Seymore's Interlude

by Franci Neale

  Chapter 17

  Making a Difference

  Mesa watched Geralty struggle with the water as he tried to row the boat. Fred had moved to sit on the bench next to her and she alternated between petting him, enjoying Geralty’s attempts at rowing and thinking of ways to make Seymore’s management of the station easier. She had a number of new ideas and was deep in thought about what would happen when the next light traveler arrived when she heard Seymore shouting her name.

  She jumped up and moved in Seymore’s direction as he came around the corner of the cottage. Geralty also heard the call and pulled hard on the oars to send the boat into the shallows of the pond. He carefully stepped out into the water and ran uninvited to meet his two companions.

  Seymore took them back to sit on the bench and told Mesa, “I need for you to send a message to Valentino at Middle Mind. The meddlers are on their way there and he will be much happier if he knows ahead of time. Can you conjure a messenger so I can send along what Valentino needs to know? ”Mesa quickly nodded yes and a tiny version of Seymore appeared. Seymore was surprised; he had expected an image of Mesa. He said, “That’s amazing, how did you do that?” Mesa looked at him and asked, “Do we have time for that right now?”

  Seymore smiled and shook his head and then addressed the messenger.

  Dearest Valentino,

  We recently had a surprise visit from the mathematician, the mentalist and the Mahatma. They were set on interfering with the workings of ES360 but I was able to redirect them. I have sent them to you, by suggesting that you had some new facilities that might interest them. I even told them they could temporarily use my office. I know you’ll be able to keep them there until we can secure Seymore Place so they can’t intrude again. Thank you for helping me in my hour of need.

  On a happier note, please send one of your markers back with this messenger so when we are ready to celebrate the completion of Seymore Place you’ll be able to transport here for the festivities. You’re the only one on the invitation list so we will have lots of time to catch up. It won’t be long now.

  I’ll send details and suggestions later on how to take advantage of the skills of your new office mates. They might be much more helpful than they intend to be...

  Love to you always from your brother, Seymore.

 

  He turned to Mesa and said, “Send it fast so it arrives before the visitors do.” In a crackle of light the little Seymore was gone and the big Seymore smiled and thanked Mesa for letting him use her skills yet again. He forgot to ask about his miniature.

  Geralty had silently watched the transmission of the message to Valentino and despite being dripping wet from the knees down he hadn’t moved a muscle; he observed in wonder. When the message was on its way he looked at Mesa and in a near whisper said, “Can you teach me that?” Mesa put her arms around his shoulder and said, “I can and I will. But you need to go to your room and create some better gear for your bottom half, don’t you think? He smiled and loped away to the back entrance near his room. In his mind he imagined being able to conjure and send tiny Mercury Messengers. It was a thrilling idea.

  Seymore went over to the water’s edge and took the rope at the bow of the row boat and walked it over to the dock and secured it to a cleat. Then he motioned to Mesa to come with him and they walked down the path to the entry and went into the study. He gratefully eased himself into the big leather chair and Mesa now changed to her schoolmarm, and sat down in his office chair.

  They both had a long list of questions and information that needed to be exchanged, but neither spoke until Seymore was more relaxed and asked, “What did you think of the famous trio?” Mesa laughed and said they were not at all what she would have expected and added, “How did you talk them into leaving besides giving them your office and volunteering your brother? What are they going to do at Middle Mind?”

  Before Seymore could respond, Mesa added, “I figured out how they arrived. ”She paused and smiled and just waited, savoring every moment of knowing something Seymore didn’t. Seymore waited and when she didn’t continue he said, “So how did they get in?” She laughed and told him how she had located the foot prints at the far end of the beach and that Fred was there first. Seymore reached over and patted Fred who had followed them and was sitting on the big arm of his chair.

  She then added without prompting, “I think I have a solution. We need to put up an invisible barrier along the beach where the water illusion meets the shore. It will need to bend out away from Seymore Place. I think we can do it with the same material you used to make the dome, but thinner and the local Units of Energy will gravitate to it as soon as the first layer is attached to the super structure at the edge. If someone tries in the future to come in that way the outward curve will deflect their projection backward and it will drop off and become part of the illusion.”

  Seymore said, “That sounds like a good plan but once it’s installed, let not stabilize it for a while. There might be another answer that would work better. Such a barrier might also block the sound of the waves and could interfere with the soft breeze that flows up the meadow; not vital functions, but pleasant.”

  Seymore suddenly pulled himself out of the big chair and said, “Let’s go build it right now. I think a good walk would clear my thinking.” They left through the hall that led to the library. They opened the double doors and both stopped to look out over the meadow and for a moment just enjoyed the view. They left the doors open to catch the breeze and walked down the path and into the lane.

  As they walked by the picnic table Seymore reached up and let the big market umbrella down saying “We’ll want to move this soon because when we’re finished at the beach I think I’ll work on the Weedy Field and make a new spot for this set. ”He looked down at the table top and noticed initials neatly carved in one corner: AE, SF and G. The guests had left their mark using an old tradition from The Rim. Seymore smiled and shook his head.

  As they turned to walk down the lane Seymore said to Mesa, “I think we should make it a tradition that all of our visitors carve their initials into the table top. I’ll put SW for Sarah on one of the other corners since she was our first visitor” Mesa agreed and they fell silent as they reached the dunes, crossed over to the beach and walked toward the far end. The foot prints were gone, washed away by the water illusion, but Seymore could see how it was possible to enter and so he turned, and mentally mapped a pattern for the barrier. He set the edge of curved glass and guided the Units to the perfect positions for forming the large curved panel that leaned out over the beach. It was effective, but not particularly attractive. “This is OK for now, but we’ll need something to replace it that will be more in keeping with the rest of Seymore Place. Let’s attract something that’s beautiful that does the same thing.” Mesa nodded her agreement.

