Star Matters

by David John West

  Hello Alice, forgive me, I did not understand you were aware of the spirit world. And of course forgive me for visiting uninvited.

  Never mind, Doctor, in my experience spirits never seek invitations to show up. I am used to it, Alice emoted back to Duncan. You are quite different though. First of all you don’t look like Doctor McGregor and you are much more confident in your state and knowledge than any other spirit I have ever known.

  Duncan did not want to communicate his entire history as the implications for the Gayan operations in Cambridge were incalculable if Alice knew their whole story. On the other hand this spirit level of communications allowed a fluent dragoman to see into the spirit on many levels beyond the equivalent of conversation into the entire character of each other’s psyche. Duncan communicated the information he wanted Alice to know. You are right, Alice, that I come from a small group that has deep understanding of our eternal souls through many lifetimes. We can also manifest in the appearance and elan of our favoured choice. So this is how I like to be, and this spirit is called Duncan; a younger version of Doctor McGregor, if you will.

  I can see that you are like Doctor McGregor though you look like a gypsy, Alice expressed to Duncan. I can also see an enormous history running through you, Duncan. What amazing existences you have had! Alice could see stars wheeling between many lifetimes as she probed Duncan’s spirit form. There were moments from history across previous civilisations, some recognisable, some not. Some images were so exotic it was hard to believe they were of this world in any age.

  Tell me Alice, how long have you had these abilities? I was unaware of them previously, Duncan expressed.

  I have always had these abilities. To begin with I struggled but then I realised that it was a gift from God, and that there are a small number of people across the country and beyond that use these abilities for good. We help people struggling with the spirit world because they have lost a loved one, and even do some faith healing and other tasks outside the capabilities of the material world, Alice replied.

  Can I suggest we keep up this conversation from time to time? Duncan communicated. There are things that you may need to know and now I know we can communicate I would value your help. And I would like to see Tabitha as well. If you would invite me this time?

  Of course, Duncan. I do not find these things frightening in any way after all these years of spirit experiences. And I am intrigued about this new you and what you are up to. Please visit me, us, Alice glanced down at Tabitha, whenever you wish and if I can help in any way that would make me very happy. And thank you for leaving me your house, nobody ever did anything like that for me before, and makes me comfortable for the rest of my days.

  Duncan expressed his pleasure at being able to look after Alice and Tabitha after he had passed through and took his leave. He did not wish to express the coming conflict with Zarnha as involving her may put her at some kind of risk. He could continue to visit and also add guardianship of Alice to his list of tasks.

  In solely-soul form Duncan was aware of displaced local human souls as well as the embodied people. These souls were ones that had passed on but not yet through to their next destination. Largely confused and insubstantial they lacked the manyfold skills of Duncan’s Gayan soul, tempered as it was by many generations of knowledge and experience. They appeared vaguely similar to their form in their previous life but with a filmy liquidity that was prone to dispersion like a heat haze. They all had a nonplussed expression as if they were frozen in astonishment at their predicament until the next stage, typically fusing with a newborn infant, predetermined for them to move along. They did not appear horrific in any way to Duncan, who was accustomed to their presence, and were hardly noticeable against the solid colour and shapes of the physical world. Duncan would see the occasional local spirit still frequenting their old house or making a familiar journey out of habit. Beyond these souls in limbo he was aware of occasional souls in directed motion as smeared pulses of soul light in extreme motion, exiting one body or arriving at the birth of a new life, mostly arriving at the maternity hospital but still sometimes unexpectedly or by design at home in the town.

