Donovan just laughed.
But I noticed that his people were really digging the car.
We were standing at the oval window and I saw two dolphins fly by. They looked unconscious to me. I asked Donovan, "Are they okay?"
"They're fine," he assured me. "They'll be home before they know it and they won't remember a thing."
"Just how intelligent are these dolphins?" I asked him.
He said, "Depends on where you're measuring from. Also there are differences between individuals, the same as any species. These fellows will never build star cruisers. But they'll never need to do so, either. The dolphins, Ashton, should be your teachers when it comes to the art of loving relationships."
I asked him, "What are you doing with them? What's this all about?"
“We are discharging a debt, Ashton."
"What kind of debt?"
"Well, we stole their planet, didn't we."
I said, "Did we?'
"Of course. They were the soul of the planet, my brother. We nudged them aside and substituted our own. In ignorance, of course, but... ah, well. This will help."
"What will help?"
"Well, you—we corrupted their environment. Looted and pillaged it, didn't we. The ecology of the entire planet has been altered. These fellows were not designed to cope with the environmental side effects of rampant technology. They would never survive it, just as we would not if confined to a single planet."
"I've seen those fellows on another planet," I reminded him.
"Oh that wasn't a planet," Donovan replied.
"Then what was it? You told me it was real."
"Real enough, yes. And entirely real for them. It is a world they built for themselves, Ashton."
I caught my breath in a sudden insight. "Built by their minds!"
"Yes. So what is technology, eh?"
I couldn't let it go that easy, though. I said, "Some Indian tribes have a happy hunting ground, a reverie land and what have you, which they believe they can visit. The dolphins...?”
"Yes," Donovan replied, "and others in their family, as well. What you call the killer whale has evolved a beautiful dreamland which they visit annually in large groups from a small bay in Canada. But of course all the dreamlands will be lost if the planet is lost. Earth is but a base, you see, for all the dreamlands that arise from it. So it is much more than a mere planet in space and time."
I felt absolutely staggered by the concept.
I told Donovan, "Okay. Now maybe I know who the devil is."
"It is us," he said simply.
"We can change it," I decided.
"We are changing it," Donovan told me.
"What are you doing to the dolphins?"
"Preparing them."
"For what?"
"To inherit the earth."
"After?"
"After his cousins render it unfit for their own further habitation. They will abandon it then, as all the others. We are introducing new strains of genetic components, Ashton. The dolphin will adapt and survive. So think of him as your successor."
"And what of us?" I asked quietly.
"I assumed that was obvious," he replied. "Look at me, Ashton. I am your future." He touched a plate on the wall, and the scene through the oval window became a long shot of the floating city as viewed from far away. "And look at this. It is your future home."
I said, "I'm not sure I like it, Donovan."
"Pity," he said. "It has been your goal for eight hundred million years."
Chapter Thirty: Time Out
Operation Dolphin was winding down. The shuttling of saucers back and forth across the airspace had given way to cleanup operations on the ground. Several small saucers were moving slowly about like vacuum cleaners, sucking up all the debris and the evidence of the night. I was seated in the lanai at the table with Penny and Julie. We just sat there, silent, watching the cleanup. Both women wore the characteristic silver bodysuit. I studied them for a moment, wondering, then I felt Donovan's mind on mine. I stood up and went to the corner of the lanai to peer up at the celestial city. Instantly then I found myself at the opposite end, peering back at myself on the ground.
Donovan stood beside me. He put an arm around me and squeezed me at the shoulder level. "Thank you, Ashton. You won't forget us, will you?"
"Fat chance," I said. "But thanks for what? I've done nothing."
"You've done more than you realize," he assured me. "But the thanks is for future favors as well."
I told him, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I know nothing of what I am supposed to do."
"As it should be. You will recognize it when it comes."
I asked him, "Are you taking the girls with you?"
"Oh no. Their work is here."
"For how long?"
"How does one measure the length of a life? Where does it begin and where does it end?"
I said, "Are you telling me they're here for life?"
