“I guess so,” agreed Christopher. “It’s about my friends. Our friends now. It’s just that I have known them a lot longer than you and there is something really weird going on.” Christopher let that point sink in, Stephen waited for more. “It’s not that I worry about them, more an absence of worry; I have never had to worry about them. ‘Them’ is Joe, Charlotte and now Daniel as well. They always sail through every situation. Nothing bothers them. Whatever happens, they do just enough to sort things out, never ruffled, never anxious. It’s like they are super mature and at the same time super young and fit.”
Stephen considered that one for a second. It was certainly true, that combination was incredibly attractive when he first met Daniel, and he conceded that Joe and Charlotte possessed the same confidence and power. “It’s not very often I get concerned about young people who are incredibly well adjusted, fit and intellectual at the same time,” said Stephen. “After all, that’s what you want to find at this university, but now you mention it, it’s not often you get such perfectly balanced individuals. Normally there is a price to pay for excellence. Most have their foibles, weaknesses even, as their personality struggles to keep pace with their blooming experiences.”
Christopher saw an opening here, “Let’s just talk about those blooming experiences. Put to one side them sailing through their academic load and sporting achievements, that is normally tricky enough – and I have seen that with Joe and Charlotte right through our schooldays as well as now – but they get involved with really senior people and things that are well beyond their normal undergrad activities. I have been watching them and… ”
“Watching them, Chris?” Stephen looked concerned.
“Not watching them like that,” Christopher replied. “Watching is the wrong word. Remember, I am with them a lot and I see them taking… initiatives… I mean how do they get so deeply involved with Professor Kitteridge? I know that I am too, but still, I don’t get why we get such special treatment. I mean, I like it of course but it just seems unreal. Then there’s the closeness with Doctor McGregor and what happened to him. They just seem to meet strange people and do strange things and all the time there is this feeling that they are other-worldly. And now there’s you involved as well, Stephen. Let me ask you, does it all seem normal to you?”
“Good question, Chris. Guess I don’t always think much about what is normal. One of the good things here is hardly anything or anybody is normal so it’s the perfect place for strange people to hide in plain sight.”
“I have been putting this together for a long time, Stephen, and now sitting here telling you about it I am still unsure of anything; it just does not feel right. I needed to bounce it off somebody after all this time and it occurred to me while we were out punting, you could be the right person.”
“I am glad you came to me to talk about it, Chris,” said Stephen. “So do you think there is anything to worry about? Like anything bad could happen? Is there anything you want to do about it?”
“Bad things may already have happened, Stephen. Doctor McGregor is no longer with us after all. Would you just think about it and maybe you will also get to notice things now I have brought it to your attention. You are close with Joe when it comes to his fieldwork, involved in the social life of the group.”
“Yes, Joe is the most enthusiastic student ever when it comes to our fieldwork out in Thetford Forest. That may be odd in itself. I thought it was my charismatic teaching that enthused him but now you mention it, I was surprised early on as it didn’t seem entirely in character. Thanks for talking to me, Chris; it couldn’t have been easy for you. I am fine with being extra sensitive about the welfare of the group, you included, but I am not spying on anybody. I like them all and can’t believe anything bad is going on, caused by them at least. I just want to help to make sure that all is completely fine. Is that OK? Enough?”
“I didn’t know what to expect when I asked to come and see you, but I feel much better now. I am OK with having your help and certainly don’t want you to talk about it directly with the others – for now at least.” Christopher rose to leave. “That’s a deal then. No more to talk about – unless something comes up.”
“… And they need our help,” Stephen completed the conversation to their mutual agreement.
