. It’s lost forever now. But we just lost the first clue to Magallan’s hiding place for the Tathagata.”
“I realize that. Don’t be daft. There is something more to it though. We did prove that you can detect Magallan’s geometric signature and open his vortexes.”
We’ve finished dressing, and I attempt to organize her long brown hair. Pushing my hands away, she throws her arms around my shoulders to pull me in for a long, passionate kiss. After her hot lips leave mine and as she pulls away, her silver eyes lock with mine, and with a demanding voice, “This never happened between us and won’t be repeated. Tell me you understand.”
@@@@@@47
It has been a long and quiet, two-hour ride back to Humanoid Intelligence Operations headquarters. “Before we go in, I want to ask you a question.”
‘The smell of her fruity perfume is on my skin and clothes. I’ll have to avoid Rymirah until I can shower. How will I explain this to her?’
“You can ask,” Liria says.
“Which one of your trusted council members do you suspect is the mole? Somebody told the Arians. My father told you about that vortex location, and then you must have told someone else that you and I would open it today. That is, unless I’m wrong and you are the mole. But I know it’s not you. Right?”
“Three Humanoids knew our meeting would take place today. Marsh, Sterling, and Rymirah.”
“Those three . . . I want to meet with each of them. Can you make sure they meet with me? I want to interview them one-on-one, starting with Marsh. So, Rymirah knew you and I were meeting this morning?”
“Of course, Hayden. I told her not to keep you out too late. Otherwise — well . . . Yes, to the interviews. You have full access to everyone and all the information relating to this project.”
Perplexed and awed by my father’s mastery of dilation perspective and quantum vibration, I spent the next several hours reworking my maths. Then, with a better matrix and system design installed in my HUD, I also created an upgrade routine that will automatically tune and adjust my vortexes the next time I use them.
Now it’s time to piece together a better plan for discovering where the Dalai Lama and Magallan hid the Tathagata. I’ll start by meeting with Marsh.
Memory serves me as I find my way to the lower level of corridors inside the Intelligence Operations headquarters. At the end of the furthest hallway is a small, dimly lit room where my father worked. When I open the door, everything is just how it was when he would bring me here when I was a child.
The vivid remembrance of walls covered with mathematical calculations written in white chalk over a stark black background. Letters and symbols combine with numbers and occasional sketches of a galaxy, planet, or nova. The floor, too, was black. A small round turquoise table and three hard, straight-back chairs of the same color. A wooden Adirondack chair stood in the center of the room where he would insist I sit while he explained the simplicity of vibrational resonance or coherence.
When Marsh came in, he went right to the Adirondack and took a seat.
‘Father made everyone sit there, not just me.’
“Look at this room,” he says. “Your father was determined to find the source of gamma rays. Do you remember? Somewhere outside this universe, he would remind everyone that gamma rays are being sent our way. Nothing in the matrix of this known universe can naturally produce a gamma ray. He was right, and his hypothesis was shared with a few of us.
“He believed the gamma-ray resulted from protein atoms produced by the vibrational frequency in the Buddha Fields. Those fields exist only in the heaven realms outside of the Newtonian, three-dimensional existence we call reality. Your father always called reality an illusion. Everything that begins and ends is an illusion, he would say. Only eternal fields that have neither a beginning nor an end are real.
“If you can discover the origins of gamma, you will find your father. I suspect he’s there. In the fields, I mean.”
Marsh stood and walked to the door to leave. He turned to the room’s left wall and pointed to the far corner. “That last formula there. Where he circled it. That was the last formula Magallan wrote before leaving to go to Planet Four Four Four. I think you should start there.”
The formula was boldly circled. Four circles around it and an arrow pointing to a sketch of a structure that looks like a ten-shelved computer rack holding a series of servers.
“A supercomputer?” I turned to look at Marsh, but he had already left the room.
Continuing to study the calculations, I write CRYNFT code into my HUD and immediately construct several self-learning algorithms to build models to help discover these formulae’s truths.