  They turned to go back to the Cottage and as they walked Seymore told Mesa about his agreement with Valentino to allow them access to the inventory log of all the released images from transitions as they were completed at Middle Mind. He asked her if she and Geralty could learn to use their objective skills to allow the inert images to personify the greeters the light travelers needed when they were at the dome. Mesa didn’t reply. Then she offered, “I don’t know, but I’m willing to find out. How do we do that?”

  Seymore said, “Funny you should ask, “ and grinning he continued, “When I was visiting at Middle Mind I asked Valentino to set up a method so we can transfer and return images as we need them. That way we can access the entire log and chose the ones that will be closest to the needs of the light travelers without having too many here at once. He’s working on it as we speak.”

  “I’ll ask him to pick an image as a test case using a marker or focus point to send and return the images. If that works we could transfer markers or focus points several at a time with your messengers. Is that possible?” Mesa said it was, though it might not be the best way as mes
sengers had both space and distance limitations. “But, I’ll start teaching Geralty to message. He’ll be thrilled. He seems to thrive on learning new things. I made an excellent choice when I brought him here.” Seymore agreed and put his arm around her and gave her a gentle squeeze. They had reached the picnic table and he invited her to sit down.

  “Tell me what you think of this idea. The Meddlers might be useful in our transfer of images. While they can be troublesome they are very enterprising and know a great deal about Middle Mind. Among the three of them they have the skills and talents to select the images and transfer them, which would be a great help to us and Valentino. And it would keep them busy and they couldn’t do any damage because the images no longer have substance or intent.” Mesa emitted a gentle chuckle and said, “So they can’t go into the light but they can select the images that will. How fitting!”

  “It’s possible that the only thing the messengers would need to transport would be a small imprint that a transport could focus on or Valentino’s new helpers could just project the images they select to meet our specifications. We could define the needs of the traveler and send that by messenger who would bring back the temporary imprint, receive the focused transport, rework the images, serve the travelers and return the images with their imprint by transport back to Middle Mind where they could be returned to the log. This has potential, but it also needs to be cleaned up. ”And Mesa thought that it probably needed a lot more than that. It sounded far too complicated to actually be done.

  Seymore was on a roll and rapidly continued, “We’ll need someplace for the images to collect when they arrive here. Let’s think about what that could be and where it could be. I think we have the makings of a good plan, don’t you?” Mesa nodded and tried to look like she understood. And then she added, “Soon, Seymore, this is going to be a very busy place and we won’t have near the privacy or latitude we have now. I find that sad in a way.”

  Seymore looked carefully at Mesa and said, “That’s why I have made the cottage private; so we will always have our place and be together. We won’t lose each other in the coming changes, I promise. ”He was mostly right, but not quite the way he thought.

  Seymore reached out and took Mesa’s hand, she instantly turned back into the winged woman, and they walked to the open doors of the cottage. They turned for the office and Geralty met them as he came down the hall, clean and bright as a new penny. He was a delight.

  Seymore said, “I have a piece of news that you both should hear. You’ll like it. Let’s go in and make use of Mesa’s magic table, something we haven’t done for a while.” They all sat down in the magic chairs and Mesa made the table extra colorful for the occasion. When they were all settled, Seymore began,

  “I saw Sarah when I was with Valentino.” Together his companions shouted, “What!” and looked at him with shock and disbelief. He quickly continued. “It wasn’t her the way she is right now; it was a picture of the image that she had when she was in a coma. Valentino was able to show me the coma image from the logs that are kept in an area of Middle Mind.

  “The most important news is that because the image could be found it means that Sarah is no longer using it. It also means that she arrived safe and sound at The Rim. And, best of all, we know she woke from her coma and is now fully engaged in her life. It is a huge relief to know she is safe.”

  Geralty was sitting very still with big tears welling up in his eyes. He asked, “Can we see her too?” Seymore thought a minute and then said, “Yes. ”A burst of joy sent the tears down his cheek and he put his face in his hands and sobbed. Mesa moved to comfort him and said, “Do we need to set up the system with Valentino to get the image, or can Valentino just send it with a messenger?”

  Seymore said he wasn’t sure. Then he said something that was surprising. “I do think we need to create a place for the images to land and I think that Valentino should translate the images to holograms before they are sent. Mesa I think we can have the holograms all come in over the water illusion and we can create a lovely beach house where the images can remain until their purpose here is finished. By making the water illusion a busy place and putting in a force field on either side of a beach house we can safely remove the curved glass barrier and not worry about the water illusion being misused for trespassing. We would always know what was moving over the illusion all the time and the connection would only be to Middle Mind. Holograms are almost always a perfect match to illusions, so we don’t even have to make a new field to connect to the station’s structure. I like this idea very much.” Seymore was very excited about his brain storm and happily pacing the office as he spoke.

  Mesa said, “That’s perfect! When do we start?” Seymore replied that they could start as soon as he had an answer from Valentino. He crafted the message to his brother and impressed it on the messenger who this time was thumb-size Mercury with wings on his heels. After the message went the three friends sat for a long time at the magic table pulling their plans together and making lists of what and when to accomplish improvements and changes to accommodate the great lights and their traveler’s needs.