by Hep Aldridge
I stood there for a moment and finally gathered my wits and said, “That’s so far beyond amazing. I don’t know what to say, but yeah, I think you’re right—it’s definitely contact.” The questions pouring into my head were mind-boggling, and I didn’t know where to start.
Then, Doc said, “How did you find this? I mean, how did you make it work?”
“I just sat in the chair and saw the handprints, so I put mine there, and she appeared,” Joe said. “At first, my brain was bombarded with snippets of voices and stuff, like spinning the tuning dial on a car radio really quickly, and then all of a sudden, it got quiet, and I swear she smiled at me. It’s like she was tuning into my brain, trying to make the right connection.”
“And you understood what she was saying. I heard her speaking, but it was like no language or dialect I’ve ever heard before,” Doc responded.
“Yeah, it was the damnedest thing. I could hear her speaking. I didn’t understand the words, but the meaning of what she was saying was perfectly clear in my head. Does that make any sense? I know it sounds crazy, but she described our location in detail, and I knew it. I understood it. It’s crazy—not something I can begin to explain.”
Joe looked puzzled. “I asked her name, and I got a sense of worldly knowledge and strength enveloped by calmness and accompanied by a cool breeze. Very real; no ego or attitude, but no name.”
Doc said, “Try again, and ask her something else like where is she from.”
Joe placed his hands in the indentations again, and the lady in blue appeared just as before. She looked at him, and, as he was about to speak, she pointed up, and a star map appeared floating overhead in 3-D and full color. It was like looking at the photos that the Hubble sent back. Everything started moving, and we seemed to be flying through three-dimensional space.
Holy Carl Sagan, I thought, as I viewed it in awe. This is like watching an episode of Cosmos. Red Giants, White Dwarfs, we passed the Pleiades star cluster, then the Orion constellation, star fields, galaxies, and nebula were flying by until we slowed, and a distant Yellow Dwarf sun appeared. My college astronomy class was paying off. As I viewed the Yellow Dwarf, I remembered our sun was also a Yellow Dwarf. I saw five planets orbiting it; two of the five were close to each other and orbiting their sun in what astronomers call the “Goldilocks zone.” Just the right distance from the sun to potentially be habitable. The others were further away. One of the planets now turned blue, and the lady turned to Joe.
In a hushed voice, Joe said, “That’s where they are from.”
Doc said, “But I never heard you ask her the question.”
“I know,” he said, “but when I thought it, she knew and responded.”
I now found myself leaning against the wall as I slid down to one of the benches around the room and thinking about the third set of celestial coordinates that Tony found on the silver cube. How is this happening? How is she doing this—telepathy?
Joe asked the question out loud, for our benefit, “How are you communicating with us?”
The unintelligible answer came instantly.
I jumped to my feet and said to everyone, “Did you hear that?”
Dimitri, who was standing next to me, said, “Yeah, I heard her but didn’t understand a thing she said. You did?”
I looked at the others, who were all standing and got the same blank look and then turned to Joe, who was grinning from ear to ear.
“I got it,” he said, “thought transference…”
“But nobody else but you and I understood it,” I said, very puzzled. “How did you do that?” I said to the lady. No response. “What the hell’s going on?” I asked.
Joe simply thought the question, “How can we hear you?”
She answered, “Those seated around the room may receive/hear the answers in their minds. Those not seated cannot. However, in all cases, only the interlocutor may ask the questions unless I chose otherwise.”
Joe paused and then said, “And I’m guessing the interlocutor is the one seated in this big chair.”
“You are correct. A person must be seated in the Cathedra of Knowledge to engage in two-way communication and learn directly from me,” she replied.
Joe turned to us, “Okay, she said if you are seated on the benches, you can receive her thoughts or answers at the same time I do, but she may not allow you to speak with her directly. Only the person seated in this chair can do that. If you are standing, you can hear her response verbally, in her language, but not get the thoughts.”
“So, we feed our questions to the person in the chair, they ask her the questions, and then we can all receive her answer through this thought transference as long as we’re seated on these benches?” I said.
“Yep, that’s what she said, unless she decides otherwise.”
“Okay, everybody, sit down. Joe, ask her what this place is.”
The thought formed, what is this place, and before it could reach Joe’s lips, the reply came to us.
“It is a place of learning and peace. You are welcome here; I sense you mean no harm,” the blue lady smiled and bowed her head.
I looked at Joe; he was beaming, and I must have had a massive smile on my face.
Doc, grinning, said, “I understood her that time.”
The others, eyes wide, nodded in agreement.
A thought struck me. “Joe, ask her if this is the library.”
Joe did, and her response to him was clear, “No, this is not the sacred library, but it is a repository of infinite knowledge.”
Only slightly dejected, I said, “This may not be the library, but I think we may have just gotten access to a cosmic encyclopedia.”
Doc laughed, “If you’re right, I have a million questions. Where do we start? What’s our priority?”
“Finding the location of the library. It sounds like she has so much information, we could spend days here, learning, but we don’t have days, so Joe, ask her the location of the library,” I said.