  Then there was the one bumbling shade of Spargan Mal to deal with, which Joe had warned him of before his passing through. Not of earthly origin and not of Gayan form either. This was a displaced Zarnha spirit in a state of desolate distress. More substantial than the earthly souls, it had the appearance of the race Spargar of planet Spargan and this in itself was a major surprise. The existence of souls in the technical world of Omeyn MuneMei was proscribed. This was a great help to Gayan operations as they had been able to exploit the whole capability of the spirit world without interference from Omeyn MuneMei and her Zharna operatives. In Spargar there was just life and then transference of their DNA and life force in death to the Mind master computer at the heart of The Spyre in Braganza. This discovery appealed to Duncan’s sense of curiosity and the discovery needed adding to the body of Gayan knowledge to appraise his colleagues of this new Spargar capability. Where did this inexperienced spirit come from and what was it doing here? He was aware immediately of the existential threat to Gayan operations locally and the probable involvement in his own recent and premature passing through. This spirit appeared more wretched than even the most confused souls displaced here on Earth and with good reason as it was excluded from even its own race.

  Duncan regularly saw the Ghola on the fringes of Professor Kitteridge’s daily activities. It would seldom enter the same room or approach him in public spaces but nevertheless it would be often present in an attitude of watchfulness, easily spooked by the people it was monitoring but also by spirits and other elements of the natural world that it seemed capable of registering if only imperfectly. This would amuse Duncan who could approach the Ghola and then distract it with a burst of psychic energy that would shock the Ghola into a protective jerk, clearly unable to detect Duncan’s approach with precision.

  Duncan reported the presence of the Ghola to his other Gayan colleagues. Charlotte and Joe were still angry about its connivance in the murder of Doctor McGregor but were now convinced of its inherent weaknesses due to its limited capabilities. This provided the opportunity to learn more from its behaviour than it could learn of them. These thoughts were not lost on the Ghola itself as it maintained the intelligence it had from life but understood little of its new predicament. It had no one from its own society to discuss its fears with as it was only allowed to communicate in strict terms with the technology of the Mind via its Ghola port in Haruka’s house in Grantchester.

  Duncan began to be intrigued about the whereabouts of the Ghola when it was briefly away from the direct vicinity and its primary mission of monitoring Professor Kitteridge. He followed the Ghola as it occasionally trailed the other people in Professor Kitteridge’s entourage. It pursued the Gayans, who were aware of this happening, and certain local humans such as Anya the nurse, who were unaware of the cat-and-mouse game behind them as the Ghola watched and Duncan followed behind. The Ghola would follow a particular individual then change its mind and shamble back the most direct route to Professor Kitteridge’s location. These journeys were normally no more than a couple of miles across Cambridge and the direct returns were at little more than walking pace with the Ghola’s limited skills to travel in spirit form.

  The next occasion the Ghola was required to report back to Grantchester, it set off away from the company of the Kitteridge entourage at one of their morning meetings. This time the Ghola was not breaking away to follow a member of the Professor Kitteridge group as was its custom. Duncan informed Charlotte the Ghola was leaving and that he was going to follow to see where it went when alone. The Ghola passed by Trinity College along the back lawns and gardens south and upstream along the river, occasionally scrambling round the walls and slipways defining the perimeters of Clare, King’s and Queens’ colleges down to the water’s edge. The Ghola was reluctant to use
the river itself and to fly far above ground level. It was clearly unaccustomed still to its capabilities unencumbered by physical form. Duncan had no problem following unnoticed with his much wider range of movement. He could choose at any moment to float upstream over the water or jump up to the roof of Queens’ Erasmus Building to get a better view of the Ghola’s slow progress at ground level. It was a dry day with a complete cover of thin, light grey cloud. This suited the Ghola’s mood and attitude, flitting along the Backs like a shadow without a physical form to cause it.

