CHAPTER 33
AFTERWARD
Johnny and Elizabeth Goth stood in front of the solid wall of rock that they had erected to cover the Cube. The Cube location could now not be easily detected, since the wall looked very much like the rest of the mountainside. At a gesture of Johnny’s hand a five-hundred pound rock pulled out of the wall and floated to the ground, creating a three-foot square window to the Cube and another universe.
On schedule, the window shimmered and the scene changed, to reveal a doppelganger Johnny Goth that smiled at them and nodded in greeting. Dozens of Dooleys had eliminated the force that pulled like-beings into the Cube to exchange doppelgangers, so they had little fear of becoming exchanged, although as a safety precaution they were all tethered by ropes to nearby trees. With the exception of lost Elizabeths and others being returned to their proper universes by a multi-universe team of Dooleys, physical exchanges via the Cube had been eliminated.
Each Johnny placed a laptop PC in their own window such that the screens and built-in cameras faced into the other’s universe. Information exchange between universes had grown significantly.
“So how was the wedding?” asked the doppelganger, smiling, as the PC used voice recognition software to translate his question and both display and mechanically voice the words to Johnny and Elizabeth.
“Great, including my name change to Shining Moon,” replied Elizabeth. “And the honeymoon in the Holy Forest was even better.”
The doppelganger laughed, causing a jumble of gobbley-gook to fill the next line of the computer screens. “On this side we’ve been busy trying to address the scientific implications of what we have recently learned.”
“And what are your totally geeky conclusions?” asked Elizabeth.
“Dad and I published a paper that unifies space-time-gravity and quantum mechanics concepts. Also, negative and positive time concepts as suggested by the wave equation and its complex conjugate are interpreted as reflecting a balancing point that locally defines ‘now’, supporting a reasonable transactional interpretation of quantum events and the sensibility of our macroscopic perceptions and common-sense notions such that trees do indeed fall in the forest when nobody is looking and so forth.”
“In English please,” requested Elizabeth, taking advantage of a slight pause. “Please translate what you just said!”
The doppelganger Johnny laughed again. “But that WAS the English translation! In summary we’ve done some really good stuff, science-wise. Ironically though, some scientists are already interpreting our theory as the end of any need for notions of multiple universes.”
“I suppose that you couldn’t reveal to your scientist friends that you happen to know that multiple universes actually do exist,” stated Johnny.
“Of course we couldn’t, since we still must keep the Cube secret. Multiple universes obviously exist, but not necessarily as a means of interpreting quantum mechanics. So far there doesn’t seem to be any solid theoretical requirement for them to exist or not exist.”
“Or for unicorns to exist either, I’ll wager,” noted Johnny.
“Correct. Your particular universe and its unique inhabitants remain a unique mystery within the over-all enigma.”
“It certainly is an enigma,” Johnny pathed to Elizabeth.
“I agree,” Elizabeth pathed in reply. “The more we learn, the deeper some of the mysteries seem.” She smiled at the doppelganger Johnny Goth. “But we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
After their conversation with the scientist doppelganger Johnny ended, Johnny replaced the Cube-covering rock and he and his wife Elizabeth walked hand-in-hand slowly down Goth Mountain together. As they walked Johnny silently marveled at how much his life had changed over the last two months since his return to Goth Mountain. He hardly ever thought of cardboard boxes or Angela. Together he and Dooley were happily learning deeper knowledge and skills from Mark and Mort Goth, from Great Two Bears, and from each other.
Johnny and the other humans of Goth Mountain also had continuing contacts with the People. Grog and several of his giant friends visited Goth Mountain to help build Johnny and Elizabeth their own massive log cabin, and to build a fine house for the Simples in the forest nearby. Both Ned and Fen became frequent visitors to Goth Mountain and to the Tribe, and to Elizabeth’s classroom, much to the delight of the students.