TWENTY-SIX
Omeyn MuneMei operated the Spargar plan for this part of planet Earth from the secluded house in Grantchester. It was unnecessary for her to leave the house. Haruka managed the running of the house, servants cleaned and provided nourishment, local foods augmented her favourite diet that travelled with her from Spargan. Access to the Mind provided collaborative communing with the other Omeyns across the galaxy. When the Omeyns were online to the Mind they had the collective knowledge of progress of the whole Spargar empire across the galaxy. Online they also had the focus of any other Omeyn that may be available to consider and advise on the local mission they were managing. In this way every action was a collective decision and there were no conflicts of management across the empire. Successes were celebrated by all and failures were shared also. The Mind grew exponentially and learned all the time from everywhere. The gap between an Omeyn and the highest Zarnha caste doing the work of Spargar was huge. No Zarnha had access to the Mind except through an Omeyn so they brought their information to the empire and received orders from their superiors, ultimately from an Omeyn.
Omeyn MuneMei trusted Haruka as highest-ranking Zarnha to enact her orders precisely in all matters except one. The Evrisoft corporate vehicle for the Zarnha incursion to Earth technology was performing to requirements and increasingly integrating with the Mind in the murky unseen network that is the Dark Web; an impenetrable layer, opaque to local authorities on Earth, strengthening and growing in its deference to the Mind. Another Omeyn MuneMei in San Jose controlled events at Evrisoft Headquarters there, with Haruka in Cambridge and the two other Zarnha lady Vice Presidents, Michiko and Tatsu, whom Keeran and Alron had run into previously as Darryl and Robert. Haruka could also control the asset Anya who had been deployed to spy on the upstart Professor Kitteridge and any of his parasitic Gayan henchmen.
Haruka could not operate the Ghola though as Zarnha were kept unaware of the capability for Spargar agents to exist in the soul state and could not be distracted with their knowledge. It was also counterproductive to own such effective spies and pass knowledge of them to the underlings. This left the problem for Omeyn MuneMei of how to instruct such a base and odious creature as a Ghola without the unpleasantness of actually meeting with it. This problem was solved by requiring the Ghola to report via a Ghola port into the Mind that was carried with Omeyns as part of their direct access technology to the Mind. It required the Ghola to return to the Ghola port at the Grantchester house regularly and certainly in case of important events. Orders from Omeyn MuneMei could be deposited at the Ghola port for the Ghola to collect when it next checked in. It was a messaging system that worked in close to real time with the essential requirement of separating the Ghola from all Spargar except the Omeyns who refused to countenance Gholas in their presence.
All the Zarnha intelligence processed in the Mind pointed to the existence of a nest of Gayan infection around the Kitteridge individual. Kitteridge was a classic example of a locally born human releasing large volumes of accurate knowledge clearly beyond the intellectual capabilities of any single human being acting alone. That he was surrounded by Gayan conspirators was beyond doubt. But how to identify the full extent and then cleanse the infection was always the issue. Gayans were notoriously difficult to expose, even harder to remove totally, especially when the Epsilon treaty demanded mutual life respect between advanced human races. Kitteridge himself was infirm, that much was clear from the asset Anya, and he would not live much longer. This favourable situation could be accelerated once those protecting him were exposed and eliminated.
The real risk here for Omeyn MuneMei was if there was some
Gayan-inspired political and scientific outcome of such magnitude that it ignited this emerging human race here on Earth to join forces with the hated Gayan empire. If that were to occur then this planet would become a Gayan ally in a sensitive sector close to planet Spargan itself. If it emerged in this way it would then become protected by the Epsilon Treaty and that in itself would protect planet Earth from large-scale incursions from Spargar. This could develop to be a thorn in Spargar’s side that could infect this whole sector of the galaxy. This threat must be expunged before it had the chance to take root. This Omeyn MuneMei had already eliminated the obvious Gayan agent McGregor once his guilt and his circumstantial association with Kitteridge was inferred by the Ghola. Now what remained was an extended support group of humans that occupied the orbit of the Kitteridge person and those needed sorting from the few actual threats that were Gayan agents from the rest of the milling extras of total unimportance. It was a lasting irritation to the Omeyns that the Gayans could integrate invisibly into the earthly humans around them; they must be prised out from their individual sanctuaries like reticent molluscs so they could be dealt with.