“Whatever anybody else might tell you, or not,” Sterling says, “your father was a true Bodhisattva, angel, mystic, god, or whatever your religion calls the supreme beings. When the CPH couldn’t be stopped, it was Magallan who caused the Humanoid Leadership to adopt the policy of having one Humanoid inhabit the experimental planets.
“They had to have skin in the game. It's not just human lives at risk of extinction on some remote planets. A Humanoid had to be willing to give up everything to be right alongside the humans to the bitter end.
“His work on the development of Planet Four Four Four became his obsession. He handpicked everyone that was recruited and selected to be the first generation of the population. Which means he was traveling to many planets. But, I know he went to the planet Artin to meet the Dalai Lama. He told me they were going to consider it for the conscious machine’s home. Though, today I don’t think that’s where it is. But you should start there and look for clues. If you can’t find anything there, then perhaps it will provide clues to point you on the correct path for locating the wormhole. Well, I’m not sure where else to look. Except that . . .”
His voice drifted, and I sensed he was afraid. My HUD sensors scanned him.
—Name Sterling—
—Holds a prominent position at Humanoid Intelligence—
—Current title: Humanoid Intelligence Protocol Chief—
—Stress levels are peaking, indicating an internal thought struggle. Caution.—
“You can stop scanning me and probing me. I’ve turned on my protection systems. What have you had now, seven or eight modules implanted in your frontal cortex?”
“I’m sorry to be suspicious, Sterling. It’s my nature, and no. I’ve had eleven biomechanical implants in my cerebral cortex.”
“That’s incredible. You operate from the eleventh harmonic! You are Magallan’s son. No other Humanoid could pull that off and survive. Well, anyway. If you repeat this to anyone, I will deny I ever said it.
“Keep your suspicions on one person on the Intelligence Operations Council: Rymirah. Now, I know the two of you are involved in some romantic lifestyle, and you might even be in love with her. I have my reasons for telling you, and that’s all I’m able to share right now. Good luck, Hayden.”
@@@@@@48
The last meeting of the day is the one I’m least excited about. How will I explain Liria and me having sex this morning? What was it I said to Rymirah just yesterday about not being the guy who chases other women . . .
“You don’t need to pack a thing,” she says as she drops my backpack on the table after walking into the room like a Humanoid on a mission. She stands in a superhero pose with her well-muscled and toned body. It’s all I can do to stay quiet.
‘I should beg forgiveness, but that wouldn’t be like me.’
“I’ve got the Dalai Lama ready to meet you on Oban Three. You can take the vortex from the location your father showed me when he went there many years ago. It’s a place like I told you. Remember? In the video with your father at the assembly yesterday. I recognized it from that archived video.
“His holiness and I spoke this morning about the purpose and importance of your visit. He’s not sure if he can provide you with the clues you need, but we had an amazing conversation this morning that made me confident he can.
“How was your morning? Was it as amazing and filled with discovery?” she scowls.
The look in her eyes told me this was not a simple, passing question. She knows something.
“Say nothing, you ass-chasing cheat. Liria told me about the filthy . . . how did she say it? Oh yes, that was it — a meaningless, adrenaline-induced situation that ended with you — fucking her!”
My heart sinks, and I feel as if my entire life is about to shatter like a crystalline bowl dropped onto a stone floor.
“Listen, babe.” Before I could say another word, she put her hand over my mouth.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not saying that it’s okay and I’ll need to find some way to deal with it, but I love you, and this project is too important. Never, never, never fuck that bitch again, Hayden. Of all the women in this universe, for you to cheat on me. Never again! I want to hear that promise from you.”
“I promise.”
“Good. Now come with me. You have to go.”
We take a few steps toward the wall with the four circles, and Rymirah places her hand against the smooth, cold stone marked with a symbol I’ve never seen. The wall behind the table slides open. “Go,” she says. “He’s waiting on the other side of the vortex. Be gentle with him. He’s a holy man.” She refuses my approach for a kiss and shoves me instead through the narrow passage behind the wall.
Like before, my HUD detects my father’s doorway to the vortex. Again, I find it is refined and written in a code of eloquent math. The vibration signature made me feel a sensation of welcome and safety as the vortex opening takes me through.