There were also infrequent visits from the mysterious Pru. Exactly what had Pru meant when she had told Dark that she was not simply a unicorn? Was Dark really once one of the People? How old was Pru, really? Where did she and the People come from? Why had Pru carefully avoided passing through the Cube while retrieving Dad and Mort? Why were psychic powers commonplace in all universes except their own? Pru couldn’t or wouldn’t answer such questions. “Perhaps there are things you should learn for yourself, Wolf Cub,” she had told him, in an amused tone of voice.
The answers to many mysteries were unexpectedly revealed one day as Johnny and Elizabeth visited the Great Tree. “The mystery of the origin of the Cube and the People has been solved,” pathed Pru as she suddenly appeared before the startled couple.
“We thought you’d like to know,” said Gus, from where he sat perched high upon Pru’s back.
“That’s tremendous news!” exclaimed Johnny.
“So tell us about it,” insisted Elizabeth.
“In a nutshell, Doc Simple finished translating those three mysterious metal tablets, and more of Pru’s memory came back, due to her absorption of many of her missing parts from Dark’s armor,” explained Gus. “But it's a good news-bad news-good news thing. Surprisingly, two very different stories have emerged."
"Two?"
"Yes. The tablets outline a history of the People and the Cube. They indicate that using the Cube, the ancestors of the People came to visit and explore Earth approximately twelve thousand years ago and never left. Pru here is their fancy automated companion that they relied on for just about everything, including keeping track of history and controlling the Cube. She’s some kind of advanced technology; an inorganic life form.”
"If they only came for a visit why did they stay?" asked Johnny.
“The tablets state that the big problem arose when one of our organic units decided to stay here and transform into a creature of power that would ravage the Earth,” pathed Pru.
“Dark!” guessed Elizabeth.
“True, small one,” pathed Pru. “The tablets state that at the time parts of me were dispersed widely among the explorers, much as today you carry watches and knives that are small parts of me. When Dark started murdering his companions, as a precaution I managed to move the Cube to Goth Mountain, hide it, and put it into a standby mode that prevented its normal use.
“Dark went on killing, but my role was passive due to strict limits built into me. Being pacifist, the People were largely defenseless for many centuries, and Dark soon acquired enough of my components to disable many of my key functions, including Cube control. The tablets indicate that at some point when I tried to regain control of it, I unintentionally activated access to parallel universes and the exchange of doppelgangers. To fix things, and recover doppelgangers to their proper universes, the tablets indicate that my entry into the Cube is required."
"Wow," said Johnny, "that would save the Dooleys of the multiverse a lot of work. Are you going to do it?"
“Unlikely, Johnny Goth," replied the unicorn. "Fortunately I always harbored a deep-felt aversion to personally entering the Cube, which is fortunate for reasons that I will divulge shortly. The tablets indicate that the primary defense of the People became hiding from Dark and keeping the Cube from him. Generations lived and died. Gradually memories that the People had of their origins faded, though early on some information had been recorded by People and preserved in the tablets that have now been translated. Meanwhile it appears that Dark grew ever more powerful, and remained obsessed with consuming unicorns and acquiring the Cube, for reasons that perhaps he did not himself remember
.”
“Meanwhile patterns were established among the People who survived, including traditional forms to take, relationships with the Tribe, and so-forth,” guessed Johnny.
“That’s about it in a nutshell,” agreed Gus.
“Gradually we unicorns did somewhat increase our interactions with humans, but not to the extent that we would reveal ourselves outside the Tribe and the Goths,” added Pru. “To some degree we adapted many traits of Earthlings. For example many of us took the form of Sasquatch, creatures that are now unfortunately extinct. The tablets indicate that based on human myths, I took the form of a unicorn, and using parts of myself created a small herd of other unicorns to try to both protect the People from Dark and to keep me company."
"Anyway that's what the tablets say," said Gus. "The idea was mainly to hide from Dark."
“We underestimated Dark. He killed still more unicorns and I lost more abilities and memories. My impediments to killing him were finally overcome than he destroyed Baldor, and when he threatened to destroy humans and the rest of the People. Over the years I had evidently developed into a free-thinking individual, free enough to kill him.”