The Community of the Omeyns had considered these factors and agreed across the Mind network that the Cambridge-based Omeyn MuneMei was authorised to take action to remove the entire Kitteridge-based plot. The Grantchester Omeyn MuneMei moved to make her plans to this effect. She issued her command to Haruka:
< Bring the Earth asset Anya to meet with us here. >
Haruka immediately made arrangements to bring Anya to Grantchester to report to Omeyn MuneMei as she was required to do.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Charlotte was pleased with progress. Not pleased in a self-satisfied way but pleased in the sense that this project was generally moving in the right direction and ahead of her knowledge of the competition from Spargan. Dawn of Gaya seldom tried to take over a situation and lead overtly. To lead overtly as aliens from planet Gaya was to stir the hornets’ nest of the entire local population in unpredictable ways. This invariably changed the agenda in a welter of publicity and sucked in more Gayan resources such that the Gayan objective of increasingly important enlightenment revelations was lost in the ensuing noise. This could delay the stream of discovery for a generation at least and sometimes doom generations of Gayan work if the local culture recoiled from the pace of scientific progress and retrenched into regressive ideologies.
At the tactical level the arrival of Duncan solely-soul was a boon. His scientific knowledge meant that the Pointers of Dawn, Joe, Daniel and Charlotte herself, had a specialist Guide of Dawn that helped enormously with the development of Professor Kitteridge and Christopher. This was particularly useful to Charlotte since she tended to manage the development work in her small team and Joe and Daniel tended to handle logistics and overall project management of their mission. Day to day, Duncan would sit in on all the meetings between Charlotte and Professor Kitteridge and Christopher. As Charlotte spoke with the local humans then Duncan could simultaneously communicate with the much richer, non-verbal soul-to-soul method with Charlotte. In this way Duncan and Charlotte could join their knowledge and training skills, which could be articulated by Charlotte accurately and effectively to the famous professor and her long-time friend. Duncan would stay close to Professor Kitteridge when the other Gayans were not with him. This provided an extra level of protection for Professor Kitteridge as their most important asset at risk from Zarnha agents.
Duncan found the situation ideal too. Being solely-soul had the disadvantage of being unable to communicate directly to Professor Kitteridge but the regular presence of Charlotte, Joe and Daniel meant that he could communicate with and through them as he had managed in his years previously with Professor Kitteridge. It also allowed him the freedom to roam around looking for the shade Ghola that he could report through to the Pointers of Dawn. It was a topic of debate with the Travellers of Dawn whether they preferred being embodied or solely-soul out on operations. Most preferred the physicality of being embodied with its heightened sensory experience and the complete integration into normal society like a native. These Gayan soul individuals revelled in their ability to glean every physical and mental capability from the bodies they joined with at birth and grew together by maturity. Duncan though was a Gayan who rather liked occasional solely-soul times, which were an ethereal experience that appealed to his academic nature. It was the only way to really study marine mammalia across the galaxy. Physical human bodies were of little use at serious depth, in sub-zero or toxic seas. He also liked to be able to appear pretty much at a moment’s notice in different on-planet locales and transport quickly interplanetarily when it was required. There was more art than science required to transport solely-soul but Travellers of Dawn became expert at it within a couple of generations of their soul-birth. Travelling embodied, by comparison, required all the expense and paraphernalia of physical spacecraft capable of sustaining complex human bodies, including DMF drives for warping space as well as complex life support for deep-space transport. In addition to the complexities of space travel, travelling embodied on the worlds of their choosing still required locally available transportation systems from aircraft right down to simple walking or cycling, which had been his favourite mode of transport around Cambridge as Doctor McGregor.