Joe asked, and the response was puzzling.
“The sacred library holds the information of the ages and will not be opened to those who are unworthy. It is protected, and few may gain access. I have looked into your minds and hearts. You have flaws, but you are not evil. You have the potential to do good rather than ill. You seek knowledge over riches as you are already individuals of significant wealth, yet your integrity prevails. I will answer your question thusly, in order to enter the library, you must elevate yourselves before the path reveals itself, and the way only then becomes crystal clear.”
“What the heck is that supposed to mean?” I said, rather impatiently and somewhat confused.
Joe asked again and for additional clarification.
Her response was just as cryptic, “Look within. You have what is necessary to find what you seek.”
O’Reilly said, “Okay, guys, we’re just taking pot shots here. We need a new approach to getting answers from her. What did she say her name was?”
“She didn’t,” Joe said, and he asked her again for her name.
This time, we all got the response, via thought transference, that Joe had gotten earlier. The feeling of a cool, refreshing breeze with an underlying bedrock of great strength and an aura of benevolent knowledge. In a moment, her thoughts came to us, “I see there is no easy translation of my name in your language. I am sorry.”
Dimitri looked around and said, “Well, we need to call her something. I don’t know; maybe we give her a name for our benefit even if it isn’t right.”
“What the heck does that mean?” Doc asked.
“I mean, let’s give her a name that we can use amongst ourselves so we know when we’re talking about her.”
There was a pause, then he said in a rush, “I’ve got it, Jeannie; we’ll call her Jeannie.”
“What?” Doc blurted out.
“You know, like the TV show with the NASA astronauts and the genie that comes out of the bottle, Jeannie.”
�
�At a time like this, you come up with that? This is serious; we don’t have time for screwing around,” I said rather harshly.
Dimitri looked appropriately chastised and said, “Sorry, Colt, just trying to help.”
Reggie chuckled and shook her head side to side and said under her breath, “Dimitri, you big palooka.”
After a moment or two, I heard Eduardo say in a quiet, almost conspiratorial voice, “Senor Dimitri, I like the name, Jeannie.”
Dimitri looked at him and, smiling slightly, said, “Thanks, kid.”
I saw the others smiling and looking at each other.
I resigned myself as I thought, we have a Lair, why not a Jeannie, and said, “Joe, ask Jeannie what this city is—and let her know that we mean no disrespect by giving her a foreign name for our own use.”
Joe did, and Jeannie responded, “This was a colonization outpost. It was from here that we sent out our teachers,” she paused and then said smiling, turning to the boy, “I too like the name Jeannie, Eduardo.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Jeannie slowly turned and looked at us one by one and then turned back to Joe, still seated in the chair, “They have many questions.”
Joe said, “Yes, we are here to learn. Can you help us, teach us?”
“I can,” she replied. “I will answer your questions, but there must be order; chaos breeds inefficiency.”
Joe continued, “So, you can see our thoughts?”
“Yes,” Jeannie responded. “I have learned everything; all your knowledge is now part of me. I can now respond to you in terms that you will understand, Joe.”
“You know all of us by name and everything we know?”
“Yes, Joe, Colt, Dimitri, Doc, O’Reilly, Reggie, and Eduardo, everything.”
It was now so much easier to communicate since she was acknowledging and responding to the thoughts and questions of our entire group, even though Joe remained seated in the Cathedra of Knowledge as our main conduit.
“Okay, but you’re not a real person. Are you a machine?”
Jeannie’s smile broadened ever so slightly as she replied, “No, I am not a machine. I am the essence of the one you named Jeannie, a teacher and protector/overseer of the Citadel. I have been thus for thousands of your years.”
We were now just along for the ride as Joe kept asking questions.
“So, how long has this Citadel been here?” Joe asked.
“We constructed the Citadel forty thousand of your years ago. We have been visiting your planet for many thousands of your years.”
This revelation literally took our breaths away. No one spoke. Thousands of years, that means her race must have developed interstellar space flight long before that. Now, the number of questions expanded exponentially in our minds.
Over the last three and a half years, we had seen and experienced many amazing things, but this encounter has just blown them all out of the water. Stunned, we all sat there silently, trying to grasp the mind-boggling information Jeannie had just shared.
I broke the silence. It was my turn, and I said, “Joe, ask her if she is alive, a living being.”
Joe complied, and Jeannie responded, “Yes, I am a living being, but not in the same way you are. My race discovered long ago the secret to a form of transmutation, converting physical matter into its purest essence, energy.”
Another bombshell, every Sci-Fi movie I had ever seen was running through my head. This kind of topic had been part of many of them, but here it was for real. My next question to Joe, “Is she confined to this room, or can she move about the city?”
Jeannie answered Joe, “I can move about the city and be called to any location at any time. On the entry portal of every building, you will find a similar imprint as those on the Cathedra. Placing your hand on them calls me to that location.”
Now, Doc jumped in, “Why is the city so empty? There are no remnants of the residents anywhere.”
Now, Jeannie did smile, “That is not true, Doc; the city is filled with materials from its occupants.”