  Duncan sat cross-legged on the southwest corner of the wall on the top of Erasmus Building giving a great view over the cottage garden wall into Queens’ College’s ancient Master’s Lodge to the south and across Erasmus lawn to the river. On the far bank the Ghola was following the top of the riverbank under the tall birch and alders that softened the tall white and bronze bulk of Cripps Building on the west bank. The Ghola was still heading towards Queens’ College’s Porters’ Lodge. Duncan thought it may be heading towards Fisher Building where it had successfully haunted both Joe and himself in his former existence as Doctor McGregor. This proved not to be the case as the Ghola awkwardly negotiated the black-painted railings that marked the Queens’ College boundary, the short span from the Porters’ Lodge building over the bank down to the river itself. The Ghola then mingled with the tourists and students around Silver Street Bridge and continued along the roads towards Doctor McGregor’s old house. Duncan hustled to follow, mildly anxious the Ghola was en route to visit Alice Critchley and Tabitha, despite this making no strategic sense that he could imagine. Duncan hopped up on to the shallow slate roof of Darwin College in two steps, first on to the high brick wall on Silver Street then up the remaining two storeys up to the multilayered roof. From there he could skate round the corner keeping the Ghola in view going south on Newnham Road below. The roof here was shared amongst a dozen or so fine three-storey town houses. He amused himself by elegantly hurdling the tall chimneys with many pots while keeping his target in view. Further down the road opened into the park of Lammas Land. The Ghola was definitely on the way to his old house.

  To Duncan’s relief, the Ghola passed the end of the road where Doctor McGregor once lived and continued out across the sports fields into the open countryside beyond. Tracking the Ghola in the open fields was easy. There were very few people out walking alongside the river on this grey day as the Ghola dropped into Grantchester Meadows. The Ghola stayed away from the river and the people, following the straight hedgerow that bounded the meadows from agricultural land. The path here ran directly into Grantchester village and the Ghola made straight progress. Duncan thought this must be a well-used route as his normally troubled quarry seemed on a straightforward mission in this countryside.

  The Ghola’s path brought him past the Red Lion and Green Man public houses into the leafy high street. It scuttled along to the high wall of the house that Haruka had made her temporary home. It paused outside the security gates before passing over and through into the drive to the Georgian manor house. It skirted the lawns and herbaceous borders daubed in summer colour like a Monet impression of Giverny. It made no attempt to approach the grand front door but turned round the house to the rear kitchen door. It paused there before filtering through the gap of the door and the frame. It could have passed through the door, which Duncan knew was easy as it was mostly space at the molecular level, but some vestigial recollection of physical life meant the Ghola avoided the effort of filtering through the wood itself and took the easier vertical gap between the door hinges. Duncan, following, noted again that the Ghola was capable of travelling with the advantages of being solely-soul but clearly neither happy nor totally skilled in their deployment.

  Once inside the Ghola passed through the large square kitchen with its Aga range and many solid wood cabinets painted in light earthy pastels. Beyond the kitchen a polished hardwood floor led to a wide staircase from the main hall. There were women’s voices coming from a closed door to the drawing room at the front of the house. The Ghola and Duncan passed that by and moved to the first floor housing most of the bedrooms. A smaller wooden staircase turned up again to a narrow hall on the second floor leading to two rooms to the back and two to the front. The Ghola entered a room via an open door to the right that looked over the rear vegetable gardens through a small square dormer window. The room contained several computer devices that looked contemporary to local Earth technology at first glance, certainly nothing that would arouse suspicion as the complex home network of a vice president of one of the largest software companies in the world.

  Duncan hovered in the corridor not wishing to test the Ghola’s rudimentary psychic powers to detect him. It was not taking any particular precautions, giving off the air once again of a familiar location; a regular process. The Ghola occupied a chair in a normal seating position to a modest desk. It faced an oval frame larger than its head, appearing as if it were regarding itself in a mirror, but there was just a space where the glass should be. The Ghola leaned closer and an opalescent film spread across the oval frame just inches from the head of the Ghola. It leaned further forward and its head disappeared into the flat plane defined by the oval, like a perpendicular version of a person going face first into a bowl of water.

