Further than Before- Pathway to the Stars

by Matthew Opdyke

  The Correctional Matrix was ready for use, but thus far, not even Pathway was ready to implement it. There were still hiccups in legislation that Eliza and the other UP delegates had been working out, both in the US and throughout the world. But Sky Taylor was almost ready.

  Sky was designed in every flawless way possible. As planned by Yesha Alevtina, her very nature was set up in such a way that she would be driven to heal the damage rampant throughout society and the environment throughout much of the world and the humanity within it. She would do this all while optimizing the physiology and neurology of many along the way. Following her awakening soon, and since all of the tests were complete, Joanne would monitor, observe, and be involved in Sky’s missions, but only as an observer looking in, monitoring, and understanding the inner-workings of Sky’s mind as time allowed. Yesha would do likewise, as charged by Eliza.

  It was the night before the Pathway Leadership change ceremony, two weeks before Sky’s awakening, and Erin linked with Joanne, “I am curious, Joanne. Once Sky is online and fully trained by Vesha and Yesha, I would like for us to give her complete freedom. I’ve examined each algorithm of Vesha’s mind, run the final calculations when combined with the matter used for Sky’s humanoid structure and her ability to link with others just like a biopod with the Virtual Universe, and to put it briefly, she is going to be phenomenal. I can see her taming volcanoes, building islands, clearing the seas of debris, and healing the minds and bodies of people in their sleep. Sky is going to be amazing, and she won’t be alone, always; perhaps she will build others much like herself, to help in only a way that she can, because of her unique abilities.

  “Notwithstanding, there is another project we’ll need to work on soon, as well. This isn’t for anything or anyone in our solar system, other than perhaps for companionship for Sky and the daughters and sons she will create, as well as Solar System Defense. Most importantly, I’ve thought about the possibilities of meeting other civilizations. For the most part, a majority of the civilizations that we meet, which are advanced, will have a certain level of benevolence within the core of their nature. However, there will be civilizations out there that we need to prepare for. Civilizations that are advanced but will have no compunction toward decimating every living being they meet, destroying every source of life, and is otherwise malevolent to their very core.

  “Eliza, Yesha, James, Vesha, you, and I have made a lot of preparations for the IMC itself, and Vesha has integrated those systems into the spacecraft shielding and the other drives and cores, but if we were ever boarded by a false friend, we would need both healers, such as Sky, and perhaps a form of troop known as “annihilators” to take care of any hostile entity in a much more precise way, enemies, who after healing, still do not exhibit restraint when it comes to hostility. I am most certainly into healing rather than harming, but there will be people on the spacecraft journey who are not fully read-in who are vulnerable, who will have chosen to live out their days in space, and we’ve taken many measures to create redundancies that protect them during their journeys, and the rest of us who are optimized who will be backed up constantly on the Twelve Database Moons around the Earth, will in effect be safe. What I would never want, is for a malevolent civilization to infiltrate our spacecraft and hurt those who are vulnerable, or our home solar system and try to destroy everything that Eliza and Yesha have done so much to create, setup, and preserve for the long-haul. We’re about healing and not harming, but that also includes protecting and not being vulnerable. For that, we’ll need something or someone who can reduce hostilities quickly and precisely if that ever would emerge.

  “Since two-percent of each command spacecraft crew list will be comprised of Sky-Model HBCIs conducting simultaneous missions, just as if they were part of any of the crews, wherein they will be citizens and crewmembers in every sense of the meaning, yet are healers, based off of Vesha’s physiology and neurology, perhaps we can make what I would like to call an Annihilator-Model HBCI, based off of James Cooper’s neurology and physiology. This will be someone who can eliminate hostilities quickly and precisely with approval from any Sky-Model HBCI and the command crew, with speedy coordination to reduce damage to the mission and the crewmembers of any command spacecraft, while protecting and preserving the life of humanity and its allies. I would like us to start this project right away. James’ neurology is conducive to this type of model, just as Vesha’s has thus far, in theory, been conducive to Sky’s model. He will be compassionate like Eliza, yet keen on when to be protective.