“You can control the Cube again,” noted Elizabeth. “You could enter the Cube and use it to all go home now, wherever home is.”
“I was seriously considering exactly that,” admitted Pru. “The tablets indicate that by entering the Cube I would remember our home world. I would then be able to teach the People about our home world. In summary if I were to simply enter the Cube I would be fully restored and capable of saving all the People.”
“If you leave here in the Cube the Tribe will lose their Holy Forest,” noted Johnny.
“And humanity would lose the opportunity of contact with an extraterrestrial species,” added Elizabeth.
The unicorn shook her head. “I will not be entering the Cube. An alternative history has emerged from my own restored memories.”
Elizabeth frowned. "Do you speak now of the second version of the story which was mentioned earlier?"
"Right; here comes the bad news part," inserted Gus.
"Yes," said Pru. "As cogent and compelling as the tablet-based story I have just related to you is, much of it is lies."
"What!" Johnny responded in astonishment as Pru laughed her unicorn laugh.
"The truth is even more surprising, I'm afraid. The tablets are a deception, part of what you humans would call a backup plan created by Dark. The tablets were planted near the Cube by Dark only days ago; placed so that they would soon be found. I wasn't ever supposed to regain enough memory to remember the truth. If dark failed to destroy me and enter my remains into the Cube, his back-up plan was that I would at some point read the tables and enter the Cube under my own power."
"Parts of the tablets are fiction? You didn't all arrive on Earth twelve thousand years ago?" Elizabeth asked.
"Dark arrived here on Earth with the Cube twelve thousand years ago, but unicorns and the People have been here for far longer. I have personally been here on Earth for hundreds of millions of years, actually. The other unicorns and the People are essentially my creations."
Johnny shook his head in denial.
"I don't blame you for perhaps having doubts," Pru stated.
"Like they say, truth is stranger than fiction," said Gus.
"So what is the truth as you remember it, Pru?" asked Johnny.
"The Cube indeed arrived on Earth with Dark twelve thousand years ago, but unicorns and People were already here," stated Pru. "I was already weakened greatly by other events, and Dark took advantage of that and attacked the remaining unicorns immediately. He indeed successfully hunted down several unicorns before his presence and that of the Cube even became known. While I still retained some of my powers I managed to move the Cube. My attempt to destroy it using the volcano failed and the Cube continued to function, but the Cube and most of the People for a long time remained successfully hidden from Dark."
"Meanwhile the Cube stimulated life and performed doppelganger exchanges," noted Elizabeth.
"Those were meant to attract victims and entice Pru to confront and enter the Cube, as suggested by the tablets," said Gus.
"Dark did manage to further damage my memory by acquiring more elements of myself and he carried out much of his plan" continued Pru. "If he hadn't been stopped, he may have eventually destroyed the Land and human civilization, but his ultimate purpose was to acquire me. Either I would by my own power enter the Cube or he would move my remains into the Cube."
"Why?" Johnny asked.
"The Cube is essentially a unicorn trap," said Gus. "Dark was sent here to attack unicorns."
"Yes, for I'm afraid there is a deeper story," explained Pru. "There is a powerful off-Earth Enemy from my distant past that seeks to destroy all unicorns and me in particular. Dark was sent to capture and perhaps transport or destroy unicorns using the Cube, though unicorns are not the ultimate target. Now that Dark has failed, the Enemy may try something else."
"What can we do to help?" asked Johnny.
Pru again laughed. "Nothing for now, Johnny Goth, except to stay vigilant. You humans have been critical in saving me and yourselves for the time-being. It took many millennia for the Enemy to find and attack me using his tools Dark and the Cube, it could be many human life-times before he again attacks."
"That's the other good news," explained Gus. "The conflict referred to is taking place over many millions of years. Though the Enemy could attack again within our lifetimes, it is more likely that Earth will be hit by an asteroid.
"Ah, I'm not sure that's good enough to qualify as truly good news," said Johnny.