He nodded. "For this life."
"I'm confused about this," I told him. "I would have sworn that both of those women were...different. Julie even spoke to me in some alien tongue while she was in trance. Now you seem to be saying..."
"Of course they are different, as each soul is unique and special. They came into this life pledged to a specific task. You would call them specialists, and they came to apply their specialty. At the proper time they were awakened. Granted, the awakening is sometimes confusing and even painful, especially if a period of retraining is deemed advisable, but—"
"You've had them in a training program?"
"Penelope, yes, because of the delicacy of the mission. Julie...well, not retraining but...Julie had never consolidated her role, let's put it that way. Therefore her awakening was particularly sluggish. I am telling you this, Ashton, only because I know you will take no offense at your role in her awakening."
I muttered, "That's what it was, eh? You needed someone to awaken the woman in her? Instead of what?—a dolphin?"
"I have told you there are many worlds, Ashton. There are also various dimensions and various stages of life. And there are harmonic realms. Now...your planet occupies a transfer realm, a vibrant of harmonics. Therefore there is much passage here, realm to realm. Have you not yet detected the very special dualism of qualities here?"
I said, "If you're talking about soul, or spirit...and that reminds me: what is this bit with the triangle and the pyramid?"
He smiled and again squeezed my shoulder. "Gave you something to think about, eh? The triangle is no more than the unity, Ashton, the statement in truth. In this your vibrant harmonic, the base leg of the triangle is beingness. The rising legs signify the projection and the return."
"Projection to where?"
"To God, of course."
I said, "Uh-huh. And the pyramid?"
"The promise."
"Promise of what?"
"Eternity. Have you understood nothing from me, my brother? Have I not told you of your many voyages upon the seas of time and of the timelessness of your quest? Why are you confused about your sisters when you and they are one? There are no alien languages, Ashton, there is but the projection and the return. Which role shall you project this time?-and which role shall return to project again? Your planet is a harmonic base, my friend, and your time here is but the base of the triangle."
I said, "This is confusing, Donovan. I get the feeling you are talking about repeated lives in different bodies— and that's okay, I can think about that—but you've also been talking to me about a physical as opposed to a spiritual odyssey, and I'm having trouble separating the two."
"That is because they cannot be separated," he replied. "Stop trying to separate and begin the attempt to unify. After all, Ashton, it is all a single reality."
Suddenly I was on the ground again, peering up from the corner of the lanai. The floating city was not there but a twelve-foot saucer was. It wiggled at me, then winked out.
I muttered, "
Okay," and went back to join the ladies at the table.
The dawn was breaking. Julie showed me a self-conscious little smile and poured coffee for me.
I said, "Well, it's been quite a night."
Penny told me, "You are welcome to join us for any sunrise, Ashton. It is always a very special moment, isn't it."
I looked at her and then at Julie and replied, "Yes, especially after a very special night."
Penny laughed and said, "Well I guess that's one way of looking at it. But I always think of sunrise as the beginning of a very special day."
I lowered my eyes to my coffee and replied, "For special people, yeah."
The vibes there were really weird. I had the god-awful feeling that neither of these ladies had been where I had been for the past few hours.
Almost as though to dispute that impression, though, Penny put a hand on my arm and said, “Thank you again, darling, for taking such good care of me last night. And I promise I will never do such a foolish thing again. Poor Ted. I cannot imagine how he must have felt when I bolted away from him like that." She showed me the patented Laker smile. "Well, all's well that ends well. Thanks to you, my love."
Now I felt even weirder. Last night? Had she lost the entire experience?
Julie showed me another of those embarrassed smiles and told Penny, "Ashton is interested in our dolphin watches. He's agreed to join us at Zuma next week."
I had?
"Well Ashton would be perfect for this!" Penny declared excitedly. "I'll bet he would make an excellent channel."
Channel? She meant medium.
I smiled secretly and told her, "I think I might have spoken with a dolphin once, maybe several of them."
Julie said, "Then maybe you could channel Ambudala."