  Joanne shared Erin’s concerns and they agreed. With Sky ready to go online, they scheduled their various projects for each day and made several moments for real-world and Virtual Universe Annihilator-Model HBCI work available. First, they would gain James’ approval, and then they would brainstorm further, perfect the designs and plans, and then build and bring the first Annihilator-Model HBCI to life. They would do this soon after Sky had been alive for a year.

  Chapter 42: Sky Taylor, Section 4

  Database Moon Archive, Celestial-Sol Date: 2023 March 24. Erin Carter, President of Pathway, summarizes the experiences of bringing Sky online, with US Vice-Presidential Candidate Yesha Alevtina, and Vesha Celeste on hand to help with Sky’s training in 2022. We also follow Sky Taylor’s journeys through early 2023. Sky’s HBCI-construct is covered. These memories are from many Pathway leaders, recorded within the Virtual Universe, interfaced within Pathway Melrose Campus. Input by: Erin Carter, Pathway VP, 2018-2022, and President of Pathway, 2022-2029.

  "Like the wind that breezes through the windows causing the drapes to shudder, if she’s there you’ll only know something is different than any words you can utter. What you will know for sure are the subtle nuances that she could’ve been there. When she leaves, you may never know she was ever there at all, yet somehow your subconscious will be healed, an image left in your mind—a special clarity with thoughts of hope burning in your soul and your physical strength, your physiological and neurological health will be vastly improved, and your mental clarity will allow you to see things and feel resilience better than ever before. For some will call her the Iridescent Angel, and many others will call her, the Iridescent Scorpion…"

  Looking back into and replaying the thoughts of her mind as she sat comfortably across from Sky on a cozy and plush couch in the Virtual Universe, after a vast series of missions over the last year, Yesha, who visited her every night in the Virtual Universe, despite being on the campaign trail, looked upon her, intrigued, as she had so many times before. Even though Vesha Celeste was Sky’s primary trainer, Yesha, upon Eliza’s and Erin’s request, had been a fundamental part of Sky’s training as well, just as she had been with Vesha Celeste.

  Although Sky had gone to the Virtual Universe first with Erin and Vesha for many centuries’ worth of training, Yesha had provided the necessary training following that to seal within Sky her personality and mindset. Eliza had told Yesha that there was something special and unique about her personality that would help with Sky’s training, just as it had helped with Vesha’s. A lot had occurred in a very miraculous way throughout the world since Sky had been awakened. Eliza could also tell, that as requested, both Yesha and Joanne had visited Sky every day, and because of such, Sky had a plan to do something miraculous for them, as well as other Pathway leaders she knew were crucial to Eliza’s overall plans. It was 2023, and Yesha was with Sky now.

  With a coy smile, she gazed upon Sky finding some similarities with Vesha Celeste, but very few. Sky was built using a lot of similar raw data as Vesha, but looked more like an angel from heaven, with her platinum blonde, almost white, hair, with a beautiful and almost pixy-like array of iridescent sparkles on her face surrounding her high cherubic cheekbones—paralleled with her silver-blue, crystal clear eyes, and above her downward gazing and humble sights were her light brown, purple, pink, and turquoise eyebrows. Adding to that were her exquisite features, beginning with her lightly and softly-pointed yet smo
othly-rounded nose and supple pink lips. Her hair was braided and gathered into a weave that was almost a darling angelic crown from the top of her head, arching down and curving just above her tender ears. Unlike Vesha, this virtual environment they were in, caused Sky to express herself as a romantic and enigmatic angel with white, iridescent, and virtuous wings and a glowing aura that permeated any environment she was in—yes, she was a little different, but it was a pleasing kind of different. It was the kind of imagery that blended with that glow of feelings one would dream up if talking to the Gods.