“But the buildings are all empty; nothing is there,” Doc said. It was weird; we were speaking to her but looking at Joe as he asked Jeannie our questions. A little disconcerting, but we were adapting.
Jeannie looked at Joe and said, “I can see you have some understanding of what I am about to say. I will rely on you to help your friends understand.” She paused, then continued, “Everything in the universe vibrates at its unique frequency: our bodies, our planets, the stars, everything. We have developed the ability to control those vibrations and rearrange or change them. You can think of it as phase shifting, slightly altering something’s frequency to shift it out of phase with this reality. I have shifted all the remnants, as you call them, of the Citadel out of phase; they are still there but not in the physical sense you understand. I can change them at will,” she paused, and the room shimmered, tapestries or banners appeared hanging on the walls. Two censers appeared on either side of the stone chair.
“I have restored this room to its original form and can do so with any or all buildings or outside spaces in the Citadel.”
As we gazed around the room, the realization of the power wielded by Jeannie was beyond our comprehension.
I said to Joe, “She can do this with the entire city?”
Jeannie responded, “Yes, of course. This is another protective measure that I take to keep the Citadel and its contents secure. Much like the cloak, as you call it, an energy field that I create to conceal the Citadel’s location.”
Joe said, “Yes, about that, you create the projection or visual that is seen from the other side?”
“Yes, I control its size, intensity, and what is seen by those on the outside.”
“And you can change what is seen to another image?”
“Yes, there are no limitations to what I can make appear. I have used what you saw, the crevasse, for many years. I saw no need to change it since no one has come here for hundreds of your years.”
Joe said to no one in particular, “So, this is like the invisibility cloak that Tesla was working on back in the 40s. His experiments were high-energy-based.”
We were all sitting there listening and experiencing the conversation between Jeannie and Joe, trying with some difficulty to keep up. But a question popped into my head, and I said, “That must take a tremendous amount of energy to create and maintain.” Since Jeannie was now responding to us individually as well as through Joe, she looked at me and answered.
“Yes, it does, but energy is not a problem for us. We have more than enough.”
Dimitri spoke, “Where is your power plant? Where does the energy come from?”
Jeannie replied, “Dimitri, our power comes from everywhere. It is all around us and infinite. We merely draw on it and use it as needed.”
“So, you use it to power everything,” Dimitri continued.
“Yes, all our needs in the Citadel and other locations around this world. It powers our cities, tools, our communications, our transportation, and our ships.”
“Transportation, ships?” Dimitri asked.
“Yes, we have multiple types of vessels for use in our travels around your planet. It also powers our star ships,” Jeannie replied.
Joe said, “We have been studying a type of energy that we know exists, but we have not been able to find a way to measure it, let alone harness it for use. We call it Zero-Point energy. Is that what you’re talking about?”
Jeannie paused before responding as if thinking. When she spoke, she nodded her head slightly with an understanding smile.
“Yes, Joe, from what I have learned from you about this energy, I believe it is the same.”
Joe looked stunned as he turned to us and said, “They have harnessed Zero-Point energy and did it thousands of years ago. We are just now discovering it, and our scientists are talking about it in theoretical terms. They are actually using it. Amazing.”
Doc said, “Ask her about the silver cubes
we found and the one that uses gold to levitate objects.”
Joe asked the question, even though Jeannie heard Doc’s thoughts. She paused again before answering.
“You have found things that were taken without permission from the Citadel hundreds of years ago. They can be dangerous in the hands of those that do not know their function. They are energy storage units that are used to power our devices.”
“What do you mean, dangerous?” I asked.
“The amount of energy that they store, if unleashed in an uncontrolled fashion, would trigger an explosion of great destructive power—enough to destroy this entire Citadel one hundred times over.”
“Holy crap,” Doc said. “Fitz’s team is working on them now. We need to warn them!”
O’Reilly jumped from the bench and said, “I’ll get the SAT phone and call the colonel and let him know to stop all testing on those things until he hears from us.”
She paused, turned, and looked at me. “Go,” I said.
Joe reminded her, “You’ve got to step out from under the cloak for the SAT phone to work.”
“Got it,” she replied as she hurriedly left the building.
Jeannie had a serious look on her face when she said, “Tampering with our technology without the proper knowledge can have globally devastating results. You must realize that our level of technological advancement is far beyond your comprehension. To use one of your analogies, you are like young children playing with fire.”
That gave me pause, but I continued our line of questioning, “So, those things hold Zero-Point Energy?”
“Yes, they hold it and continually absorb it. Their power capability is unlimited,” Jeannie replied.
I pressed her, “Can you teach us how to use them?”
She looked at me and said, “You are not ready.”
“How are they controlled?” Joe asked.
“Like all things, with your mind,” Jeannie answered.
Before anyone could ask another question, Jeannie said, “I think that is enough for now. You have been here many hours, and I must go. You may return tomorrow, and we can resume your education,” and with that, she disappeared. It was then we realized we had been in the room for hours. In fact, it was mid-afternoon, and I was starving and tired. I stood up and looked at the others as they stood.