  Duncan felt no risk of being detected with the Ghola fully occupied at its access port and entered the room. The Ghola had the aspect of leaning forward from its waist, resting elbows and arms on the desk as it leaned yet further forward so that its head was sunk beyond the ears into the frame. Beyond the frame the top half of the Ghola’s head had disappeared. Duncan could feel the communications download from the Ghola into the port to the Spargar computer Mind. It was uploading its intelligence collected over the latest period of monitoring Professor Kitteridge and all his entourage. The port was also interrogating the Ghola on queries raised from prior downloads largely by the local Omeyn MuneMei, but also by the wider community of the Omeyns appraised of the data across the messaging warpnodes13 that drove the Omeyns’ information system.

  Duncan understood that what he was seeing was the method whereby the Ghola’s intelligence was fed in to the Spargan Mind for processing and analysis. He needed to see no more and knew that there were likely to be few Gayan secrets of their local operations remaining after the monitoring of their recent activities by the Ghola. Duncan left him to it and descended again through the house. This time he paused on the ground floor. A calm deep voice was speaking in slow steady instructions. Duncan was intrigued as this was not a conversation as such. The other speakers were either deferentially or monotonously offering information to the deep-voiced speaker.

  Duncan pushed his psyche through the closed door to the elegantly furnished drawing room. He immediately recognised the form of Omeyn MuneMei, the only seated figure in the room, her back to the window, facing the large fireplace on the wall to Duncan’s right. Duncan had never been in the presence of an Omeyn before. He was struck by her appearance of quiet calm and precision. This controlled serenity was developed to impress the lower orders of Spargar to understand and enact the commands issued to them.

  The two women standing by the fireplace being addressed included what was clearly a high-ranking Zarnha operative with glossy shoulder-length hair, and Anya, Professor Kitteridge’s nurse, Daniel’s girlfriend.

  Omeyn MuneMei regarded Haruka as she responded. Omeyn MuneMei was dressed in the traditional black cloak of the Omeyns, the full high dome of her cranium exposed to show the ceremonial tattoos. Her features were long and very fine, dark eyes remarkably attractive in an imposing way. Haruka addressed the Omeyn in complete deference. Omeyn MuneMei then commanded Anya to speak. She did not appear to use her mouth and larynx to speak. Her mouth area became hazy and the deep voice emerged into the room without visible muscular control.

  ivilege.>

  Anya started speaking in the monotone Duncan had heard from outside the room. He had little contact with Anya previously as he was unable to communicate directly with her, but the time he had been in her company she had seemed reasonably animated, different from her appearance now even if she had been reserved in the company of those other than Daniel.

  Anya began speaking expressionlessly, exhaustively listing those who had been with Professor Kitteridge over the last few days, highlighting those who had spent long periods with the scientist. The highest ranking was Charlotte who had the most private time with Professor Kitteridge. Daniel and Christopher were also high on the list, Duncan was reassured, if not surprised, that he himself was absent, proving that Zarnha agents were unaware of his presence.

  Omeyn indicated she wished to interrupt.

  < The suspect Joe does not appear on today’s report. Report on this omission.>

  “Joe has been spending time at the field research site at Thetford Forest this week. He has been unavailable to join the Professor. I am unaware of any other change to their relationship,” Anya responded in a similar style to the phraseology of the Omeyn.

  The meeting came to an end and Haruka escorted Anya out to the driver waiting by the black limousine. Anya got in the rear seat and the driver started the car and swept to the gates in the rustling surf of the gravel drive. The gates opened automatically and the driver turned right to drive through the village and over the river to join the main Trumpington Road into Cambridge from the south. The car pulled over by the botanical gardens for Anya to alight and she walked the rest of the way to her room at the language school. Duncan continued to follow. After a short period Anya reappeared in a light coat over her nursing uniform to go on shift with Professor Kitteridge. She crossed over the street to take a local bus to Professor Kitteridge’s house on the north side of the city centre. Duncan watched her go and then headed through the town himself, this time heading for Daniel at Jesus College.