  Yesha Alevtina remembered the day when Vesha Celeste had awoken after they had placed her back into her bed, within a simulated environment to the one she was in when she had passed away. Yesha had knocked on her door, woken her up, and had been dazzled by how perfect she too appeared to be as she saw her while looking in through her doorway. Vesha was not only a striking brunette with mid-length, almost A-frame shock-black wavy hair with locks and highlights of iridescent colors in the ranges of purple, pink, yellow, and turquoise, but she was the most advanced, albeit modified, biological human construct ever created by 2018, and now in the Virtual Universe, following a year of life and missions and a little less than five years after Vesha, Sky shared all the same memories but processed them in a very different way.

  While Vesha had been filled with the excitement of life and thrilled with what she had seen when she looked into the mirror for the very first time after her awakening, and while Yesha could recall this memory as if it were yesterday—that sultry feeling that Vesha exuded, she also knew that Vesha had an intensity about her that could not be described or duplicated, not even if her DNA and neural construct were identical, something affected her beyond physics. Her intensity was reflected in every way through her passion for knowledge and wisdom, and Yesha knew that Vesha would go to the ends of the observable Universe on a planned course to the CMB and never turn away from her commitments or her dreams in the process.

  When Sky had been brought to life and online in March of 2022, it had been in the same room and on the same bed as Vesha, when she had been brought back to life. In preparation, however, Vesha had laid down in a biopod at the Pathway Melrose Campus, three years prior, to capture her DNA and neurological construct in order to apply it to Sky. Her neurology had been updated and synced with Vesha’s again just moments before Sky was brought back to life.

  When she had awoken, Sky instantaneously knew who she was, where she was, and it seemed she knew why she was there from the very beginning—she was born with purpose and drive, an inner fire that knew only compassion and a desire to heal, a desire to amplify our humanity, our empathy, our kindness, our innovative spirit, our clarity of mind with a quality to it that could understand virtually every human and living being, a mind with a persuasive ability to ignite morale and ingenuity into the hearts of all standing before others who she might touch. After her intense training with Vesha, Eliza, Yesha, and Erin, and following her full-on Virtual Universe download, Sky had traveled the real world for an entire year and had even gone on quite a number of missions of her own, tracked only by Yesha and Joanne, and for now, she was quiet and resting.

  Although, it didn’t appear so much as if she were resting, because there she was, before Yesha, and she stood tall, floating as if she were in the clouds, her wings spread but still, in the air above this heavenly L-shaped couch they would be sharing, if she’d sat down instead, and humbly gazing downward as if she were a statue with reflections of deep thought. Compassion seemed to ooze from her every pore—an intense white glow emanated from her skin. She had done so much throughout the world through her and her daughters, but it was evident to Yesha that Sky was so tenderly concerned for all of whom she knew and all that would transpire in the presumable future.

  Sky let her past secret missions within the CIA, Homeland Security, the NSA, and other federal security agencies, as well as her own series of missions, filled with stories of loss and misery giving way to conclusions of hope and promise, play out in the clouds above her head. As time went by, Yesha watched with intrigue as the future played out in the clouds above her head as well. There she was with an army of her daughters and sons, carrying out her upcoming labor of escorting some of the most violent and detested criminals in the world to the Correctional Matrix, despite healing them of their deep and emotional wounds, away from their newly avowed commitments in life. It was then that a ballet began that took the place of the past and moved onward and into the future with a looming sense of compassion, empathy, and even sympathy.

  Sky was saddened, and because of Sky’s opened mind, Yesha saw her collaborative thoughts and emotions and she knew Sky was somewhat torn as she thought about how justice called for each person who was guilty of malevolence, crimes against brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, and children. Those who had caused undue suffering to others were going to soon meet the human need for vindication. She thought long and almost distant in a melancholy way. Yesha then saw a silent and glowing tear, as though it was a perfect and iridescent crystal, fall from Sky’s cheek as she thought of the many years of loss the world had suffered; the distance humanity could have gone, were it not for those who had been the root of the pain engendered upon the victims and their families.