"You said that even you unicorns aren't your enemy's ultimate target," said Elizabeth. "Then who or what is?"
The unicorn again whinny-laughed. "That is information far too dangerous even for my closest friends to know, Elizabeth. Both the Enemy and his target are dangerous secrets that I need to keep to myself. I truly hope that the time will never come when I need burden you with such information, for that would indicate a need for very dangerous quests assisted by my human friends."
All of this intrigued Johnny, but the enigmatic unicorn provided no further details. “Quests can wait for now, human,” assured the unicorn. “Be content with our victory over Dark and over the hate and greed of your human enemies. Now you have more important matters to attend to.”
"The upshot is that we all get to live happily ever after," said Gus. "That's pretty darn good news, I'd say." With that Pru and Gus disappeared.
Indeed, Johnny clearly did have important things to do. At a particularly scenic point along the ancient path that led down Goth Mountain, he stopped walking and pulled Elizabeth to him, for she was by far his greatest source of happiness and wonder. As they embraced and kissed they shared thoughts and feelings, while a swirling kaleidoscope of love and happiness surged between them and echoed and flooded over into the Holy Forest. He gently placed a hand over her belly to better sense the greatest miracle of all: new lives growing within her. “So, Momma Shining Moon, how are they doing?” he pathed.
“The twins are both fine, Papa White Wolf, as I’m sure you can see for yourself. They’re growing like weeds.”
Johnny smiled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The End
****
About the Author and Other Publications
Born in Erie, PA, I am a recently retired engineer with degrees in physics. For nearly forty years I worked for the DOD/Navy and then for a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). I took up writing as a hobby about two decades ago, for no good reasons that I can think of. My usually sensible wife and my two daughters allowed me to do it, for no good reasons that they can think of. I have also published flute music. Still, I am not ‘the artist’ of the family; that distinction perhaps more aptly belongs to my brother Robert, who often helps with my book-covers.
My first published novel is Blue Dawn Jay of
Aves, a traditional science fiction story of a distant planet inhabited by giant song-loving sentient birds that is being colonized by humans. It was written in response to my appreciation for birds, birders, music, and song. The birder in my family is my daughter Kristin, who teaches college in Queens, NYC; the music lover and most dedicated reader of the family is my daughter Kim, a school psychologist in New Jersey. I'm incredibly proud of both of them.
The novel Government Men is the first written and the most complex and ambitious work, and will be published sometime in the next few months. The unlikely hero is an inept DOD civilian scientist who leads an effort to save Earth from an impending alien-induced apocalypse. The large cast includes mythical, supernatural, scientific, and alien characters, as well as an unlikely reincarnation of the author. Perhaps still more unusual, the novel is also included within itself. Pru, the unicorn featured in Secrets of Goth Mountain, plays a central role in Government Men, along with Johnny and Dooley. As with The Shrinking Nut Case, this was written as a 'fun' novel.
For a fun quirky tale about a somewhat unlikable private detective dealing with ultimate shrinkage, elves and other nasty visitors from a parallel dimension, the mob, and a talking cat, read the noir-tinged novel The Shrinking Nuts Case.
For a diverse collection of twenty Twilight-Zone-like fantasy and science fiction short stories, download There Goes the Neighborhood; Earthly Fantasy/Science Fiction Short Stories.
All of my published works (so far) are of full-length novel size; I wouldn't generally waste the time of readers with anything less. Anything I do publish that is less than novel-length will be free. In addition I avoid graphic depictions of sex and violence and tend to steer towards positive outcomes. I also insist that stories be plausible, though magic can be plausible. The other thing I insist upon in a work is closure. Though my works often hint at adventures to come, all of them are self-contained and reach essential closure within one volume. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Reviewers my note that this revised second release of Secrets of Goth Mountain contains some 'clean up' type corrections and brighter lettering on the cover but no fundamental changes. My thanks go to Rista of Goodreads for the thoughtful review that led to this re-release.
Gary J. Davies, Mechanicsville, Maryland, March 2014
Secrets of Goth Mountain Page 79