Duncan enjoyed the sessions with Charlotte and Professor Kitteridge. They were making rapid progress since Charlotte had taken him through the fourth stage, Revelation, which Duncan had considered doing for so long. This meant they could transfer vast amounts of Gayan knowledge once Professor Kitteridge understood and agreed with the full extent of his alien Gayan support. Professor Kitteridge had breezed through the Revelation event, which could be so tricky if the subject were not sufficiently prepared, and after which the subject could be freaked by the knowledge and all its life-challenging implications. Duncan took professional pride in preparing Professor Kitteridge well through the long Development phase and he was pleased that Professor Kitteridge’s original selection, sponsored with the Worders by Duncan himself, had proved to be an ideal choice. Duncan was aware though that Professor Kitteridge was seriously unwell and that had always been a risk to their mission. If Professor Kitteridge failed to release the discoveries that were required, they would lose not only their investment in scarce Gayan resources but the time in itself could prove critical at this late stage of their mission. In some ways his infirmity helped Professor Kitteridge with Revelation as his mind was open to spiritual expansion not often seen in younger people who tended to be more sceptical and materially focussed. Daniel’s advanced medical knowledge had served to prolong Professor Kitteridge’s physique against the wasting condition but Duncan could see that Professor Kitteridge’s aura was failing in tune with his body. Duncan could feel Professor Kitteridge’s undeveloped psyche trying to reach out to communicate to him when they were alone. The famous scientist would push his psychic ability to the limits to attempt to communicate directly with Duncan. Occasionally Duncan would extend a burst of psychic energy of the kind that occurred naturally when a spirit guardian affected the soul of his living ward in the face of imminent peril to motivate the ward to safety. He knew that, when he did this, Professor Kitteridge could feel the comfort of his presence and tried to channel it into definitive communication. He could feel Professor Kitteridge’s yearning to believe in his continued purpose beyond the impending death that was reaching out for him. Duncan did all he could to reassure his old friend and enveloped Professor Kitteridge’s feeble psychic efforts in warmth and positivity that were a great reassurance to the famous scientist.
Duncan would spend similar time with Christopher despite Christopher still being unaware of the Gayans’ true nature, once again protecting him from accident or interference and helping the Pointers of Dawn with his development. It was clear that Gayan plans and Spargar schemes were closing in fast, which meant that Christopher’s Revelation would come soon and be much riskier than Professor
Kitteridge’s much more extended classic preparation. This meant that Duncan was spending his time mostly between his friends in the familiar surroundings of the Cambridge colleges along the Backs of the River Cam. Occasionally he would visit with Tabitha and Alice Critchly, who to her surprise and delight had inherited Doctor McGregor’s old house near Newnham College. This was a much shorter bike ride to Queens’ College than her old rental house and provided her with security and peace of mind if she ever chose to retire. The academic management of Queens’ College had collectively admired Doctor McGregor’s largesse towards Alice as long as it did not set any expectations or precedents.
Doctor McGregor’s spirit enjoyed the occasional visit to the familiarity of his old house in much the same way as earthly spirits haunted their old homes if they spent any time in limbo. Tabitha of course sensed his arrival immediately. On his first visit after passing through Tabitha had arched her back on long extended legs, looked up and twisted around in pleasure, purring like a buzz saw as if she were winding round the old doctor’s legs as he worked in the kitchen. Doctor McGregor knew that he was not detectable in spirit form. Moving around the busy areas of the town, his passing went unremarked by the living going about their everyday business. In the same way Alice would go about her daily routine when he popped in and he was accustomed to her not seeing him.
Until the moment when Alice turned and faced him directly and said, “I can see you, you know.” Alice spoke clearly, straight at the spirit of Doctor McGregor.
Duncan, as Doctor McGregor’s spirit, paused motionless in surprise looking at Alice. Tabitha continued to twist between his legs. He could not speak to Alice but he could communicate soul to soul if Alice were spiritually capable of making contact this way like a Gayan.
Star Matters Page 34