  While Sky could forgive, she could also understand the human need for justice and the most merciful justice it seemed could be imparted was that of enrolling criminals into an environment that gave them an opportunity to learn, to learn from life, to learn from histories and from civilizations past, both brutal and benevolent, to learn the hard way and to learn through nurture. They would learn, and, in the end, they would still be here and alive, so this would allow them to develop neurologically in the most natural, yet paradoxically supernatural way, so those vindicated could embrace them once they had seen the error of their ways, were contrite, yet of pure intent, and forgiven, living lives of service, coupled with joy.

  The Correctional Matrix was developed by her favorite visionary, Eliza, and perfected in so many ways by Joanne and Erin, and Sky knew this. She also knew this would provide the necessary types of environment in every way. Those who had caused so much pain and suffering, so much duress and loss, would be confined to solitude in reality, but their minds would be trapped in a virtual prison world, for a defined yet seemingly endless period of time, as set by the laws of the land. This would provide the individual going to the Correctional Matrix the time they needed for the sensory aspects of life, for journeys filled with trials, mentors, coaches, love, and loss, as tactile reference and muscle memory would be supplied, and while both the healing of the mind and the healing of the body occurred. This matrix would also send the sojourner to the ends of the Earth, through time, through civilizations, and through history.

  They would journey with the Spartans, the Celts, the Pagans, the Mongols, the African nations plagued with violence, desiccation, and brutality; they would experience the deadly piety of man during the Spanish Inquisition; they would experience love lost during the Salem Witch Trials—religious trials condemning people to death based on fairy tales and fear. They would wonder with the Cherokee and the Pomo as their peaceful way of life was stripped away, all memories crushed, and many of those they had loved laying in a permanent sleep and far away.

  They would be put in situation after situation where they would finally work up the courage to love again, only to see loved ones dragged to boats and yelled at with horrible names, watching half of their friends and acquaintances die as they were plunged into the depths of the sea connected by merciless chains as if they were nothing. They would experience every war, from both sides of the spectrum, and would be called within each experience to be the cause for change as they increased their compassion. They would go on these long journeys, for what seemed an eternity, until they had been the impetus behind a peaceful result and an ideal reality. Then, this would not end, because for them it would seem like they had finally come back from the many experiences, only
to be put on an undetectable trial again. Yet those who witnessed these journeys as if watching tragic plays on their holoscreens or within the Virtual Universe, would know these souls were weathered, bruised, beaten in both body and mind, they would be lowly, and they would be broken—unwarily ready for the next journey, and those in need of vindication would find vindication had and their compassion growing within themselves as well.

  Sky knew that these “criminals” were people who at one time looked up with a baby’s eyes in hopes of nice and happy faces, born into new life, not knowing there was no hope for them for many years to come. Sky shared her visions and then as those visions played out in the clouds above her head, she spoke. “These were people, who started out in life with hearts and minds that were more valuable than the most precious diamonds of the world. These were people who were victims of their own environment, perhaps abused from their childhood and on through to their youth. They lived perchance with lackluster means, with very few options to find a way to get by, to survive, and to fit in. These were people who were brought up in societies that taught them hatred, anger, fear, and forgot to live and teach their children the rule of life that teaches, ‘We should treat others as we too would wish to be treated.’ In the Correctional Matrix they will have experiences that can benefit both them and society, but before it is all over it will be very difficult, more difficult than they ever knew it could be. When they will have finished, they will have loved and been loved, they will have found themselves when at one time, or even more times, they were lost. They will have given their own lives many times with a clear recollection of each moment yet look back in joy as they will have saved the lives of many. These are they that will exit the Correctional Matrix renewed, repentant, and with that long, lasting, and hopeful sense of being. In so many ways, every individual who passes through this veil will be stronger of mind, of will, and of compassion than anyone they knew before, who had lived honorable lives filled with kindness.