I looked away and muttered, "Maybe I could."
"Dee Townsend receives him, but sort of erratically."
I was watching the sunrise as I asked, "Who is Ambudala?"
"Dee says he is a dolphin guide and teacher, a great master."
"In dolphin heaven," I decided.
"I guess so."
That is where we were when Bransen swept in, all bright-eyed and gung-ho and who would've dreamed it was him. He grabbed my hand and wrung it out, dropped kisses on the ladies, grabbed some coffee and walked out to look at the pool, came back with dancing eyes. "Fabulous job!" he said to Penny. "I wouldn't have believed they could put it in that quick! And not a clod of dirt anywhere! Who's the contractor?"
Penny told him, "Ashton brought him to us."
I looked at Bransen, thought Oh well, and told him, "Guy named Donovan. Specializes in, uh, unusual developments."
Bransen told his wife, "Keep that in mind. Maybe we can use him again. Listen, I bring back great news. This university down in Argentina is abandoning their marine research program. They have this great facility on a small offshore island with tanks, pens, the whole works in a strictly natural environment—absolutely the best for studying marine life. They'll lease the whole works on excellent terms. I took the liberty, Penny, of signing it on while I was there." He withdrew a document from his coat pocket and handed it to his wife.
I casually inquired, "When was this, Ted?"
He said, as though replying to the obvious, "Yesterday. You know? Buenos Aires?"
I said, "Oh, that yesterday."
He laughed and punched my arm. "Listen," he told me, "you're just the guy we need to round up the celebrities for next month's march."
I said, "Which march is that?"
"The nuclear protest, dummy. Nukes? Nevada? Underground tests?"
I said, "Oh, that march."
Well, that's the way it was going.
I figured what the hell and sat there and listened to about twenty minutes of the rebirth of Ted Bransen, then
Julie walked me to the carport and kissed me tenderly and we agreed to keep in touch.
The Maserati was sitting there cheek to jowl with Bransen's Bentley.
I winked at Julie and she winked back as I climbed into the Maserati, wondering if any of it had actually happened. Certainly something warm had happened with Julie... but what?
I eased away from there in a slow withdrawal, my gaze wandering repeatedly into the heavens. Then as I topped the little knoll where Bransen and I had paused earlier that morning, I spotted Grover Dalton.
He wore Levi's and a windbreaker and binoculars, and he was seated on the roof of his car with legs crossed and a thermos of coffee between them.
I halted beside him and asked, "Did you see it?"
He said, without looking at me, "Yeah, I saw it. Is it all over?"
"For this time, yeah, I think so," I told him. "May as well pack it in and take it home."
"Thanks," he said, "guess I'll give it a while longer. Got nothing else to do."
I knew the feeling.
I parked the Maserati and climbed up there with him. We shared the coffee and some small talk and waited together for possibly one last look.
They could have forgotten something.
What the hell, they could come back.
But of course they did not, not that time. They only come from time to time. They are older than time, you see, and they ride time like a steed throughout the universe.
What is time, anyway? If time is meaningless, then both past and future are mere abstracts, and forever is now.
And reality is a golden triangle.
-end-
Suggested Reading
Blum, Ralph with Judy Blum. Beyond Earth: Man's Contact With UFOs. New York: Bantam Books, 1974.
Downing, Barry H. The Bible and Flying Saucers. New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1968; Avon Books, 1970.
Fuller, John O. The Interrupted Journey. New York: The Dial Press, 1966.
Hynek, J. Allen. The UFO Experience, A Scientific Inquiry. New York: Henry Regency, 1972; Ballantine Books, 1974.
Strieber, Whitley. Communion. New York: Beech Tree, William Morrow, 1987.
Tomas, Andrew. We Are Not the First. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1971; Bantam Books, 1973.
Le Poer Trench, Brinsley. The Sky People. London: Neville Spearman, 1965; New York: Award Books, 1970.
Kindle Edition, April, 2010.
Time to Time: Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective (Ashton Ford Series Book 6) Page 16